Personal Reflection About Gender

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I never really thought a lot about gender. It was always a thought that came and left me at random times. Whenever a woman’s rights issue was brought up, I would shy away from the subject because I didn’t know too much about the subject and I believed everyone was equal. Furthermore, I had no idea that there were so many roles in today’s society. I usually thought there was just a man or a woman. Another example would be gay or lesbian. However, as I was growing up I was exposed to different types of roles and identities. Again, I didn’t dwell too much on the subject. Through my higher education experience I have learned so much about the history of men and women, as well as the roles they played. I learned gender is something we act out and
I’ve always been open to everything but for some reason I could never approach a gay, lesbian, or gender fluid person. I thought they would try to hit on me or not accept me because I wasn’t a lesbian. I don’t know why I made these assumptions. I guess I thought they were all the same. I have quite a bit of friends who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and gender fluid. They are all wonderful people. These people are full of love and compassion for everyone. They don’t have one mean bone in their body. I am beyond words that these people approached me and became my friend. I’m a friendly person and can get along with almost everyone. With that being said, the gay and lesbian couples provide a model of family life. They don’t fall into the patterns of inequality like heterosexual couples. Gay and lesbian couples share housework and lesbian couples get to put in the same amount of input for all couple arrangements. Gay and lesbian couples also make great parents. They also had to face the struggle of acknowledging their sexuality and having a family. In 1976, there were between 300,000 and 500,000 gay and lesbian parents. Today there are an estimated 1.5 million to 5 million lesbian mothers and between one and three million gay fathers. Also, there are eight and thirteen million children being raised by at least on gay parent. That’s five percent of all children in the United States. There is no evidence that gay fathers or lesbian mothers have a negative influence on the children or that sexually abuse their children. Studies have shown that the outcomes for children in these families tend to be better than average. The research also proved that children raised by lesbian mothers develop the same way in gender identity as children raised by a heterosexual or “normal” couple.

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