The LGBT Community

1785 Words4 Pages

Throughout the 20th century, the idea of homosexuality was negatively viewed not only in the Church, but in the streets as well. Before 1969, the gay community was afraid to come out to the world as a community of acceptance of what gender they like, what gender they want to be, and what gender they want to marry. They looked for positivity and acceptance throughout the community in various forms; such as emotional support and political acceptance via diverse historical, social, and political events. Two of the books that we have read in class that favor community formation, one being Dancer from the Dance, evoked communities geographically and socially in an attempt to form acceptance. The second book, Whipping Girl, both accepted and rejected communities in a biological sense in reference to transgender men and women and how the author, Julia Serano, attempts to recreate an identity in community formation. Using these two books will be a basis for discussion on what it means to be an LGBTQ person in a formulating community in the 21st century society.
“Gay life fascinates you only because it is the life you were condemned to live.” (Pg. 14) Both the beginning and end of Dancer from the Dance uses letters to frame a novel based on graphic and sexually immodest language revolving around the writers, Helene and Madeleine, on what it means to be a gay man, and privileges the voices of gay men through imagery and language. Throughout the novel, religious imagery has an affect on gay literature, as well as social imagery, such as the parties on Fire Island, and what it means to be aware of ones literal sense of appearance, such as ones physical self, and what makes them beautiful to society.
Dancer from the Dance involves large p...

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...al question is, is it inevitable? She explains that being a gatekeeper is inevitable and a necessity to society as a treatment, however it needs to be diagnosed by a doctor with the mental illness ‘DID.’ However, in the black market, this idea of gatekeepers would not be a necessity, frankly because it is the black market and what goes… frankly goes.
The book repeatedly draws upon Serano’s personal experiences in terms of both how other individuals have responded to gender identity and gender presentation, but also her direct experiences of dysphoria and gender confusion, and the uproar of ones hormonal changing. When a common ground is met between gender identity and gender presentation, is when a community has formulated; similar to Dancer from the Dance whose community formation could be acquired via a clear acceptance between geographic and social formations.

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