The activism present in the LGBT community is an incredibly unique form of activism; we focus on our passion for equality and respect which invigorates us as activists and as individuals even through the most challenging struggles. The LGBT community is centered upon grassroots activism, ranging from coming out to organizing protests and marches. All of the incredible work we do stems from individuals challenging societal norms and standing up for their basic human rights. I have become passionately involved in the LGBT community since coming out, my first act of activism. Coming out, a fundamental form of activism in our community, is often overlooked in discourses centered on activism. I am from a relatively rural area of western Pennsylvania, an area where many queer people stay in the closet for most of their lives. For many of my friends and family members, I am the only out gay …show more content…
I am the Vice President of my university’s largest queer-centric organization, The Pride Network, a non-profit organization with a chapter at Hofstra University. Since I have joined the executive board, we have tripled our club membership and implemented affinity spaces for less-recognized members of our community, including bisexual and asexual individuals. Additionally, I am a founding board member and President of the Gender Identity Federation, a club focused on the transgender and gender non-conforming communities. Through this role, I have also come to serve on my university’s Gender Inclusive Housing Committee, a group of administrators and myself working to make Hofstra’s housing more trans inclusive. I have also had the honor if attending multiple LGBT conferences in the past year, including the Northeastern LGBT and Creating Change conferences. I am passionate about creating a space for the LGBT community and furthering my own education about our incredible
In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
In sociology, the LGBT community is viewed as a subculture to the dominant world culture. The community is generally accepted by the dominant culture and although the group has some of its own beliefs and rituals/traditions, it still adheres to the fundamental beliefs and cultural expectations of the dominant culture. Before being considered a subculture, homosexual relationships and variations of sexual orientation were classified as devian behaviort. Even before that, someone who experienced homosexual thoughts or tendencies was labeled as mentally ill. The idea of homosexuality being a mental illness appeared in the DSM until 1987. There are still remnants of homophobia today but the consensus (at
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.
Although the conclusion of the Civil War during the mid-1860s demolished the official practice of slavery, the oppression and exploitation of African Americans has continued. Although the rights and opportunities of African Americans were greatly improved during Reconstruction, cases such a 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson, which served as the legal basis for segregation, continue to diminish the recognized humanity of African Americans as equal people. Furthermore, the practice of the sharecropping system impoverished unemployed African Americans, recreating slavery. As economic and social conditions worsened, the civil rights movement began to emerge as the oppressed responded to their conditions, searching for equality and protected citizenship.With such goals in mind, associations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which came to the legal defense of African Americans and aided the march for civil rights reforms, emerged. By working against the laws restricting African Americans, the NAACP saw progress with the winning of cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which allowed the integration of public schools after its passing in 1954 and 1955. In the years following the reform instituted by the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the fervor of the civil rights movement increased; mass nonviolent protests against the unfair treatment of blacks became more frequent. New leaders, such as Martin Luther King, manifested themselves. The civil rights activists thus found themselves searching for the “noble dream” unconsciously conceived by the democratic ideals of the Founding Fathers to be instilled.
As New York City was waking up on Saturday, June 28, 1969, the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. The raid led to riots and protests that lasted several days. Such police harassment was hardly uncommon at the time, but this particular raid proved to be the last straw. What could have been a quickly forgotten brawl instead became “the beginning of the modern struggle for gay civil rights” (Teal). The Stonewall Riots pushed the gay rights movement to the forefront of hot-button topics in the United States, where it has remained ever since (Teal).
Coming out, regardless of what one is coming out as, is incredibly difficult. An important aspect of accepting ones’ sexuality is the support that one gets from others of the same sexuality. “This support comes not only from loved ones … but also from associating with like-minded others in the gay, lesbians, and bisexual communities” (McLean 63). However, even in a group that’s been discriminated against by heterosexuals, there is an outstanding amount biphobia in the LGBT community. Bisexuals, while technically are included in the LGBT community, often have difficulty fitting in with the rest of the community.
