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925220 Responseshttp://www.racerelationsproject.org/2009/11/lgbt-class/LGBT+Class2009-11-06+14%3A46%3A03Sam+Richards to LGBT Class
This class was probably the most exciting class that i have ever been in. I dont see how anybody can get any better than the class that i sat in. There were so many perspectives that were aired out in class that made me think about alot of stuff that goes on in society today. There were some comments made directly by professor richards that made me really think about gays and lesbians in a different light. To begin with, i have always had heated arguments with other people about how i though gays and lesbians chose to be that way. I mean, from my current knowledge i really dont see any other way that it could have been because it was pretty straight simple. You either like girls or you like boys. But the other side of the spectrum was presented when professor richards said “when do you actually know that you are attracted more towards girls than boys, and vice versa.” This startled me greatly because this was another perspective that i never took the time out to think about. As i sat there and pondered this argument, i really started to believe that what professor richards had said was actually true. I began to find this idea more acceptable than what i had previously believed. If a person is to take the time out of their busy schedule and actually think about it, hey would find this perspective to be more acceptable than others. Before i heard this other viewpoint, i think that i was a person who likes to think of himself as “right” most of the time and therefore never took the time out to think about the other side of the argument. There was another comment that was made by professor richards that stated how homophobic people were not comfortable with their sexuality and that they probably would feel a certain way towards gay porn. I thought that these comments were partly true. For someone to be homophobic is amazing to me to say the least. I believe that everybody should embrace each other as they would like to be embraced by others in society. I mean, if you think about it, it is the same thing as saying “treat others as how you would like to be treated.” Also, being homophobic in my eyes does mean that you are not comfortable with your sexuality. If you were comfortable, then gays and lesbians would not affect you at all because they would be living their lives while you were living yours. As for the being homophobic and feeling a certain way, i felt that that came way out of left field. I mean common, there are plenty of different types of peoiple in this world today. Some are homosexual, and others are heterosexual. But that does not mean that if you consider yourself to be heterosexual but think you are homophobic will not equate to you somehow being homosexual. If the world was like that, simply i believe that we would have an increase in the problems that exist with sexuality.
I often find it so strange that growing up in a conservative very white town and going to a rich, white, conservative high school has actually made me a much more open-minded and accepting person. As I said in my last journal, my high school had a Gay-Straight Alliance club that everyone seemed to think was a very funny joke. I always wondered how people could ignore the Straight part of the club. It was a chance for them to connect with other homosexual students that weren’t like them and to get to know them for who they were as people instead of as just homosexuals. This never made sense to me as someone who always accepted people from all different walks of life.
My openness can sometimes be difficult, however. One day, I was walking past the HUB when I saw a man out front preaching from the Bible. His main point of contention, however, was with gays. Next to him was a college age man wrapped in a rainbow flag with a sign that read, “If God doesn’t love me, at least my boyfriend will.” I found the juxtaposition funny so I snapped a picture on my phone and sent it to my conservative and somewhat homophobic father. He replied with a text that read something along the lines of, “Oh man, what am I paying for you to go to college for?” Dealing with my father and his inherent homophobia has been difficult for me. I cannot seem to understand why something so natural is so offensive to him. To me, the love between a man and myself is every bit as natural and beautiful as the love between a man and another man or a woman and another woman. I want so badly to understand why my dad feels so uncomfortable with something as natural as the love he has for his girlfriend. One day, I hope to use the things that I have learned in this class to try to teach my dad to be more free and accepting.
Another issue I wanted to address was the idea that Sam introduced about all people being inherently bisexual. Before this, I had always felt exactly the same way. I have never felt sexually attracted to a woman, but I have always found them and their forms beautiful and inspiring. There is something so extremely powerful about being a woman and having the ability to create and carry life. The female aura is so captivating that I find it no surprise that I could see myself one day being attracted to a woman. We as a sex can, and I am sure most men would agree, be so mysterious and exciting. One day I hope everyone gets to explore these mysteries.
A thousand years ago, for someone that believed in God, the ideas of natural selection would be inconceivable because they would go almost entirely against the explanation set out in the Holy Bible. In the 19th Century, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species and started making the evolution theory more widely accepted around the world, but most Christian followers would not concur. Even today, a large number of religious people remain contemptuous towards the theory, but many others are making efforts to understand our existence from a scientific perspective and to maybe integrate religion with science in some possible ways. I am not a religious man, and I am not even sure how I should describe such a phenomenon but I hope you are getting my point: people’s opinions changed throughout history – it is changing every minute now and it will change more radically and quickly in the future. The same applies to our interpretation of the LGTB issue.
