Members of the gay and lesbian community are celebrating many recent accomplishments such as marriage equality in some states, the right to serve in the military, and support from a sitting U.S. president, but they say more work is necessary.
They say many members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community still continue to face different obstacles such as covert discrimination or overt violence.
Casey Chimeystar Condit works for Wingspan, a non-profit organization that has been addressing these types of issues since the group was established in Tucson in the 1980s.
Condit says much progress has been made since then, but she says the challenges continue.
"The statistics about hate violence have not changed that much so the kinds of discrimination, isolation, suicide risk that LGBT people are experiencing is still pretty severe," Condit says.
She adds that many people are paying close attention to a case in front of the Supreme Court of the United States where justices have agreed to hear arguments about a proposition in California that bans gay and lesbian couples from marrying in that state.
Oral arguments are scheduled to begin on March 26th but a ruling is not expected until June.
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