As a student who is graduating in three weeks, I am excited to start advocating for the population in which I choose. At this point I choose to work in foster care and adoption, so I will be advocating anyway I can for that population because that is my job. I could potentially be working with a same-sex couple who wants to foster or adopt, and I will be doing my best do advocate on their behalf so they can do so. I work in a faith-based organization so I am prepared to fight for them. If you choose to be a person who could potentially be working with an LGBT person, you must be prepared to advocate and work with that person.
The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as in the 1950's president Eisenhower banned gays from holding federal jobs and many state institutions did the same. The lead taken by the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens. "Vice officers regularly raided gay bars, sometimes arresting dozens of men and women on a single night" (Milestones). In spite of the adversity, out of the 1950s also came the first organized groups of gays, including leaders. The movement was small at first, but grew exponentially in short periods of time. Spurred on by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the "homophile" (Milestones) movement took on more visibility, picketing government agencies and discriminatory policies. By 1969, around 50 gay organizations existed in the United States. The most crucial moment in blowing the gay rights movement wide open was on the evening of July 27, 1969, when a group of police raided a gay bar in New York City. This act prompted three days of rioting in the area called the Stonewall Rio...
Have you ever thought how much progress the LGBT community has made and how it affects other people? The gay rights movement was and is currently a movement that “strives to end all discrimination towards the LGBT community” (Redlingshafer). As early as 1924, the Society for Human Rights in Chicago becomes United States’ earliest known gay rights organization (“Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement”). However, most people recognize the Stonewall riot in 1969 as being the beginning of the gay rights movement. Almost ninety years later, society and the government have progressed over time and are still growing. Harvey Milk, author of “The Hope Speech”, was a politician who led a portion of the gay rights movement. Also, a more recent and well known leader of the movement is Dan Savage, the creator of the “It Gets Better Project”. The followers of the gay rights movement are not just homosexual. There are followers and supporters of every gender, race, and sexual orientation. The gay rights movement and its issues are represented in “The Hope Speech” by Harvey Milk.
The act of "coming out" is a complex political tool. Its use is open to ambiguous possibilities, ranging from subverting social order to reinforcing those power structures. Of course, it is undoubtedly an empowering act for many non-heterosexual persons to identify themselves as such. Even if the categories of "heterosexual" and "homosexual" are entirely socially constructed (as Michel Foucault argues), that does not mean that they are not real categories of thought that shape the way we live our lives. Indeed, my computer is entirely constructed, but is still undeniably real. Since many non-heterosexual people do live their lives identifying differently from heterosexual people, they may find "homosexual" (or a similar label) an accurate description of their identities and daily lives, however socially contingent that description is. That said, I do not wish to make a judgement call on whether or not someone should or should not come out. Rather, I wish to examine the complicated space represented by "the closet" and the multifarious effects that "coming out" has on the larger social structure.
Homosexual activity has been around since the dawn of time. As far back as 9660-5000 BCE there has been evidence of homosexual encounters. Throughout history there have been numerous recordings of homosexual activity, from Roman art depicting homosexual acts during the 1st century, to Leonardo da Vinci who was charged with sodomy on multiple occasions in 1476, the acts of same sex encounters have been no stranger in the past (LGBT social movements, 2014). The LGBT movement however, is a more recent escapade. The LGBT movement is the attempt to change social and political attitudes towards homosexuality for the better. There have been multiple movements in the LGBT community as to date, along with the emergence of numerous LGBT organizations. There are well over fifty different LGBT organizations all over the world. Some are international, such as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), and some are country or region based, such as Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) in Uganda. Each organization has its own mission and goals which it wishes to accomplish in order to make the world a better and more equal place for LGBT communities. Two specific LGBT organizations are: the Gay & Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD) in the United States, and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) in Sweden.
Countless organizations are available with the purpose of serving LGBT people who may be suffering, physically, mentally, or emotionally. One of the many goals of the LGBT community is to celebrate individuality, diversity, and sexuality. The LGBT does serve these needs, as it provides a place where gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people can be apologetically themselves.
Growing up, I was always an activist for LGBTQ people.
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.
The LGBT community consists of those who consider themselves lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. The community is that of your students and your neighbors. They’re ages prime and odd with heights low and high.