Growing up, there were not many spaces where people felt like they can be themselves. As such, in high school, while several queer people felt comfortable coming out of the closet, there was a lack of a space where individuals could embrace their queerness and their sexualities with other folxwho had similar identities. Moving on, there is a lack of queer spaces, both back in my hometown, but also in general. Even in higher education, at institutions such as California State University, Fullerton, there is a space for these individuals to be themselves and for their identities to exist, but the space is small, which makes individuals feel like they are back in the closet. In this essay, I will define current queer spaces and other spaces where queer individuals feel safe, depict the discrimination people of color face in these spaces, as well as analyze why these spaces exist and continually exist. First of all, queer and queerness must be defined. Most folx understand and perceive queer as …show more content…
Essentially, queer spaces are used for queer purposes, which means a multitude of articles can be considered queer spaces. For example, websites and mobile applications such as Grindr are considered queer spaces due to the fact that an individual can use it to meet other queer individuals. As such, there is a need for these spaces to create a sense of community, as in its current state, it lacks this feeling. While browsing on Grindr and trying to message other queer individuals, I have received messages such as “sorry too fat” or “not into Latinos sorry.” Also, I have met several gay men throughout my life who has had similar messages and interactions. Without a sense of community, it is hard for queer folx to find a friends and partner through this space, despite the fact it is the most accessible and safest of the rest of queer
It is often found that the stereotypical “butch” and “femme” pairing are more visible than other lesbian relationships. However, this does not mean that they do not exist. The ever-growing popularity of the lesbian social sphere has symbolized both difficulties and effects of identifying with such a label. The label or identity itself, though distinctly separating lesbians from “normal” heterosexuals begins to exhibit pre-existing conflict experienced by gay males: “there’s always been something wrong (Aldrich, 38).” This quote implies the conditioned and ingrained belief that homosexuality’s “taboo” existence was more than just wrong, but distasteful and something that society should look down upon for being an “abnormality.” Sometimes, this social reality for lesbians made it hard for them to “come out the closet” and be visible. This experience is exemplified as “The repressed lesbian has a harder time of it, for she is less aware of her abnormality (Aldrich, 41).” Additionally, to be able to clearly and accurately identify “the lesbian is to meet the many women she is at close range; to see her against her various backgrounds, hear her sundry voices, and familiarize yourself with the diverse facades of her several lives (Aldrich, 42).” Here, the presence of the “double life” is demonstrated to further analyze the lack of privileges that the lesbian community had, including the social aspect of their
Andrew Sullivan, author of, What is a Homosexual, portrays his experience growing up; trapped in his own identity. He paints a detailed portrait of the hardships caused by being homosexual. He explains the struggle of self-concealment, and how doing so is vital for social acceptation. The ability to hide one’s true feelings make it easier to be “invisible” as Sullivan puts it. “The experience of growing up profoundly different in emotional and psychological makeup inevitably alters a person’s self-perception.”(Sullivan)This statement marks one of the many reasons for this concealment. The main idea of this passage is to reflect on those hardships, and too understand true self-conscious difference. Being different can cause identity problems, especially in adolescents.
There is arguably no group that has faced more discrimination in modern society than queer people of color. Although often pushed together into a single minority category, these individuals actually embrace multiple racial and sexual identities. However, they suffer from oppression for being a part of both the ethnic minority and queer communities. As a result, members are abused, harassed, and deprived of equal civil rights in social and economic conditions (Gossett). In response to the multiple levels of discrimination they face in today’s society, queer people of color have turned to the establishment and active participation of support organizations, resources, and policies to advocate for overall equality.
Seidman, Steven. Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print
Queer ecology is a bridge between ecological criticism and queer theory. The word ecology is derived from the Greek word oikos, which means ‘home’ or ‘surroundings’ and summed as the study of organisms relationship to each other and to their physical, environmental surroundings. The word queer is derived from the German word quer, which means ‘transverse’, ‘oblique’, ‘sideways’, or more understandably “a moment of unfamiliarity” or not at home. These two words based on those definitions seem like they would seldom correlate. However the fact of the matter is that we would normally want to separate the two based on our foundations in understanding nature, the human experience, environmentalism, and gender and sex. This is even more of an imperative reason as to why Queer ecology needs to exist. As Morton said, “Ecology is Queer Theory and Queer Theory is Queer Ecology.”