If you were a Christian man, and you were born in 1209 instead of 2009, and someone came up to you to tell you that we had all evolved from chimpanzees about 7 million years ago, there is a good chance that you would consider this idea totally insane or ridiculous. Just about two hundred years ago, homosexuality was considered quite commonly as a kind of sin/disease or even crime. It was actually criminalized by law in many (developed) countries. It was the social norm back then – so what do you think you would do and think if you were born in 1809 when about everybody would teach you that it was sick to be gay? And then in the 19th/20th Century, people started opening up their minds a little bit more, and gays and lesbians were not treated as criminals anymore but still isolated as an abnormal group of people. Recently, we are seeing more equality as the gay population became increasingly courageous to ‘come out’, and sometimes be assertive enough to march down the streets and demonstrate for their rights. Also, gay marriage is being legalized in increasingly more places. People’s opinions change – and it will change more.
I suppose my point is, we think the way we do because since we were born, we have been fed with information by television and other media and parents, friends, people who get their information from the same media too. This media reflect ideas, opinions and information of this current period of time – so a lot of the time we cannot escape from this time frame. However if you are able to see history and then have a little bit of foresight maybe you will see all things a little differently. Imagine you were born 100 years from now when homosexuality is widely accepted like how we accept racial equality and evolution today, would you think the same way still? I would say no.
Thursdays class… where to begin?!? Well first let me start by saying THANK YOU SAM!! It’s about time someone took the risk to comfort all of the issues society faces with the LGBT community. Thursday was honestly my favorite class of the whole semester. If people took the time to learn about the LGBT community, took the time to get to know a few members of the community, took the time to just listen maybe American society would be a more pleasant and accepting place.
I am a big ally of the LGBT community and have many gay and lesbian friends so the topic covered in the class was very important to me. There were many great points made throughout the class. My favorite point made was the bible verse. The bible not only condones homosexuality, but also premarital sex, lust, worship for other gods, etc. Most people do not read the whole verse, they pick out the one aspect that they agree with and highlight it. What most people also do not know is that the verse that states the above is in the Old Testament and not the New Testament! Also, the Old Testament states that women cannot sit in church, which I am sure most Christians do not know. Another great point made is that being gay or lesbian is NOT a lifestyle. Homosexuality is a sexual preference, not a culture or ethnic group. Homosexuality spares not race, language, or personalities. So when people group LGBT as a cultural group or a lifestyle there are highly mistaken. Also by classifying homosexuality as a lifestyle you give the idea that it is a choice. Aspects of lifestyles are choices. It is a choice to buy Ugg boots, it is a choice to buy designer jeans, and it is not a choice to be gay, lesbian or transsexual. Why would any person choice to face prejudice, unjust law, and discrimination? Nobody just chooses to be a member of the LGBT community. Yes, some people may experience with their sexuality but that does not make them gay or lesbian.
While listening to the lecture in class and hearing the questions presented, I was really hoping a gay or lesbian students would speak up to hear their point of view. The biggest weakness of the lecture was the presentation of LGBT statistics. Students our day in age are very skeptical and desensitized to statistics, so use the use of them during lecture gave way for many questions. The only intriguing statistics presented was the study of arousal in homophobic men and accepting men. I was extremely surprised to see that 80% of homosexual men were aroused while watching gay porno. I just really hope that every student left the classroom critically thinking about the topic. I hope the next time they hear a friend call someone “Gay” that they correct them and tell them “That’s not cool, just say your dumb”.
Ok ok so class was a little bit reckless. Normally after reckless classes I usually pose questions, however I really was kind of speechless. Not because I didn’t have anything to say but because I had so much to say. It was crazy, now I mean Sam often does a good job trying to break through ethnocentrism and get us to see outside our own mindsets, but Thursday did not really do much for me, in that regard at least. Like I said before I have come a long way in terms of how I view homosexuals and their rights. I really started out as a hard nose conservative that would say no to anything involving it at all. No they cannot marry, no they cannot adopt, etcetera. Now I kind of have that I don’t care attitude. Whatever, get married adopt kids, I don’t really care, but I definitely don’t agree with what you do. It’s wrong and I don’t like it but whatever dude I’m not going to be a dick about it so go do what you want.
But here’s my beef with the whole topic. When the dude asked about bestiality, Sam wrote it off as if it were something so different and so foreign that it couldn’t even be compared. That kind of irked me. To say that homosexuality and bestiality are different only reflects Sam’s own ethnocentric views. To someone who grew up in the gay community and knew a lot of gay people for all of his life being gay sounds like something familiar, and therefore something that is acceptable. Bestiality on the other hand was something Sam wasn’t surrounded by and thus it seems “wrong” to him. So why do we draw the line where we do? Why are they any different? The excuse that there are different species involved holds no logic. It’s stupid. To someone who likes to fuck goats bestiality makes perfect sense and that person doesn’t view it as wrong at all. The same concept applies to gay people. They don’t view what they do as wrong, or as a choice or any of those other things. I just feel like we operate on social norms. Is it just because there are sooo many gay people now? Just because there are enough of them to make noise suddenly what they do is now acceptable. So in twenty years there could be an influx of people fucking goats, then what? I’ll tell you what. If that happens, in twenty years we are having this same debate on behalf of the growing population of people who want to fuck their goats and want to marry them. Now yeah hearing it now makes it sound ridiculous, but I tell you what give it time. Maybe not the next or the next after that, but eventually you’ll reach a generation where bestiality is “okay”. From that point it is a short time until they get “rights”.
