"Gay marriage: the political knot it's impossible to untie." Sydney Morning Herald, The 25 May 2013: 11.Points of View Reference Center. Print. Jones, Nelson. "Gay Marriage Will Happen -Get over It."
Many people actually believe that homosexuals could simply choose to be heterosexual if they wished. But the reality is that very few do have a choice; any more than very few heterosexuals could choose which sex to find them attracted to. Additionally, many people continue to believe the propaganda from right-wing religious organizations that homosexuality is about nothing but sex, considering it to be merely a sexual perversion. Homosexual relationships are just like heterosexual ones, and are much more about love and affection than they are about sex. And this is what homosexual relationships are based on: mutual attraction, love and affection.
Throughout history people who manifested an attraction for others of the same sex usually have gone through a lot of maltreatments, discrimination, and have often been regarded as “sexual deviants.” Relationships between people of the same sex have been present since the beginning of history. Their lives have not always been easy, because they have been persecuted and sometimes even forced to go through a psychiatric evaluation. At the same time, in order to gain their rights and dignity, they had to take their fight to the legal system because as George Chauncey, a professor of history at Yale University mentioned, “although most people recognize that gay life was difficult before growth of the gay movement in the 1970s, they often have only the vaguest sense of why: that gay people were scorned and ridiculed, made to feel ashamed, afraid, and alone” (290). However, discrimination and maltreatment were not the only reasons homosexuals had to take their struggle to the courts. An American professor of history at Yale University, who has testified in a number of gay rights cases, has exposed the ins and outs of the legal system in the second half of the twentieth century.
N.p., 14 Aug 2005. Web. 18 November 2012. . LeVay S, “Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation”. New York: Oxford University Press.
Over the years, homosexuality has been a significant topic of discussion in our society. Although progress towards altering public perception of homosexuality has been made in the last thirty years, significant homophobia remains pervasive in society. Homosexuality can be traced back to ancient times and a brief history shows many of the struggles that gay men and lesbians have had to face over the years. European officials as early as the 1860s noticed that many people were organizing their lives around sexual pleasure instead of the traditional family households. Homosexuals were becoming the targets of these groups of people known as “sexual deviants” and sodomy became a criminalized act (Ford 2014).
The reading, Gay, Latino and Macho, explores four men’s struggles with being gay in a Latino culture. These men share their stories on how they are treated by society for being different. In their communities, men need to show machismo attributes and men who do not meet the standards are not seen as real men. I don’t believe there was a clear thesis to this reading but I do believe there was a purpose, and that is to address how harsh the machismo Latino culture can be to those who homosexual. In order to fix this problem, people need to bring about a more accepting culture for gay people to live in.
10 Nov. 2013. Lipp, Murray. "7 Ways the U.S.A. Benefits From the Legalization of Gay Marriage." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 2 June 2013.
12 Nov. 2013. conspiracytheories.lmc.gatech.edu/ index.php/The_Gay_Conspiracy>. "Gay Marriage ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. Procon.org, 21 Oct. 2013. Web.
If a man is not seen as masculine but seen as feminine, he is normally cast as a gay because that is how our society sees men. When a guy is seen as a gay, than straight men are the ones that have power over them. If people of color are asked who is in power, they will say that white straight men have all the power, but if society is to ask men themselves, they do not think they have power. This is due to the fact they have never been oppressed and don't know what it means to truly be undermined by someone else. At a very young age, a boy would have the pressure of masculinity.
28 Oct. 2013. "Most Say Homosexuality Should Be Accepted By Society." Pew Research Center for the People and the Press RSS. Pew Research Center, 13 May 2011. Web.