This writer remembers watching Mathew Sheppard’s story unfold on the news one early morning. One could not believe that this young man was treated so inhumane for being gay. Listening as the news reporter reported that Sheppard was beat, and tied to a fence and left to die was unrealistic at the time. Why would anyone treat another human this way is baffling? Even though, Sheppard eventually did pass away from his injuries, he was not forgotten. As a result of his death, the Department of Justice (2015) “create[d] a new federal criminal law which criminalizes [when someone] willfully cause[s] bodily injury” to another human based in their “race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability” (Department …show more content…
Even though, there are still hurdles that the LGBT community must overcome to become accepted and the LGBT community has not been accepted in conservative states that are deeply religious. However, how does acceptance of gay and lesbian lifestyle change from racial groups? According to Gumbrecht (2015) in a CNN interview with Niki Solis, a Catholic lesbian Latina, stated that “Being white and gay is different from being a person of color- it’s harder”. However, even though it is harder for Hispanic cultures to accept a gay or lesbian child because of their cultural up bring, there is momentum generating that I changing Hispanic attitudes towards acceptance, but it is a slow process. However, within the police subculture, gay police officers, have become accepted after years of discrimination and vulgar acts against gay and lesbian police officers. According to McNamara and Burns (2008) openly stating that you were gay meant that officers were ridiculed by having their lockers graffitied and or having their uniforms urinated on
In certain countries such as the U.S, people discriminate against others to a certain extent based off their gender, race, and sexuality. Butler states that “to be a body is to be given over to others even as a body is “one own,” which we must claim right of autonomy” (242). Gays and Lesbians have to be exposed to the world because some of them try to hide their identity of who they truly are because they are afraid of how others are going to look at them. There are some who just let their sexuality out in the open because they feel comfortable with whom they are as human beings and they don’t feel any different than the next person. The gender or sexuality of a human being doesn’t matter because our bodies’ will never be autonomous because it is affected by others around us. This is where humans are vulnerability to violence and aggression. In countries across the globe, violence and attack are drawn towards tran...
Along with ethos and small touch of logos, the author Roxane Gay uses a strength appeal of pathos to persuade her audience onto her argument. “White people will never know the dangers of being black in America, systemic, unequal opportunity, racial profiling, and the constant threat of police violence. Men will never know the dangers of being a woman in America, harassment, sexual violence, legislated bodies. Heterosexuals will never know what it means to experience homophobia.” (Gay). In this paragraph, the author is identify the inequality between racial barriers, genders and sexual orientation which an emotionally involved topic to bring up. How people are treated differently how the way they look, where they come from. Woman would
Raymond Carver's short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” leaves the reader feeling as if they have sat down at the table with a bottle of Gin and experienced first hand the effects of alcoholism and depression. In the original version of this story the “Beginners” Carver carefully crafts the many sides of an alcoholic personality developing strong knowable characters. The fundamental personalities are left fairly intact from the original version. It should be noted that the feelings that the reader are left with are due at least partially to the severe editing of the “Beginners” done by his editor and friend Gordon Lish. With this collaboration Carvers personal struggles still shine through but his intent of hope and recover from alcoholism were left mostly on the chopping block. Through many interviews and articles Raymond Carver make clear his personal struggles with alcoholism and how it has had an effect on his writing. INTERVIEWER: Where do your stories come from, then? I'm especially asking about the stories that have something to do with drinking. Carver: “At the very least it's referential. Stories long or short don't just come out of thin air.” (The Paris Review) The inner dialog and downward spiral of an alcoholic is experienced through the interaction between these personalities while discussing the topic of love. JA: I noticed recently you're using cliches in your characterizations, and I wonder if you're just observing, or recording the way a mind works. RC: It's there for a purpose; it's working for me, I think, not against me. Or at least I hope and assume this is the case!
Shepard was a homosexual man, and his murder was labeled as a hate crime, a murder which, in the late 90's, dominated the airwaves: “Matthew Shepard” was the name at the tip of everyone's tongue, but what made his murder special? JoAnn Wypilewski points out in her essay “A Boy's Life” that, “Gay men are killed horribly everywhere in this country, more than thirty just since Shepard – one of them in Richmond, Virginia, beheaded” (609). When so many men are killed in a similar context why do we specifically care about Matthew Shepard – or why don't we? Searching simply the name “Matthew Shepard” in the Google database yields thousands of results in the form of articles, news periodicals, and videos. The media exposure of the Matthew Shepard case is overwhelming. The overload of information can leave us clueless. As college students of the twenty-teens who are fifteen years removed from the incident how do we care about Matthew Shepard?