And that’s the bottom line cuz Stone Cold said so…
Sam,
So what about LGBT is race related? I just thought it unusual you’d put it up on this blog. Is it to compare race to sexual preferences/orientation? LGBT doesn’t fit your definition you gave of racism, as far as I can see. Separate issues.
If this entry in the blog is about more general sociology issues (vice purely “racism”), I think an interesting avenue is the “why” as to LGBT things being “taboo” in many cultures. Or another interesting avenue is the role minority votes played in passing Prop 8 in California. Especially if your position is that racism is the same as LGBTism (is that a word? I think it needs more vowels ). I don’t believe the minority voters in CA who voted for Prop 8 would agree with that position, if that’s you’re saying.
I thought our class on Thursday was amazing. Sam was able to say and address issues that you never really get to talk about in every day life. I am always interested to hear what people have to say about gay marriage because I don’t believe anyone has say in who you can and cannot love. One of my good friends came out to me last year and it was so liberating to him and I could just see the weight lifted from his shoulders as soon as he said it that how can that ever be a bad thing? Sam said something interesting the other day that stuck with me because he said how much it would benefit the world if forty percent of the population was gay. We have some serious over population issues that aren’t addressed but this would completely rectify that situation. But it is interesting way to think about why people and animals are gay in nature. Maybe it is a hidden way to keep the world at a happy medium without mass amounts of people.
I most hate it when people hid their belittling views behind religion. If you feel a certain way then fine but you can’t turn to the bible to back you up because that is a weak stand to make. What God would make a person gay and then punish them for it? That is not a God I want to pray to or believe in. I don’t think that God cares who you love and why but the point is, is that you are a good person and that you are happy. Gay marriage is real marriage. The same feelings go into that decision as in any other relationship and in fact it is harder so if they can get to that point they should be given every opportunity. It is utterly absurd to me that gay marriage is even a legal question. It is saddening how behind the times we truly are. Also people seem to think that gayness is a choice. Choosing to be gay is like saying I chose to be a girl. It was never an option but it is something I live and deal with everyday. No one would choose to try to live their life a harder way just for the fun of it because being gay is a harder life to most.
I loved how open Sam was with how he feels about men. He basically came out to the class and made no excuses and no reasons but just said this is how I feel and you can deal with it. Even I had to go home and think it over but what I came to is “Why not?”
I think that yesterday’s class was my favorite of the entire semester. I think that it was really thought provoking and it covered a topic that is very rarely discussed in public. As Dr. Sam Richards noted, it was pretty out there for a Penn State class, but it was pretty normal for a sociology class. I think that if our society were more open and discussed sexuality and sex, there would be less ignorance, less misconceptions, and more people that felt free to explore their own sexuality.
One part of the class that really stuck out to me was the questions that people asked. These questions made me think how little our society actually knows about these issues. I think that there should be a more open society and more opportunities for people to discuss their sexuality. I do not think that there would be negative effects if this happened. I think it would only make our society stronger. I also thought it was interesting that these people felt that they could ask their questions in 100 Thomas, which is the biggest lecture hall on campus. At first, it made me wonder why they had not asked others around them, in a more private setting. But then I realized, that for many students, this race relations class is the only place that they feel comfortable asking these questions. Clearly, more opportunities to discuss these issues would lead to a more informed society. I think that if people were more informed on lesbian, gay and transgender issues, they would be more accepting, and more open to exploring their own sexuality.
One point that Dr. Sam Richards brought up on the video that he posted was why these issues bother so many people. For example, he was discussing why gay marriage strikes a chord in so many people? On the one hand, I know that religion plays a big part in peoples’ feelings and beliefs about gay marriage. However, I personally think that while religion is an important factor in your beliefs, I think that people should still make their own decisions about issues such as gay marriage. In other words, I think that religion should only affect your opinion so much. I think that it would be better to make an informed decision on this issue. Dr. Sam Richards also brought up the point that gay marriage does not affect him, so why should it bother him? I feel the exact same way, since gay marriage has no affect on me, I feel like people should be able to marry whomever they want to. I think that if I felt that it did affect me directly, that I somehow felt insecure about my own sexuality. Overall, I think that the LGBT class was the best class so far this semester, since it opened a lot of peoples’ eyes to issues that people are rarely able to discuss.
