User:Mbmogan/sandbox

Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church's Catechism, or teachings, have no comprehensive or specific doctrine on transgender people. However, the church does have tradition with equating the anatomy given at birth with gender, believing that going though processes to medically change ones' gender is self mutilation and therefor sinful. Furthermore believing that, because God gave you the body you were born with, it is to be considered perfect and divine and any thoughts to dishonor ones body would be to dishonor God and his creation. The church has also gone on record to show that the ideas or belief's of gender dysphoria or same sex attraction on its own is not considered sinful because these thoughts and impulses are a consequence of original sin, the sin comes, however, when individuals act upon those thoughts and ideas. In addition, Pope Francis has also been quoted saying "biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,” furthering the belief that the sex an individual was born with is their assigned gender.

Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church's Catechism, or teachings, have no comprehensive or specific doctrine on transgender people. However, the church does have tradition with equating the anatomy given at birth with gender, believing that going though processes to medically change ones' gender is self mutilation and therefor sinful. Furthermore believing that, because God gave you the body you were born with, it is to be considered perfect and divine and any thoughts to dishonor ones body would be to dishonor God and his creation. The church has also gone on record to show that the ideas or belief's of gender dysphoria or same sex attraction on its own is not considered sinful because these thoughts and impulses are a consequence of original sin, the sin comes, however, when individuals act upon those thoughts and ideas. In addition, Pope Francis has also been quoted saying "biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,” furthering the belief that the sex an individual was born with is their assigned gender.

Although the church has no official doctrine on transgender individuals, the LGBTQ community has tried to form and influence positive beliefs into the church’s teachings. DignityUSA is an example of an LGBTQ organization advocating for change in the Catholic church's teaching. DignityUSA believes that LBGTQ individuals can and should "express our sexuality and/or gender identities and expressions in a loving, life-affirming manner that is in keeping with Christ's teaching," promoting the belief that one can be both Catholic and LGBTQ. When addressing transgender individuals specifically, DignityUSA claims they have the same goal of promoting acceptance and belonging in the church. When addressing the Trump administration's military ban on transgender individuals, Linda Roberts, treasurer of DignityUSA, Co-Chair of the group's Transgender Support Caucus and identifying transgender women, claims that the military ban is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause and later states "we [DignityUSA] stand with those fighting for the right to serve and continue their careers openly in their true gender. They must be safe, free from harassment, and supported by their command structure.” With organizations like DignityUSA, transgender and other LGB individuals are making grounds in the church to change its views and making it possible for the LGBTQ community to practice the faith fully and without discrimination.

Potential Topics
1) Religion and LGBT people

2) Coming out

3) LGBT in Islam

4) Ex-gay movement

5) LGBT conservatism

Article Evaluation: African-American LGBT community
This article is overall very well written. All subject matters, headings and subheadings relate to the overarching topic of African-American LGBT community. The only subheadings that the article could do without is the last one explaining African American LGBT community in popular culture. The paragraph is only a few sentences long and does not advance the article in anyway. Also, the section discussing HIV/AIDS among black gay individuals seemed to be biased in a way because it discussed the problem of HIV/AIDS as being a black gay people only problem. Other than those complaints, the article is well written, up to date, and unbiased. The article gives a lot of information about the topic at hand the points of view provided.

Article Review:
Public opinion of same-sex marriage in the United States notes

Introduction: use of numbers, percentages, and statistics to give a general overview of where the country's opinion of same sex marriage stands. Graph of the united sates shows colors of support which is a great visual aid for the data explained previously.

Overview: A lot of the same kind of information as the introduction. Most time based data and gradual showing of the increase of support for same sex marriage. Lots of reliable polls being referenced so that leads me to trust the information being shared.

National Polls: This very long paragraph had many different polls sharing many different sets of data. After reading over every poll, both post and pre-Obergefell vs. Hodges, said much of the same thing. After 2013 there is strong evidence that American opinions about same sex marriage was 50% or over, while 30-40% opposed, and less than 10% had no opinion. Some polls mentioned party affiliation opinions as well as age differences in opinions, but overall showed many of the same, or close to the same numbers of approval and opposition.