Today, especially with the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, it is easy to believe that the fight for queer rights is something of the past, something that America as a whole moved beyond because we have achieved these rights. For example, the conclusion to Stonewall Uprising creates a sort of historical separation that allows anyone and everyone to believe that the United States and all the people within it have moved past homophobia, transphobia, and queerphobia. However, this is absolutely not a reality for many queer and trans people today, especially poor and/or incarcerated queer and trans people of color. The conclusion to Sarah Lamble’s “Retelling Racialized Violence, Remaking White Innocence” brings to light the issues affecting
Eisner, D. (1999). Homophobia and the Demise of Multicultural Community: Strategies for Change in the Community College. Retrieved January 2014, from 1998 MLA convention in San Francisco, California: http://www.adfl.org/bulletin/V31N1/311054.htm
Those who become marginalized can lose control of their own lives and the available resources they can access; they can become nothing more than stigmas and often negatively treated in public. Because of this, their social contributions are sometimes hampered and this, consequently, causes them to become socially isolated and/or sufferers of low esteem. Approximately, in America, thirty percent of LGBTQ youth were often abused by their parents over their orientation or gender, with an estimated forty percent of homeless youths identifying as LGBTQ themselves. (Chatterjee) These statistics and stigmas can affect those who haven’t fully comprehend their feeling and those who stay closeted (keeping their sexual orientation or gender identity as a secret) because they fear the possible negative reactions from family and
Raymond, Diane. "POPULAR CULTURE AND QUEER REPRESENTATION." n.d., n. pag. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. . (A Critical Perspective)
Intersectionality is an analytical tool that can assist policy makers in creating programs and policies to help combat inequities on campus. Intersectionality explores new research and policy approaches to understand the connections between structures that shape diverse populations (Hankivsky, 2014). The acronym LGBT gives evidence that people who identity cannot be placed in a single category. Not only do they suffer injustices because of their sexual orientation, but also for their race, gender, ability, disability, and age. No written policy in higher education is without use of intersectionality framework. It is a necessity because of the diverse student body attending institutions of higher education. Intersectionality requires focus on points of intersection, complexity, dynamic processes, and the structures that define our access to rights and opportunities, rather than on defined categories or isolated issue areas (Symington,
In a structured society, as one we’ve continued to create today, has raised concerns over the way society uses the term queer. Queer was a term used to describe “odd” “peculiar” or “strange” beings or things alike, but over the centuries societies began to adapt and incorporate the term into their vocabulary. Many authors such as Natalie Kouri-Towe, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Nikki Sullivan have distinct ways of describing the way the word queer has been shaped over the years and how society has viewed it as a whole. In effect, to talk about the term queer one must understand the hardship and struggle someone from the community faces in their everyday lives. My goal in this paper is to bring attention to the history of the term queer, how different
Due to illness, I watched "Paris Is Burning" after sending in my original plan for this paper. I was impressed by the complexity of the homosexual community in New York during the eighties. Despite the fact that all of these men were living outside of societal norms, they had a sense of belonging and home. They created Houses and families to replace what they had lost, but also to give them something they had not experienced in their previous liv...
1. What are the three purposes for which people communicate? What percentage of a manager’s time is spent communicating? Give examples of the types of communication managers use.
The treatment of the LGBT community in American Society is a social injustice. What most people think is that they just want to be able to marry one another and be happy but that’s not it. They want to be treated like humans and not some weird creatures that no one has ever seen before. They want to be accepted for who them are and not what people want them to be and they deserve the right to be who they are just the same as any other human being. After all the discrimination they have endured they should be allowed to be who they are and be accepted as equals just like people of different skin color did in the times of segregation. We have a long way to go as a country but being the greatest country in the world in the eyes of many great America will make big steps to make things fair.
Society has shaped the thoughts and minds of many individuals and because of this personal beliefs towards LGBT people came into play. Society was constantly telling people that there was something wrong with them if they were LGBT and that they would go to hell for it because God did not approve of it and it was a sin. I would like to say that because society was judging people and denying them, that they were committing a sin. It is not their place to decide the fate of certain people, the only person that can make those decisions is God. God is the one that decides whether we are deemed worthy to go to Heaven or not. With that being said, I grew up in a family that is very religious on one side and the other side had their person beliefs