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Effects of homophobia essay
Causes and effects of homophobia
Effects of homophobia
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My sexual orientation is not a fact about myself that I openly discuss. I live in an immensely conservative town, which creates an intimidating environment. Even some of my friends and family members disapprove of or feel uncomfortable discussing non-heteronormative sexual orientations.
As I recall one incident, the mother of a friend hosting a get-together decided to share her views on gay marriage. This topic entered the conversation due to the recent Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. She began to state how she was in disbelief that America would allow for gay marriage. She continued by saying she could never support anyone who wanted to live that lifestyle. Her comments made me feel uncomfortable, as I stayed quiet
and nodded my head to her statements. It is almost impossible to change a person’s opinion or values, but having open conversations should not be considered taboo. This being said I expect my family and friends to be supportive of me but I fear that they will not. With this fear I have lost opportunities to express my true feelings on LGBT rights. I hope that the people I love and respect most in the world are capable of still loving me even though I identify as bisexual. In return, I will always try to understand other perspectives aside from my own. Since I am aware of what it is like to desire acceptance, I find myself always making a considerable effort to accept and empower other people.
Today in our society, this kind of ordeal is happening everywhere. You read about it in magazines, see it on different talk shows, or you might even know someone who has gone through it or is considering it. If you are not happy with yourself you are going to be miserable until something is done about it. If that means coming out of the closet or going a step further and having a sex change, more power to you. You can't make everyone around you happy. Your first mission is to feel good about yourself. If your friends and family are genuine they will like you no matter what the circumstances are. In my own personal life, I have been friends with Pierce my guy best friend since the fifth grade. He moved away to Florida our ninth grade year.
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.
Lately it seems like everyone is "coming out" as lgbtq because it seems like the coolest thing to do. Kids at school don't understand that just a few years ago, coming out was horrible. In the past few years, so much has changed for the LGBTQ Community. Marriage is being legalized all over the place, and people are learning to speak out about their rights. Six years ago, my parents found out I was bisexual after they went through my computer. My mom screamed, cried, threw things, and questioned me relentlessly. She couldn't possibly understand what it was that I was going through. At school, I was bullied and pushed around because I was that "weird little lesbian". In a small school of just a little under 200, once one person knew something about you, everyone knew your secret. The world dropped out from underneath my feet.
For the past two and a half years, I had been attending an all girls school named Regis Jesuit. However, the summer between freshman and sophomore year, I realized I am transgender.
As I got older, and once my stink as a “social justice warrior” (which only extended to a certain point, and never at my family members houses) ended, I began to view them as everyone else: flawed humans. We’re all flawed human, and I am no exception, and some people just need time to learn and accept other people who are different from them. Harvey Milk once said that “Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if indeed they are your friends. You must tell the people you work with. You must tell the people in the stores you shop in. Once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed
The act of "coming out" is a complex political tool. Its use is open to ambiguous possibilities, ranging from subverting social order to reinforcing those power structures. Of course, it is undoubtedly an empowering act for many non-heterosexual persons to identify themselves as such. Even if the categories of "heterosexual" and "homosexual" are entirely socially constructed (as Michel Foucault argues), that does not mean that they are not real categories of thought that shape the way we live our lives. Indeed, my computer is entirely constructed, but is still undeniably real. Since many non-heterosexual people do live their lives identifying differently from heterosexual people, they may find "homosexual" (or a similar label) an accurate description of their identities and daily lives, however socially contingent that description is. That said, I do not wish to make a judgement call on whether or not someone should or should not come out. Rather, I wish to examine the complicated space represented by "the closet" and the multifarious effects that "coming out" has on the larger social structure.
I was born on March 08, 1995 at roughly seven pounds. When I was extracted from my mother, I was given the gender of a male with the appearance of my male body parts. My mother used to say to me, growing up as a toddler that I had so much hair like former American Football player, Troy Polamalu. People had always assumed that I was a girl, therefore my mother had to correct them and say, “No, he is a boy”. Growing up a toddler, I was always wearing some type of jeans with a sports shirt and shoes that were mostly colored black or blue. As I grew older, I gained interest in baseball, wrestling, and the military. I always wanted to play with action figures such as GI Joe and wrestling celebrities in addition to imaginary flying in an apache helicopter or taking command in a battle tank. Advancing to my pre-teen years, I wanted to play baseball, which is considered to be mostly a boy sport. It was at this moment, that my gender was a boy. Progressing to my teen years, I started to observe my father and learn my gender on his roles as the man in our family. I noticed that my father was already taking charge in the house and giving me orders that I needed to complete. Going through middle school, most boys had some type of sports backpack while the girls
When I came to terms with and accepted the fact that I was gay, the sudden realisation of why the call it “coming out of the closet” hit me like a giant blue pick up truck that every lesbian must mandatorily own. I realised what the term “the closet” meant on a much deeper level rather than my previous, quite stereotypical, assumption of it being called that just because us gays seem to have such great fashion sense. Although looking at myself I should’ve know that that wasn’t the case (I would wear pjs all day long if I didn’t have to interact with the human race and get shit done). But enough of my lack of fashion sense (if only I could give my friends the same break…).
If I were to tell my father at this moment that I am a lesbian he will call the school I am at, the school I used to attend, my friends, and anybody else that is in my life. He would be convinced that somebody brought this upon me; that somebody convinced me. He will ask me if I am joking. If I dress like a boy (baggy clothing) he will say, “You are going like that?” My father, along with millions of other parents, and people, think that homosexuals and trans genders are a humiliation to our society. Likewise, society has made me feel that after mentioning being lesbian it is crucial that I say that I am actually not. Maybe these people should read one excerpt from the analogy, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein. Or maybe,
A secret agent. A professional football player. A fire fighter. These would have been my responses when asked that inevitable question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Family, Media and Peers are said to have influenced my views concerning the role I am to play society. All of these factors had one thing in common. They all were influencing me to behave according to my gender. Everything from the clothes I wore to the toys I played with contributed to this. Even now as a young adult my dreams and aspirations are built around the gender roles that were placed on me.
I have never openly spoken about this before. Mainly because I have been ashamed and I feared the way people would look at me if they knew.
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
For organization’s sake, I will start with the past and move to a more present time with my stories. In 5th grade I was just discovering my love of Britney Spears. I remember when I would dance to the constant ridicule of my siblings. They noticed that I was the only boy they ever knew that danced to Britney. Her music was generally classified as girls’ music, and obviously it was improper for me to be dancing to it. I had been jamming out to my Britney one day and my sister had some of her friends over. I may have been jamming out a bit too loudly, and so my sister decided that the privacy of my room needed to be invaded. She along with her cohorts broke into my room and made fun of me. My sister ended my embarrassment with this simple statement. “I can’t wait until Mom and Dad find out you are gay.”
I am sentimental, out-going, indecisive, understanding, curious, naive, lazy, and young. I want to be ... , well a lot of things, and growing is discovering what they are. I feel people cannot see the potential within, although there is no one to blame but myself. I look to others for approval instead of to myself. I aim to please; it leads to approval. I don’t like to discuss my faults; I pity myself.
I never really thought about where my life was going. I always believed life took me where I wanted to go, I never thought that I was the one who took myself were I wanted to go. Once I entered high school I changed the way I thought. This is why I chose to go to college. I believe that college will give me the keys to unlock the doors of life. This way I can choose for myself where I go instead of someone choosing for me.