SOC 119 is titled Race and Ethnic Relations. So when my discussion group facilitators asked anybody in the circle if we had any thoughts on LGBT issues I was first confused and immediately just assumed my facilitator was simply trying to fill the silences or couldn’t think of something to talk about in terms of race. But after Thursday’s lecture on LGBT issues, I realized the connection between people of the LGBT community and racial minorities. We’re all struggling for equal rights, acceptance, and fighting against embedded prejudices. We’re all fighting epic battles and it’s something we carry with us on a daily basis.
I was watching TV the other day and while I was flipping through channels before I stopped to watch a sitcom. The scene was of two gay men on a plane taking home their newly adopted baby, Lily, from Vietnam. One of them was apprehensive and on edge because he knows some people do disapprove of two gay men raising a child, let alone gay unions. He nervously surveys the surrounding passenger’s responses and expressions based on him and his partner and their baby. When a woman remarks about Lily being seen with a couple of “cream puffs,” the uneasy one of the two, rattles off a standard speech he has for all those judgmental, small-minded people who question their ways. Turns out baby Lily was actually holding some light pastries with cream filling, aka cream puffs. This is similar to situations when people of color are always on-guard and always expect to run into conflict of to be treated unfairly because of the color of their skin.
While I always was aware of the struggles homosexual people experience, I never made a connection to the possibility of that struggle being similar to the struggle of those who are colored. It’s something we’ve had with us since birth; we didn’t choose to be colored or homosexual. It’s just something we are. Who decides that we should be considered inferior or deemed not as worthy because of these things? During class, when we had the discussion on “Being black or homosexual: Who faces the bigger struggle?” many people tried to justify who had the tougher struggle, when one person voiced their opinion, “Why does it have to be a competition? We’re all struggling” And I whole heartedly agree. We’re all fighting the same battle.
This leads me to think about a point that Sam brought up during lecture, that I never really thought about prior to this. People of color should not be homophobic. When people of color are so adamant on their disdain toward racists, how can they be homophobic, because being a homophobe or racist shares similar qualities.
The LGBT lecture opened my eyes to the fight of those who are homosexual and made me realize, as a person of color, we’re all fighting the same battle.
I consider myself a very laidback and accepting person, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I plan on or expect to have a homosexual experience in my life (the idea simply doesn’t appeal to me) I do find it fairly ridiculous that there are some who seek to tell people who they can and cant love. Why is it that people see a need to set rules and regulations about something like relationships? Why should homosexual relationships be considered any less legitimate than heterosexual relationships? One very comical answer to this problem is the explanation of Robin Williams in which he states that the only reason people want to ban gay marriage is that the thought of gay people having sex creeps them out. His answer to this, obviously being part of a comedy routine, is that there is no better way to get people to stop having sex than to let them get married. Now while this may just be a funny joke with little practical application, it points to an obvious conclusion: WHO CARES. The best point Sam made during the video prompt was when he asked “How does it effect me, how does it effect my marriage?” The answer is that it doesn’t, at all. People who argue that sex should be for procreative reasons only should take a look at some science. The fact there is that the world is already drastically overpopulated. The environmental problems occurring throughout the world would cease to exist if the population of the world were brought down to the limit that this planet has resources to support. There are many arguments for why gay people should not be allowed to be together, each less logical than the one before. It simply does not matter who is allowed to be together and in what context. If you really oppose gay rights than answer this question, how does the issue effect you as a person? Do you sit in your bed at night and think to yourself “Those damn gay’s being allowed to marry is ruining my” I don’t even know how to finish that statement, what could it possibly ruin? Seriously here people, everyone should have the same chance at happiness as everyone else, if that means they should get to spend their life with someone of the same sex why is that a problem? The important thing to remember here is that there really is NO good argument against gay rights. Those who oppose these rights will often give the argument “its just wrong.” What kind of half assed answer is that? You might as well just proclaim yourself dictator and make everyone do exactly as you say. LIVE AND LET LIVE.
Thursday’s lecture was by far my favorite lecture of the semester. It really got me thinking on a topic that seems to be ever-present and I really respect, and even thank, Sam for being so open about everything and not holding back in any form on any subject. I really enjoyed how Sam started the class with the “pop quiz” and showed how basically, everyone sins and then relating this to the fact that all gay people are going to hell. Obviously there are many heterosexual people that are worse off than those gay people who are supposedly being sent to hell because they are more attracted to the same sex than the opposite sex. I am Catholic and this is an issue I do not necessarily agree with the church on. I agree with Sam that if these couples want to be married, how does that affect my everyday life? Why shouldn’t these couples be allowed to fully commit themselves to each other in the same way that straight people get to? I believe that in most cases gays and lesbians are born that way, however I understand that some people choose that decision. I think that is the same with transgender people as well. I am honestly not sure where I stand on whether or not bi-sexual people are born that way, or make a choice to just swing both ways. Either way, it does not change the fact that they are bi-sexual. That is who they are, and unless they hit on me, it really doesn’t affect me. If a girl who was bi-sexual hit on me, I would probably take it as a compliment since they are attracted to girls in the same sense a guy is. I also agree with what Sam said about how if you are homophobic, it is obviously because you are not comfortable with your own sexuality. There really is no other reason. I think it is different to not be able to understand how they feel about hooking up with and having sex, or wanting to marry another girl, and just being afraid of the actual person. I do not care if someone wants to make out with a girl or a guy, no matter what gender they are. I may not be able to be attracted to the idea of also making out with a girl, but they can do whatever they want. It all circles back to why are people making a huge controversy out of something that doesn’t affect them? This battle between heterosexuals against homosexuals is honestly stupid. Homosexuals are not asking straight people to turn gay, yet straight people want homosexuals to turn straight. I feel like right now, at the college age, this topic is almost taboo and I am really pleased with how this lecture was carried out with walls down and nothing off limits.
