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LGBT prejudice and discrimination
Discrimination about homosexuality
Discrimination against homosexuality
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Are you a homophobe? I hope you are not. Homophobia is a really common, and in my opinion awful, social phenomena popular in our actual society. The oxford dictionary defines homophobia as an irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people (“Homophobia”). Homophobia, then, is basically a dislike, disgust or hatred towards gay, lesbian and bisexual people. It almost always is accompanied with discrimination against these people which very commonly results in verbal or physical aggressions as felt by them. This is a very usual issue in our everyday world that generally goes unnoticed or ignored. It affects a very large group of people and can still hurt you even if you are completely heterosexual, for what it is necessary that we stop being homophobic and learn to respect homosexual and bisexual people. We need to stop judging people based solely on their sexual orientation; we need to stop discriminating! Homophobia in our actual society is wrong and immoral because of the immense damage it has upon a vast number of individuals among us for why we should work on eradicating it in our daily lives.
Homophobic people, as I already mentioned, typically discriminate gay, lesbian and bisexual people by means of physical and verbal offenses; but what exactly are these offenses? In our heterosexist society, it is common for people to discriminate homosexual and bisexual individuals verbally in nonviolent, commonplace ways. These commonplace ways include telling jokes, name-calling, publicly insulting gay, lesbian or bisexual people only because of their sexuallity or using words like “gay” to insult someone. Of all words used to insult someone that can be heard in a school environment, the word “gay” takes up to 83% of them as d...
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...nd offer help if they suffer from bullying or other people are causing them harm as well. If we see someone being bullied because of their sexual orientation, we must speak up to the aggressor and solve this problem, so that the bully stops being so homophobic and therefore stops abusing the gay, lesbian or bisexual person he was being unfair to. We can always protest in pacific ways, such as writing a persuasive essay as I did, publishing messages that remark what homophobia is and how we can (and should) stop it, or just by simpling talking to a homophobic person you know and getting them to stop being that way. We can really contribute to the decrease of homophobia and heterosexism in our society if we work on eradicating it in ourselves and other close people we know by ceasing our prejudices and discriminatory expressions against homosexual and bisexual people.
In our world there has and will always have social issues that our society that is damaging our people. One of the proponent issue is in our world is Homophobia. As Homophobia is defined has people that dislike of or is prejudice against homosexual people. Recently our society has started to be more accepting with the LGBTQ community. Homophobia has really affected all people in very negative ways regardless of their sexual orientation. As homophobia is based on someone disliking or being prejudice to another person targeted to people that are homosexual. There are many people that want to fight against homophobia and help protect and support the LGBTQ community. The different sexual orientations of all individuals they have the right to be who they identity them selves as. As homophobia not only affects the LGBTQ community but affects every sexual orientation, seeing that much hate and prejudice toward people it is just sad and disturbing that people still hate on something they have no control over.
As the world is progressing further into the future, we, as humans, are learning from our past mistakes and past judgements that were made and we are building on from the history and are working towards creating a better future for everyone. And, as we humans learn, we have learned that some words are okay to say and some are not okay to say. Like the words faggot/fag, shemale, hefemale and trannny. These word are considered nowadays to be very harmful and considered homophobic slurs. Now, I understand your question. “Okay, what makes a homophobic slur?” Well, we have to look at the definition of a slur first, then we can build off of that basis. The dictionary definition of a slur is:
The article “How Homophobia Hurts Everyone” by Warren J. Blumenfeld describes the effects that homophobia has on all people, not just the person who is homosexual. The article tells the story of two siblings and one thing that stood out to me was “throughout our school years, she was constantly teased for having a ‘faggot’ brother”. In addition to this, she was questioned about her own sexuality and peer pressure, that resulted with her being less close to her brother for her own protection. It is not fair that the author was bullied for being the person that he is, and it is definitely not right that his sister was bullied for who her brother is.
For years homosexuality in the United States of America has been looked down upon by citizens, religions, and even politicians. The homosexual culture, or the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender), has been demoralized and stuck out and lashed against by the Heterosexual community time and time again. To better understand the LGBT community we must first grasp the concept of Sexual Orientation.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, homophobia is the irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Much like a witch hunt, homophobia targets and seeks out individuals, gay or straight, and persecutes them based on ignorance, and further more if one cannot provide solid proof of his or her innocence. (Hughes) It is the fuel behind many hate crimes and discrimination. Some claim that homosexuality is a disease. If this statement is true, couldn’t we all simply begin to call in “queer” to work and school when we won’t be present? (Avert)
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals people make up more than ten percent of the population; that means if you are sitting in a classroom of thirty, then more than three of those people are LGBT individuals. However, this overwhelmingly large minority group continues to be one of the least protected by the government as well as most heavily targeted by discrimination and hate crimes. Regardless of the powerful shift in public opinion concerning LGBT individuals during the last twenty years, the laws concerning hate crimes have remained invariable.
