What does it mean to be American?

It means slowly getting rights to have them stripped away again

People will contrast the Time changes of Then versus Now

But I genuinely don’t see how 

Anyone could be so blind.

Take LGBTQ+ people

The Great Depression, the steep hill of rights they climbed

Just to have their sexuality made into a fad

According to Chicago Mag

The “Pansy Craze was a huge deal

When rich folks would go and watch the “homos” in the bars order meals

And gay women?  Please

Any pretty lesbian was just considered a “tease”

And, sure

They aren’t being correctively raped to turn them straight

At least, not as much as they used to.

*But there are still conversion camps in 20 states that try to pray the gay away

And no more electroshock and mental hospitals for those who’ve gone astray*

Arizona, Kansas, the Dakotas, all of the South

Who take gay kids to purge the homosexual devil out

1978, Harvey Milk had came and went too soon

Because the things still haven’t changed.

Killed because he loved a man

But he brought about change very few can

Gay men in the Great Depression had rights come late

They were allowed their little nightclubs

sociologists took notes in the shadows

Logo tells us about how the “queer” people would meet

And rich people came to watch the freaks walk the streets

See, they were entertainment, a taboo show, a zoo

People came to laugh at the drag queens and kings sing and dance as they do

Starlight, Eve Adams’ Tearoom, places to show

Who you love so everyone can know

But oh, if a gay man made unwanted advances

Just use the gay panic rule.

According to the American Bar, it comes into play often

When a killer strangles and stabs a gay man, they had no option

He was threatening them with unwanted love, and a simple “no” would do

But people still try to justify murder with the “Gay/Trans Panic rule”

Every year the Human Rights Campaign reports 29 murders of people who are trans

But still, politicians never do whatever it is that they can

History. com says change was demanded by the Stonewall riots in 1969,

And describes how people could be killed for crossing socially defined lines

Long story short, they could be out

Entertain the masses with who they love

But hide themselves when the bars closed down

No rights for those sexual orientations you’re so proud of

According to the Guardian Newspaper, 

Over half of gay people now live in states where they could be fired for their gender identity

Only ten states prevent discrimination in healthcare based on gender.

The other 40?  Return to sender

If a doctor thinks that woman was born a biological man

It’s easy to turn them down, and they can.

Tennessee joins other southern states

In having laws that discriminate

Against gay people, and anyone who isn’t religious

When adopting a kid out of a system that’s egregious.

According to the American Civil LIberties Union

One in three gay or trans people have felt discrimination.

And that’s America throughout the ages.