I could definitely feel the tension in class on Thursday when we were discussing the LGBT issues. I myself am bisexual, I the reactions that I felt in class on Thursday were pretty intense. People were not very willing to participate in questioning the identity of other people let alone their own sexual identities. I was struck pretty hard when Sam said what he said in class about himself, the fact that if it were not for his wife being the epitome of all feminine beauty, he would be with a man. That comment was very strong and I felt like it almost reverberated throughout the entire room. Mostly I think because most people look up to Sam in a way that students should look up to any intellectual being, but to think that this cool guy could possibly be with another man? I don’t know. Maybe I was just thinking that the class had their expectations of Sam’s sexuality shattered at the drop of a hat in one session. As far as ethnocentrism is concerned, I think Sam also made a very interesting point in class. He said that people parade their heterosexuality and I never really thought about it that way. Of course, it is completely normal to see a straight couple walking holding hands, but even on campus at one of the largest public universities in the state, I still get stared at if I’m walking down Pollock Road with my boyfriend. Sam walking down the street holding hands with his professor is a perfect example of what I am talking about. I think that as far as issues concerning the LGBT community, the United States has a long way to go. We could even be further behind than the black struggle in the United States. We already have a black president, but when will we have a gay one? That’s an interesting thought I guess. Especially because gay marriage hasn’t even been passed in the states completely. Why does it have to be everyone else’s business? Does it hurt anybody? Or is it just the religion aspect? To be completely honest, I am usually baffled by the way this country works when it tries to handle issues such as these. We parade around in the world as if we are the free country, the proud country, the best country to live in but we cannot even grant our citizens full rights of marriage just because they like the same sex. I think it’s a load of crap but I guess it’s going to have to take another 40 to 30 years to get everyone to see that the homosexuals aren’t the cause of AIDs/HIV or the end of the world just because we can’t reproduce on our own. We are people too. Don’t treat us like a problem.
Last class was my favorite class of the semester. I think that gay and lesbian issues deserve more face time and people never seem to get it because the queer community seems so hard to penetrate. Just last week my sorority helped sponsor and participate in a Gay- Straight talk that was so beneficial for both sides. Personally, I was interested to hear the personal stories about the struggles of coming and and living as a homosexual in today’s culture. I tried to put myself in their shoe’s and found myself admiring their courage and self-love that they were able to come out and live their life according to their own rules.
I agree with Sam that people do not choose to be gay. I have a few close friends who I have been friends since childhood that have since came out. Clearly, I knew from an early age that there was something different about my friends. I believe you are too naive at age 12, (when my friends started displaying signs of being different) to choose homosexuality.
Something I learned during class was the definition of sodomy. It seems comical but I really just associated the word sodomy with anal sex- specifically gay sex. The more I thought about it, I realized I really only thought that was the true definition. Little did I know it means anything other than vaginal intercourse. Interesting. I guess I’m in trouble come judgment day.
One thing that I do not get from class is the discussion on transgender. I do not understand how one with female body parts can “feel like they are a boy.” I am open to learning about it because clearly there are enough instances of transgender to make it a real issue. I just have trouble grasping the concept that someone can think they are a boy when they have all the body parts of a female. It would be easier to identify with a different gender but the fact remains that you are one gender or another. It just confuses me as to what exactly the person thinks and how far the feelings go.
I actually had the privilege of sitting next to my friend’s little sister who was up for the weekend and came to class. She was only 15 years old and this was her first introduction to a college class. She was obviously quite surprised but afterwards talked about how cool it was to learn things “that actually mattered.” She said after attending Sam’s class she probably will be a lot less shocked when she first starts to see classmates come out and/or participate in other sexual activities. It was a really eye-opening experience for me and I appreciate Sam’s honesty in teaching his class.
In this world a lot changes at once. A lot of people don’t have an open mind within our society. However, numerous things would change if everyone’s mind was open. I believe that it would even go to the extent that children would not have the strict roles in society, and would have the freedom to excel with the things they are good at.
