In an interview recently I was asked to describe the best and the worst parts of being gay. This came as a quite unexpected question under the given circumstances: I hoped we were all past that.
Immediately, I filled with fear and tears. Not only was I being asked to describe joy and pain, I had to put off my own lingering shame issues to do it. Worse, I had to do it on camera and felt an immediate Christian obligation to offer some kind of hope to the viewer. I suited up emotionally with a prayer and my deepest breath in years. "Dear God, help me to not completely fuck this up! Please speak through me!"
The camera rolled.
My immediate response to both questions, to my surprise, was the same answer- my rambling went something like this:
The best and worst part of being gay is the culture.
Gay culture has a bad image with every shallow gym-bunny-coke-snorting-techno-listening-popper-sniffing-queer out there. Many of them are truly less deep than the 8-ball up their nose. And it just keeps getting worse: Enter crystal-meth amphetamine and publicity. A few years ago, while baby-sitting eight and nine year old boys, they liked to watch Will&Grace. They thought the gay ONE was funny. This is my point exactly.
However, this is the same culture that will defend you to the bitter end. You can place an 85 year-old Judy- listening-chicken hawk-nasty-bitter-old-queen right next to a 15 year-old twink in a rainbow g-string, and it would appear they have nothing in common. The very common family ground they stand on is that they both know the pain, the shame, the anxiety, the fear (need I continue) of at one time having to verbalize to this assumedly straight world that they are the antithesis: they both like...
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...e countless years of pain involved in coming out, suicides, broken families, all simply because a person has to muster the guts to find the words to say ?I think I might be into guys?? There is no love there. The real sin is being without love. Perfect love casts out fear. I see no kingdom of heaven in someone gay being exiled, Except for the truth and justice found in the courage of that scared person to open his mouth and be honest. That is the truth. That is where mercy lives.
And with this the cameraman put down the camera. He had a tear in his eye. ?I was looking more for a one sentence answer, but thank you. My brother is gay. I think I get it now?
I smiled with an uncertainty of having not given him what he wanted. He gathered up his camera and turned to go ask the same question to the other cast members. Their answers were short, and silly.
You can see immediately why Hollywood took this film to their heart. Hey, it's about ISSUES! But in typical Hollywood fashion, they can't resist the temptation to dumb the issue down to make it easier to sell. It's a difficult thing sometimes, criticising a film like 'Philadelphia' as it leaves the critic open to accusations of homophobia themselves, but 'Philadelphia' patronises the homosexual community so much, it's like an instruction video for schoolkids "Listen kids - gays are people too, you know?".
On television, I watched characters such as Marco del Rossi and Paige Michalchuk on the Canadian teen-drama Degrassi. These were the first positive experiences I had of what gay culture was like. Of what I saw, I did not feel like I fit into that lifestyle/group. On the other hand, the movie The Matthew Shepard Story shared the violent side of homosexuality’s history in the retelling of Matthew Shepard’s murder.
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.
Homosexuality has existed since the beginning of recorded human history and yet, attitudes towards gay and lesbian individuals vary extensively. Some societies tolerate them; others openly welcome and encourage them; and most blatantly condemn them (Bates, 46). Throughout our country’s history, homosexuals have been misunderstood and discriminated against, leading many to acquire an irrational fear of gays and lesbians. Known as homophobia, this fear has prompted heterosexual individuals with a feeling a superiority and authority when using the word “homosexual” interchangeably with the words pervert, faggot, sodomite, and so on. Homophobes typically perceive homosexuality as a threat to society. Nonetheless, the Gay Rights Movement has achieved impressive progress since 1973 when the American Psychological Association (APA) eradi...
In “Dude, You’re a Fag,” multiple boys that were interviewed said they “didn’t like gay people” and were disgusted by gay men but lesbians were “good” (Pascoe). These boys only viewed female homosexuality as “good” because of its place in the heterosexual male fantasy and not because they approved of homosexuality as a legitimate and accepted sexuality (Pascoe). The binary gender system creates a male dominated society that allows for only female homosexuality to exist because even through it goes against the strict normative heterosexuality it can still be a source of pleasure for men. Male homosexuality, however, is not accepted because in a male dominated world it is associated with not being masculine. Through the use of the slur “fag,” people demean and emasculate boys and men (Pascoe). The use of “fag” against someone does not imply that they are homosexual; instead, Pascoe’s study and interview of high school age boys shows that it is used to say that a person is not masculine and therefore not conforming to their gender roles. Even though women can be sexually fluid and have intimate relationships with other women, it is not viewed as legitimate sex because there is no penis involved. Women are allowed by society to have sex with whomever they want, as long as they are still able to perform their gender role as wives and birth givers. In contrast, in
Gays in today’s society face many problems not only with the Media’s eyes, but also on college campuses. Young adults who self-identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual experience major stresses in managing their sexual orientation.
