The Movie Dope

The movie Dope (2015) has a colorful cast including Malcolm, Diggy, and Jib. Diggy is a lesbian teenager whose grandmother takes to church every Sunday. While at church, fellow church members pray over Diggy in hopes to “pray away the gay.” In today’s culture some people believe that if they pray hard enough then they will no longer be attracted to the same sex. On one occasion Diggy was undressing a female church member with her eyes while she was praying for her. That showed that that theory is not always true.

Praying away the gay does not always work. Diggy and her friends are walking down the hallway at school. They are taking about yesterday’s church event that involved Diggy being prayed over, Jib asks Diggy did she think the praying

The cultural aspect of homophobia and heterosexism is sugarcoated in its generational effects on a people. These cultural beliefs are predominantly established through community, religious and family relationships, along with social norms. It is also based on cultural norms and dominant cultural values, which is subjective and dictates what is acceptable, beautiful, and appreciated (Perez. 2005; Ungar, 2004). When queer people of color are rejected by their own communities, they experience a double exclusion. They feel they are not a part of the queer community, which is predominantly white, nor do they fit into heterosexual groups of color. These dynamics are a psychological, emotional and social mountain that queer people of color must learn how to continuously climb (Perez, 2005). One notable example of parents not accepting their child’s sexuality in the character Veronica Harrington on The Haves and The Haves Nots. Veronica expressed extreme hatred for her son Jeffery’s homosexuality. When Jeffrey came out of the closet to his parents his father was open and heartfelt with him, his mother showed the opposite reaction. Her actions toward him include forcing him to get a girlfriend (who knows that he is gay), ruining his friendship with his best friend Wyatt, telling

I always knew they would be accepting.” Gloria Vanderbilt’s celebrity TV Journalist Anderson Cooper came out in 2012 and received nothing but love and support from his mother. Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman was well known for his stand against gay marriage, that is until his son announced that he was gay in the year 2011. In 2013 he changed his position on the matter. In a column for The Columbus Dispatch, he wrote, “I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn’t deny them the opportunity to get married.” The Huffington Post reports that New York’s Lesbian Chef Mirella Salemi was awarded $1.6 Million after her employer attempted to pray away the gay in her. Edward Globokar held employee prayer meetings inside his establishment, Mary Ann’s. Salemi had worked at the restaurant for six years. "He not only threatened her soul, but he also threatened her livelihood," Derek Smith, a lawyer for Salemi, told the Post. "He thought praying might cure her of her sexuality, but she is someone who didn’t need to be