Starting off, I children are often forced to one gender before they are born. For example, when the parents get a sonogram to find out if the child is a boy or girl. Once, they figure out what gender their child is, many people will buy presents according to what gender they are socialized to be. Then this is the start to the world inflicting gender onto the child from here on. If there was complete freedom then the children would have more general toys, clothes, and more boys and girls as friends. They would have more of an opportunity to not be judged to be a certain way, as well as a new definition of masculinity. Men would not be as pressured to be so masculine, and would be able to naturally be as they want to.
As for same sex marriage would be a drastic change at first, many people would object. The main issue that I have herd of socially would be that girls that were in a bind and needed the advantages that normal marriages have, they would just get married for the benefits. However, there is a possibility that a man and a woman could do that today. What would the difference be? Society would be a lot more relaxed and less judgment if it is even close to being natural. There would be a lot of happier people finally able to be free. I also feel that a lot of people would turn to be gay. Many people would not have to think they are not gay, get married and then realize that their wife/husband does not make them happy. Obviously if everyone were to decide to be gay then, there essentially would be no children coming out into this world. However, it would help out the world by there would be less children to be adopted and china would not have to only have limited amounts of children.
In general the world would be a very different place for the better. It would almost be considered a utopia for some people. Society would be a different experience then what people of this generation have done. Is it possible? Yes, to have the same sex marriages, but people are not going to agree with it as much as if it had always been in place. The ideas that I have shown were in most relation to the world if it had already been in order. There are many obstacles’ to overcome if we are going to change society this drastic. However, it is worth it to maintain the ultimate “freedom.”
The weeks talk on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual was very heated. There were some very interesting ideas being thrown around and they weren’t ideas I had heard before. For instance, I have frequently heard the argument that homosexuality isn’t a choice, but a chemical imbalance in the brain. In class, Sam not only mentioned the lack of testosterone that some males deal with, but he added a new level to the argument.
Sam showed us statistics on homosexuality in animals. Some of these animals in nature have sex with exclusively same sex partners. This would indicate that it is not just humans that choose to be attracted to other humans of the same sex, but a naturally occurring phenomenon in the world. In addition, Sam mentioned the ambiguity of human sexuality. The fact that none of us are truly straight or fully gay, that we all lay somewhere on a continuum, seems to be a logical conclusion. In ancient cultures, sex with multiple partners, both male and female, was very acceptable. In fact, Greek Gods and Goddesses frequently found themselves playing bisexual roles. This would indicate to me that the current taboo of homosexuality has been brought about by modern religion. The intolerance of Christianity and Islam towards gay people most likely brought about a change in public opinion.
The fact that being adamantly against homosexuality often is caused by a high amount of bi-curiosity was the final bit of stunning new information. Sam discussed a study done on non homophobic, moderately homophobic, and severely homophobic people to test their own homosexual feelings. The study consisted of the three groups watching gay porn while hooked up to a machine that monitored erectile activity, which would test for interest in the pornographic videos. The results showed that the non homophobic people were the least intrigued by the videos and that the most homophobic people were the most turned on. This study proves that a great deal of homophobia comes from people that have some bi curiosity, a sign that people do in fact lay on a continuum of sexuality. This study actually peeked my interest and I wanted to do my own self observational test at home. However, I did not have the balls to watch to men have sex with one another so I abandoned the self test. This did however reveal some things about myself, maybe I am not comfortable with my own sexuality, or maybe I have been socialized into thinking that homosexuality is wrong, or maybe I was worried a roommate would walk in and see gay sex on my laptop and forever label me a homo. I’m sure there are worse things in the world than having to explain watching gay porn for a class, but I chose to take the easy path this time.
I consider myself to be a very open person. I love to learn, and I retain interesting information very easily. Educating myself has always been enjoyable to me. In fact, I call myself a compulsive researcher. However, in all my years of striving to educate myself and learn from those around me, I have never felt so uncomfortable in one setting. I was absolutely appalled by the things that Sam was saying last class. Not because I’d never heard LGBT issues being discussed, but most likely because I had never expressed those issues myself or had a really completely open discussion about them. I’ve always for the most part kept my opinions to myself, while trying to be as open-minded as possible. What I mean by this is that I feel uncomfortable talking about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered rights. This could be because of my family’s cultural and religious background which does not condone homosexuality, and I find myself to be in a state of identity foreclosure when it comes to my family, in that I’ve made a sort of commitment to these beliefs without exploration (not in the sexual sense, but in a mental sense. I haven’t thought enough in detail about LGBTs to come up with any real beliefs, I only know what I feel). Slowly (very slowly), I’ve found myself forced into thinking a little bit more extensively about LGBT rights, but nothing to the point that Sam brought it to.