The rest of the article showed differences in opinion based on issues such as gender, education, age, political affiliation, income, as well as many other examples in table from. The tables gave lots of great information such as approval and opposition rates, sample sizes, and margins of error. The easy to interpret visual depictions of the data was very helpful in understanding all of the data that was presented previously. The differences in the factors presented were valid factors to take into account when measuring public opinions of same sex marriage.

Things to be improved: The information presented could have been organized better. The only for of organization was pre-Obergefell vs. Hodges and post Obergefell vs. Hodges. I suggest putting the data from highest to lowest approval percentages based on the data presented from the polls referenced.

Tone: The tone of the article was very professional and didn't seem to have any form of biased throughout the article.

Article Selection
1) Public Opinion on Gun Control in the United States

2) March for Our Lives

3) Influences of Mass Media

4) Public Opinion on Global Warming

5) Response Bias

What dives citizens to protest
Much like the March for Our Lives movement, any citizens in the United States practice their right to protest. It is written in the Constitution that if any citizen is unreleased with the federal government then they have the right to to assemble and try to being about some kind of change. Art Markman, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says that individuals well find something that is important to them and if outcomes of personal actions are not satisfactory, they will next move to public protest. With the March for our lives protest, however, a new question was brought up about what drives a citizen under 18 to vote. Even though they have no legitimate say in government or policy, they still go out and seek change. 16 year old Amy Campbell-Oates organized a gun control protest and was quoted as saying “Some of us can’t vote yet but we want to get to the people that can.” The young people of this nation made statement with the March for Our Lives movement to make stricter gun laws and regulation, trying to get the attention of policy makers and of age voters to make change.

There are three major factors as to why people protest:grievances and deprivation; resources; and political opportunities and contextual conditions.

(describe three factors in detail)

Peer Review by Mikaela Crumbley

The paragraph provides a good overview of the March for Our Lives Movement. However, more information about how this applies to public opinion on gun control would be help the paragraph

What dives citizens to protest
Much like the March for Our Lives movement, any citizens in the United States practice their right to protest. It is written in the Constitution that if any citizen is unreleased with the federal government then they have the right to to assemble and try to being about some kind of change. Art Markman, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says that individuals well find something that is important to them and if outcomes of personal actions are not satisfactory, they will next move to public protest. With the March for our lives protest, however, a new question was brought up about what drives a citizen under 18 to vote. Even though they have no legitimate say in government or policy, they still go out and seek change. 16 year old Amy Campbell-Oates organized a gun control protest and was quoted as saying “Some of us can’t vote yet but we want to get to the people that can.” The young people of this nation made statement with the March for Our Lives movement to make stricter gun laws and regulation, trying to get the attention of policy makers and of age voters to make change.

There are three major factors as to why people protest:grievances and deprivation; resources; and political opportunities and contextual conditions. 1) Grievances and deprivation: this is when citizens protest because they perceive a situation, event, or person as unfair or illegitimate. Protest is a way for individuals to affect social and political systems. This can help explain the frequency of protest as well as political mobilization of specific group or subgroup. Often this is used by the groups or subgroups most effected by social and political systems. 1

2) Resources: Individuals are more likely to protest when resources are present and available. As Mario Qaranta writes "This approach argues that resources such as skills, money, or education are important in determining who can actually participate, and not just the presence of grievances or deprivation. These resources are not equally distributed across the population, creating differences in the chances actors have to protest."

3) Political opportunities and contextual conditions: This claims that protest is determined and effected by the context in which it takes place. Political opportunities is giving individuals ways to engage in politics and is a widely applied concept that is not clear about what it includes. However, Qaranta cites D. McAdam in Conceptual origins, current problems, future directions saying "...but it generally indicates openness or closure of the political system; stability or instability of alignments; the presence or absence of allies; and the state’s capacity and propensity for repression." This approach is more common with social movements. 3

With regards to the March for Our Lives movement, this is a grievances and deprivation protest because the participants are trying to impact or change political and social systems on gun control and gun control laws