As a child born in the mid-1990s, I grew up hearing constant debates about human rights on the news. The word “equality” is used so casually that it seems like there will always be protests and riots over topics like sexuality and race. Looking back, I am left to understand that the issues that American citizens are so focused on are our basic human rights as outlined in the Declaration of Independence. In the last twenty years there has been a change in people's mentality and discrimination against homosexuals and African Americans has diminished. As a country, we are slowly inching closer to what our Founding Fathers envisioned the Declaration of Independence to truly be: a document that everyone can look back on with pride knowing they have guaranteed rights and security, but we are putting our spin on the 21st century. en.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Let's go back to 1996 and Americans read the newspapers and are informed that Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which states that, by According to the law marriage is “the union between a man and a woman ”. Homosexuals were obviously offended, because how should one react when they are told that there is something wrong with their falling in love? It took until 2000, when Vermont became the first state to legalize not marriage, but same-sex unions, for some to realize that equality is not truly present in the United States. I was 10 years old when news channels finally started having presidential forums focused on LGBT issues. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are words that we have all heard and believe we understand, and now it is taken into consideration that love constitutes happiness, because there is nothing more beautiful than seeing two people perfectly satisfied their marriage. Vice President Joe Biden weighed in on this issue, saying that the promise of the Declaration can be fulfilled by treating homosexuals as equals. Growing up in the 2000s, I constantly heard about equality, and it seems that my peers have much less hatred towards the LGBT community than previous generations, and this only makes me realize how much closer we are to finally understanding the Declaration of Independence. With all the talk of equality, the topic of race is somehow always brought up, and with that comes anger and frustration at the ignorance of those who continue to treat people differently based on the color of their skin. It seems to have taken us more than 200 years to finally understand the definition of equality, a topic touched upon in the Declaration of Independence. America is one of the most powerful countries in the world, yet we were blind to how much white privilege exists in our country. Being white means you never have to think about it, and it becomes a question of equality when someone is called "white" because they've finally been labeled, which they never had to think about before. This could perhaps be why there has been so much controversy over racial equality in recent years. Hate crimes have been and will always be a problem in our country, but with recent events like the Ferguson issue and the killing of Michael Brown, the number of protests has increased. Just a couple days ago I was on my favorite blog site and every other post was focused on the lack of equality in America. More and more people are starting to speak up; On December 3, 2014, protests occurred in New York.