I was immediately surprised and a little nauseated, admittedly, that Sam said the things that he did about all of us being a little homosexual. The idea of that bounced around my head for a few days, and only brought negative feelings out of me. I was shocked and indignant, because I’m a firm believer that there are straight people, gay people, bisexual people, and transgendered people, and why would you want to drag us all into that blurry area of gray and make us one in sexuality when we so clearly differed? I didn’t (and still don’t) like the idea of someone straight having homoerotic feelings. It seems despicable. However, a part of me began to wonder if some part of that was true. And then that part of me forced myself to evaluate why I was feeling that way. Am I so quick to deny the fact that all people have homosexual feelings because I have an internal fear of being with and falling in love with somebody who is actually gay? I do recognize that feeling within me, and whenever it is touched upon, it is a relatively consuming fear, so I wonder if that has anything to do with my evaluation. And then there is the fact that I went through a bicurious phase and quickly squashed out the possibility of being bisexual after a short period of time. Thankfully, I am very confident in my sexuality and I have no question about being straight. I am very grateful for my sexual orientation because I have no doubt that my entire family would crumble were I a lesbian.
It was eye-opening to hear some of Sam’s points (like the one about the commandments… never realized to what extent I am a sinner- pretty sure I have hell fire waiting for me now), however, I was not pleased with what he said about homosexual sex. Actually, I was extremely annoyed and indignant when he said that we should all try gay sex at least once. And then when he was talking about how he was attracted to men, though he has a wife, and he shouldn’t had sex with one given the opportunity, I was astounded. I felt like that was so disrespectful to his wife. Perhaps that once again stems from my fear, but I felt my jaw hit the floor. I’m not a fan of the way he was condoning us just going out and having sex with someone of the same sex, because “that doesn’t make us gay.” My goodness, if not gay, we’d just be a ridiculously horny lot (with very clear and extreme homosexual tendencies). Yeah, I’m gonna go with no.
Thursday’s class was by far the most eye-opening experience of my life. Growing up in a dominantly white Christian town, I never would have thought it acceptable to embrace gay people as simply equals like this country brags about. So many people talk about how religion says homosexuality is wrong. That’s what I believed for most of my life because I was brought up to think that my religion was right and should not be questioned. However, I am glad that this wasn’t my parents’ doing, they always told me to do what I believed, do what I wanted (obviously within boundaries). It was the culture that I grew up in. Everyone was white. Everyone was straight. Everyone was Christian. Now I come to Penn State where there’s still a clear majority of white, straight, Christian people but it is quite different for me. As Sam pointed out in class, it must be much more of shock for the minorities that come to this University. This is why it was such a shocker for me (and many others in class) to hear Sam says things like he did. The one that really got me was, “if my wife died I know I would most definitely be with a guy.” I was in complete shock when he said that. However, when I thought about it for a little I realized that Sam is so open, so into the humanitarian stage of race relations that this would be easy for him to do. For me, and most others in the world this would be hard. Obviously most other cultures in the world aren’t white Christians, but most do not accept homosexuality as right. If, like Sam said, everyone in the world were open-minded and not so enclosed by ethnocentrism, imagine what the world would be like. I think that issues like this need to be looked at through a different lens in today’s society. Things need to be thought through more and talked about more openly, like we’ve been talking about in this course since the very beginning. In regards to this issue, like Sam said, if you compare this “sin” of homosexuality to others sins in the Bible, everyone is sinning, from drunkenness to fornicating, to adultery, everyone is a sinner (this is not only true in Judaism and Christianity but most other religions as well). The point that really got me is when he made reference to animals and showed the same correlations of homosexuality in many species of animals as in humans. Animals have no choice. It is not a choice for them to be homosexual. It is instinct. Some animals are gay by instinct, which has to mean God meant for it to be that way. He then went on to make the point that people are most likely gay since childhood, which also makes a good argument that people are gay from birth. It is not a choice that homosexuals make.
Last week I decided to reply to post about the gay marriage because I just listened to Sam’s lecture that day. But since it is such an interesting topic, and Sam posted that youtube blog, I figure I will write about it again. After listening to this lecture and attending all of his classes, Sam has already changed my life, especially with my perception of race, religion, and sex. He is right about gay marriage. And now I think I have finally come to the conclusion that I am for it. Because like Sam said, how does it affect me? It doesn’t. I will hopefully someday be happily married to a nice woman. What do I care if guys want to marry other guys? It does not change my life, and certainly does not change a lot of people’s lives if gays want to marry each other. That is why I feel like they should be able to do what they want. This country is supposed to be the land of the free, and I think that should be part of their freedom. Now that I am in college I see more people coming out, because I think this is the time when people start identifying themselves. I am really not used to interacting with gays because I never really knew any growing up. Now that I am in college, some of the girls I hang out with have gay friends. And they are around once in awhile when we hang out. When I first noticed it I was a little surprised because I am never around gay guys. But after learning the things in this class I really have changed my outlook on the situation. And now I try to actually be friendly and talk to them. Also, my close friend from home always hung out with a gay kid. And I always used to wonder why he was friends with him, and even wonder if my friend was gay. But I just really realized that my friend and his friend have always been friends and he recently came out. And I think that’s really cool that he is still friends with him. That what I think it takes sometimes; to experience a friend coming out. That makes it a lot easier to become open minded about this stuff. I actually respect my friend even more for staying friends with the kid, even though he came out. I feel like I experienced this on a lower level. I’ve said it before but, Sam has said many interesting things in class and I agree with I think everything he has said, just because he makes things make sense. Anyway, I have a lot of respect for him. And towards the end of class he said he considers himself bisexual and if his wife were to die he would be interested in a man. Well, first of all that takes a lot of balls to say that in front of 725 college students. And secondly, after he said all that, it did not change my perception of him at all.