This study explores the lives of sexual minority individuals who have endured childhood physical abuse, and the long term psychological effects in which it creates. This study in particular sampled members who were solely apart of the LGBT community - 112 adult lesbians and 115 gay men to be exact. Childhood physical abuse is well-known to be detrimental as it is closely related to psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Even worse, it is known to arise high risk behaviors such as suicide thoughts, and substance abuse. Furthermore, it is crucial to understand internalized homophobia and experiential avoidance as it too plays a huge role in the current psychological well being of theses individuals. Internalized homophobia, negative societal attitudes towards homosexuality, is known to bridge the gap for gay men and their current symptoms. In contrast, for the sample community of lesbians, experiential avoidance was the mediator for their current
the rest of the world, or is it simply the case that society has warped
Gender Treachery: Homophobia, Masculinity, And Threatened Identities The paper mentioned above, was written by Patrick Hopkins, is all about gender and the role that gender plays in our society. Sexuality, Heterosexuality, Gender roles, Identity and identity development are the issues of discussion here. It is all about gender treachery the way we use genders to look up to people and look down upon certain misfortunate ones. Prejudice against lesbians and gay men, is widespread in our society. Although attitudes toward lesbians and gay men have become less negative over the course of the past 30 years, and especially during the last decade, the majority still view homosexuality as morally unacceptable. That’s what makes it such a threatened identity. Homophobia is the common issue at stake here, but the question that arises in our minds is why can’t we just accept things as they are. Homosexuality and cross dressing represent human sexuality diversity. Since these lifestyles are generally not acceptable, homophobia and discomfort of cross dressers exist. Hopkins suggests that educating heterosexuals about homosexuality results in a reduction of homophobia. The idea is to create awareness in the society; these issues just can’t be hid behind and forgotten about, if they are present we have to sit up and take notice. Mr. Hopkins rightly calls such an attitude totally biased. The bias against women is closely related to the bias against homosexuals. It appears at first that the bias against male homosexuals is based on what they do in bed. But the deeper reason is that homosexual males are not loyal to their gender. In other words it is because they do things that are not manly. Psychological sophistication and social critique revea...
The movie “It’s Elementary” does a great job showing the positivity reaction kids have to presenting LGBT issues in the school system. The documentary showed that all age groups can benefit from these lessons. For example, a heterosexual, 8th grade social studies teacher felt it was very important to teach his students to be respectful and not afraid of their sexuality. This teacher started his lesson by asking students to share stereotypes. He then related these stereotypes to LGBT issues. One student shared with the class that he uses slurs “out of ignorance”. This
D’Augelli, A.R. (1998). Developmental implications of victimization of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths. In G.M. Herek (Ed.), Stigma and sexual orientation: Understanding prejudice against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (pp.187-210). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
In the rural, Catholic village that I grew up in, there were a total of 3-5 gay people ranging in age from teenagers to adults. When we would go out of town and see a presumed member of the LGBT community, I often heard homophobic comments. Most of the residents in my hometown were born and raised there, for at least two generations. Be it that homosexuality used to be considered a mental illness or the fact that everyone is Catholic, the community was moderately homophobic. This played a large role in the formation of my identity over the next several
We believe that Violence and hate against homosexuality need to diminish severely. Gay bashing, gay bullying, and hate crime is very popular when it comes to hating on homosexual people. LGBT people of all ages die every year, whether caused by suicide, injury or homicide. From 1999-2010, the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program says that suicide is the 3rd leading cause (4,600 deaths) of death among young people ages 15 to 24. In 2011 there were 1,572 victims that received hate crimes based on sexual orientation. In an article on PBS, written by a woman named Karen Franklin, a description of an interview with a man called Brian states that him and his ...
Baker, Jean M. How Homophobia Hurts Children: Nurturing Diversity at Home, at School, and in the Community. New York: Harrington Park, 2002. Print.
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.