LGBT Reflection Paper

What does It means to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community? To me it means simply loving them like people should already love people, just because someone chooses to love someone that’s doesn’t conform to what some of “society” thinks is normal is not a reason to judge somebody. I chose to take a stand during for not just this allyship essay, but because I believe it is the right thing to do. After hearing about this assignment, I thought a pretty simple and useful method to help this cause would be to simply correct someone for saying something like “that’s gay” in reference to something annoying or unwanted. I don’t think bullying against LGBTQ members will fully go away until people understand that it’s not okay to make gay synonymous

I feel like I need to more bold because here I felt required to say something for my commitment to the class, but I know I’m very guilty of people saying it and I would just hold my tongue, I think I try and justify myself and tell myself, it’s not like they’ve ever gone up to someone who is actually gay and made fun of them for it., but a who knows what company someone is in. In High School I had a friend who when people would “joke around” and ask him if he was gay he would vehemently deny it. A little while later passed and he indeed was gay. It was sad though to know that he was embarrassed and that he had to hide in until senior year when later I found out from another friend that she had known since about sophomore year. So this reminds me that’s it’s never okay to just say something is “gay” because one if people continue to speak like this and use this word it will never go away, it will continue to oppress people who are actually gay and being gay will be synonymous with being annoying. Secondly, no one can know who around them is struggling with something like their sexual orientation, so why say it and potentially cause a close friend or a stranger unwanted stress, fear, or anxiety about their orientation. And thirdly it is just plain rude. In society today people assign people as gay based on the way they

Society places labels on people, and society is just another way to say, people place labels on people. In the words of of Wayne Dyer, “ when you judge another you do not define them, you define yourself.” This to me isn’t about hey this kid does drugs I should stay away from him, but more along the lines of to each his own. If someone wants to do something or live a certain way at no expense to another person then by all means let them live that way. Too often today if you act a certain way or do something society wants to put people into groups. It’s always about groups and separation. People I think are always separating others to see who can benefit them and who will not benefit them. Why else do people judge people? The reason judging and bullying exists in the world because it is a way people use to feel better about themselves to try and put others down or to try and become popular or advance themselves at the expense of others. So I think to stand with the LGBTQ community is to simply stand up for people’s genuine rights to love whoever they want to love. I am a straight white middle class male, so flat out I essentially couldn’t be more privileged. Often times I take for granted that most people assume I’m straight people. People I’ve never met