LGTBQ community faces inequality in Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Living in Arkansas can be a different reality for people in the LGBTQ community.

“I am a gay man, but I’m also more outwardly feminine in my appearance and things of that nature. Like sometimes I go out and I’m wearing a full face of makeup or I dress more feminine, or I even have long acrylic nails,” 21-year-old Gabriel Young said. “There have been several times I’ve been in Walmart with my friends, they would tell me, ‘Oh, that person was really just staring at you.'”

If Young is not looked at for being different, he’s being ignored on his college campus instead.

“A lot of people don’t necessarily go out of their way to like, I guess, interact with you because you are outside of their norm.  So they just stick to what they know,” Young said.

Young has found a way to be comfortable as a queer person in Arkansas, by finding people who are like him and accepting.

“Because it’s not an environment that is openly welcoming,” Young said.

But not everyone is as lucky as Young.

Some people will move to another state because they’ve been discriminated against according to Washington County Justice of the Peace Evelyn Rios Stafford.

“We want them to stay here. We want them to stay right here in Arkansas because everyone deserves to feel welcome and included here,” Rios Stafford said.

A report released Sunday by “Out Leadership” ranks Arkansas as the worst state for LGBTQ equality for the second year in a row.

“It’s not that surprising considering we are a southern state. We aren’t known to be as progressive,” Young said.

Stafford says it’s hurtful to people to feel like they don’t have the same rights as someone else.

“We really need to change the narrative around that,” Rios Stafford said.

Rios Stafford says the results of this study can have a serious impact on the state’s economy.

“I’ve heard from businesses that say that they don’t want to do business here because they want their employees to be safe. They don’t want their employees or members of their family to be discriminated against,” Rios Stafford said.

Rios Stafford encourages people to reach out to their state lawmakers and know where they stand ahead of the upcoming election in November.

“We want to have the most positive impact on our economy that we can, and equality is a major part of that,” Rios Stafford said.

Rios Stafford says the only thing members of the LGBTQ community want is to feel included in society just like everyone else.

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