In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people have dedicated themselves in fighting for
Many people claim that the violence happenes not because of sexual orientation, but because it is just an act to be committed. According to the Human Rights Campaign, crimes against homosexual people resulted in four deaths in 1998 alone. James Ward, a thirty-seven year old male from Arkansas, was stabbed to death in his own home by eighteen year old Jeremy Legit. Legit claimed that Ward made two sexual advances toward him. He was sentenced to twenty years. In Honolulu, a man was beaten to death by a group of teenagers in a public shower because they believed he was gay. They were sentenced to five years in custody. In September, a transgender female was stabbed repeatedly with a broken beer bottle and set on fire. Christopher Lopez and Christopher Chavez spent five months in jail before all charges were dropped by the Fresno Police Department. On October 12, 1998 Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming was beaten, tormented, tied to a fence, and left to die in freezing temperatures. The two men were sentenced to life in jail, only after the media had covered the trial and the whole world knew of the att...
In September 2011, the United States lifted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT), which restricted gay, lesbian, and bisexuals from openly serving in the military. This was the first time in American history in which people of every sexual orientation could serve openly (“11 Facts About,” n.d.). This was a momentous occasion for some and not so much for others. For those military members that had served in secret and those members that were firmly against gays and lesbians, this repeal had different meaning. Both groups contained members that have served in the military for years and were products of the Former President Bill Clinton’s 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For many soldiers of this era, communication issues arose due to a pre-existing mentality, learned rules and regulations in services reinforced for two decades and the general cultural within combat related fields.
Malcolm Gladwell once said, “...people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.” The author, Wes Moore, of the book, The Other Wes Moore, is considered an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens based off of Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Wes’s story demonstrates objectives that define him as an outlier with the contributions of where he’s from, his advantages, and also his attitude over his ability. These contributions therefore define him as an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens.
Latino homophobia still exists and continues to be a problem in today’s society. The Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community is growing stronger because more people are coming out to rebel against the systems of society. Since the systems of society are based on cultural norms, the homophobia should be addressed because the LGBTQ community face different forms of violence and as a result new generations will be coming to be accepting them as normal individuals.
Nick Jans suggests that McCandless was either mentally ill or suicidal, however, this does not seem to be the case. Jans observations gives very good points, but they are not in the correct perspective. McCandless did not die because he disrespected the very land he purported to love.
basic civil rights protections for GLBT people.” (Currah, Minter p.9) Many of the LGBT population feel like their personal freedoms and liberties have been violated as lawmakers in some states and countries infringe on their personal rights. Passings of legislature that marginalizes the LGBT population is not only unjust and inhumane but it causes sociological and societal implications that question that persons beliefs about themselves leading to the dangerous climate facing the group from within themselves and the population around
Her use of the metaphor “the prime rib of America” is a reminder that freedom and equality are the right of all citizens according to the American Constitution but the American government are flouting this right when it comes to the Gay and Lesbian community. She also draws a parallel between the defendants of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and the defendants in the murder of Matthew Shepard. By incorporating the highly publicised case of the torture and murder of homosexual Shepard , and reminding America how his death became a catalyst for a nationwide movement of advocacy for laws against homophobia, Germanotta works to expose the hypocrisy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” because the same situation is occurring but at a government level. This parallel of prejudice is especially important and effective in building her argument because the defendants of discriminatory laws seem to distance themselves from accusations that their discriminations are based in racism, sexism, or in this case, homophobia. The use of rhetorical questions such as “doesn't it seem to be that ‘don't ask don't tell’ is backwards?” and “shouldn't I be made aware that some of us are just not included?” are used to persuade the audience of the injustice of “Don't ask don't tell” because. Germanotta also uses her personal voice throughout her speech and statements such as “I am gay” because she is voicing her opinion and lending her personal support to a cause for she feels profoundly. She detests the hypocrisy and is calling those people who hide behind their positions to be held accountable for flouting the rights of a sector of America’s citizens for whom they have no respect. Germanotta’s references to political figures such as “John McCain” is an exercise in holding these men and women ,responsible for denying homosexuals of their constitutional rights, accountable. Germanotta uses McCain’s words
Note: This paper has a very long Annotated Bibliography. In recent years, same-sex relationships have become more encompassing in US society. State legislation is changing such as accepting gay marriages, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and legal gay adoptions; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is becoming public. Gay-headed families, like heterosexuals, are diverse and varying in different forms.
An issue that has, in recent years, begun to increase in 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 seems 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.
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the 1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.