...were mentally ill or psychotic. Frank Kameny, a leader of the gay rights movement, perpetuated the idea that “Homosexuality is not a sickness…but is merely a preference, an orientation, or propensity, on par with, and not different in kind from, heterosexuality.” (Sherry Wolf, Sexuality and Socialism) Some schools even went as far as to create public safe spaces for gay students such as Columbia University’s Student Homophile League. Now, people are well aware of the presence of the LGBTQ community, and members are even trying to educate people who seem ignorant or bigoted. Many people currently dedicate a good portion of their lives to learning and teaching people about the gay rights movement and how it functions today. The community has evolved to include transgender, asexual, pansexual, and non binary people as well as a multitude of other labels and identities.
What really grinds my gears is seeing homophobia in the modern world. Yes, I acknowledge that it is seen as a sin—especially in the early times when people believe in witchcraft. Seriously, it’s 2016 and we’re having a little fit over who uses what bathroom? We’re having worse things going on! We have ISIS, we have a potential war coming up, we have school shootings and gang violence, and worse of all we have the possibility of Trump being our president and people are losing their marbles over who uses what bathroom? It’s just a bathroom! If it makes you so uncomfortable to go into a bathroom that is gender neutral, then don’t use it! Simple! Being a gay boy in school made me uncomfortable going to the boy’s bathroom/locker room. I grew up in a small town—Oroville, WA—where homosexuality wasn’t really seen, and some people felt uncomfortable by it. I hated going to the boy’s bathroom/locker room because I constantly felt I didn’t belong with them, but I didn’t belong with the girls either…I didn’t know where I belonged. I felt if I went into the boy’s bathroom/locker room, then they would judge me or feel uncomfortable with me in there—I used to think that boy’s hated me in there because they felt that I was looking at them or checking them out
However there have been a variety of critiques regarding the media’s portrayal of same-sex couples and gay marriage. People who go solely off the media’s depiction of gay and lesbians could have a skewed view of what they are actually like. This could be detrimental for youth who are developing their ideas of what homosexuals are actually like and this is their only source of information on it. This leads to stereotyping different types of gay people. Also for young people, the media depiction of gay people has led to the idea that this is “cool” and treat their homosexual friends differently.
When television first appeared back in the 1940's, times were very different. What we would consider completely normal today would have seemed quite taboo just a few decades ago. For example, in 1953, Lucille Ball was not allowed to say the word "pregnant" while she was expecting baby Ricky and it wasn't until the 1960's show Bewitched, that we saw a married couple actually sharing the same bed. Considering how conservative the television networks were back then, it is not hard to deduce that something as controversial as homosexuality would be far from discussed or portrayed at any level. It was only in 1973 that television premiered its first homosexual character. Over the next three decades the emergence of gay and lesbian characters in television has increased and decreased as the times have changed. Due to the resurgence of conservatism that came back in the early 1980's, homosexual topics were again reduced to a minimum. Since that time though, as many people can see, there has been a rise of gay and lesbian characters on television. One might think after a first glance at the previous sentence that there has been progress among gay and lesbian communities to have a fair representation in the media. However, if one looks hard at the circumstances surrounding their portrayal, many people may start to believe that if there has been any progress then it has been quite minimal.
“The unprecedented growth of the gay community in recent history has transformed our culture and consciousness, creating radically new possibilities for people to ‘come out’ and live more openly as homosexuals”(Herdt 2). Before the 1969 Stonewall riot in New York, homosexuality was a taboo subject. Research concerning homosexuality emphasized the etiology, treatment, and psychological adjustment of homosexuals. Times have changed since 1969. Homosexuals have gained great attention in arts, entertainment, media, and politics. Yesterday’s research on homosexuality has expanded to include trying to understand the different experiences and situations of homosexuals (Ben-Ari 89-90).
The 1990s saw a surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek
In today's society, there exists a mixture of issues which tend to raise arguments with people all over. There are a handful of topics that always seem to escalate these differences between people to the point where one who earnestly participates in discussion, debate and argument can direct their anger towards their feelings on the person themselves. Some examples of such delicate subjects are the death penalty, abortion, and euthanasia. An issue that has in recent years, begun to increase arguments, is the acceptability of homosexuality in society. Until recently, homosexuality was considered strictly taboo. If an individual was homosexual, it was considered a secret to be kept from all family, friends, and society. However, it seem that society has begun to accept this lifestyle by allowing same sex couples. The idea of coming out of the 'closet' has moved to the head of homosexual individuals when it used to be the exception. Homosexuality is nothing to be ashamed of and we should all come to realize this.
There are individuals that live in fear of showing their true identity to the world because they simply fear that society won’t accept them for having a different sexual orientation. Society advocates that individuals should be able to be proud of who they are, but yet they judge homosexuals for being different. People are taught not to judge others based on their race or religion, so why do they still discriminate against homosexuals? The homosexual subculture is not accepted by society, looked down upon, and misjudged; however, they are human beings and deserve to be treated equally.
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Adam Sharpiro, Megan Schultz, Christina Roush, Cassandra Schofar, Emily Shilling, Tawnia Simpson, Natalie Sampiller. Portrayal of Homosexuality in Media. 26 March 2014 http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom103fall2004/gp16.pdf>. Huegel, Kelly.