The class that we had last Thursday on LGBT issues was one of the most interesting classes we’ve had so far. I’m really glad that everything was said openly and I actually learned a lot. This issue really hits home with me. Although I am not gay and don’t have any gay friends, my dad works for the Service Legal Defense Network (SLDN) which is a non-profit organization that is working to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law banning people in the armed forces from being openly gay. I was raised to not judge people based on their sexuality, race or gender but I was never really taught anything about the gay community until my dad started working for SLDN. He would come home with all kinds of stories and used to always joke about being one of the only straight people in the office. The people in his office would invite him out for a drink after work but he said he would always decline because he didn’t want to feel like the only straight person going out to a gay bar with the people he works with. I agree that this might be a little awkward but one day I told him that he should just try it and see what it’s like. I told him I wished that I had the opportunity to be put into the gay community even if it was just for a day just so I could see what it’s like. Luckily, last year at Penn State I was able to accomplish this. There was a boy living in my building on the floor above me who was gay. A girl that I was friends with on my floor invited me to go out with them one night. I had no idea what I was getting myself into nor did I know that her friend was gay. We walked into this party and the first thing I saw were 2 boys dancing with each other on the dance floor. I thought to myself “hmm ok that’s a little strange to be doing that so openly at a party” but I kept walking. Then, I realized that everyone in the party was gay or lesbian and I had no problem with that. The only thing that was a little awkward was the girls coming up to me trying to talk to me thinking that I was also a lesbian. It was actually a really interesting experience to be able to be in their world for a night.
I really don’t understand how people can be so against gay rights including gay marriage or gays being allowed to adopt or gays in the military. Like Sam said, if it’s not directly affecting us, then why should we care? Why try to stop people who are just like us from living their lives. America is supposed to be a place where you are free to make your own choices and live life as you want. If America is so free, then why is the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy still in place and why can’t gay people get married if they want to? I really don’t understand that sometimes. I also don’t understand it when people say that gay people chose to be gay. Who would choose to be gay and be faced with a life full of hardships and hatred? I am completely for all gay rights and hope that one day the U.S. will be able to become the free place that it claims it is.
This past Thursday’s LGBT class was my favorite class of the semester so far. I feel like race is talked about so much more than sexuality but at the same time, both people are being discriminated against. LGBT people face just as many hardships as people of color. This brings me back to what a girl said in class one day. She mentioned that it might actually be harder to be gay than it is to be black. When she said this, you immediately saw all the black hands go up in disagreement. Maybe it’s because I’m white, but I agree with her statement. If you’re black then that’s just the way it is. Everyone accepts that it was the way you were born and there’s nothing you can do to change it. On the other hand, if you’re LGBT, you must constantly justify why you are the way you are. Some people are ignorant to the fact that you were born LGBT and it wasn’t a choice. I liked how Sam mentioned that it’s not a choice. He brought up a valid point; why would anyone chose to be gay, knowing the difficulties they must face?
I liked the point that Sam mentioned about why does it matter who gays marry? Like seriously, if two guys want to get married, then let them. Their marriage has nothing to do with me and won’t affect my life in any way so they should have the same rights as any straight couple. The results to the question that Sam asked, about what we thought about gay marriage was somewhat what I expected. I think gay marriage is being more and more accepted by each generation. When our parents were younger it wasn’t acceptable to be gay and often people didn’t come out as gay until later in their life. Today, LGBT people are more accepted. If this pattern continues, eventually it won’t even be an issue.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me but I really like this topic and it’s something I feel strongly about. I think what most people should have gotten out of this class is that sexuality is not a choice. And people don’t decide to have a sex change just on a whim. I feel like for the most part, I knew most of the stuff Sam talked about but it was nice to see him open other people’s eyes to LGBT issues. Walking out of class that day, I overheard two people talking and the one guy said he really learned a lot from this lecture. I think this struck people as more interesting just because LGBT issues aren’t really talked about. And as always, it’s fun to listen to Sam’s real life stories rather than just being lectured.
My first response came in exclamation points all over my paper in class. When he pulled up the passages from the Bible and the Koran. My jaw dropped. I was thrilled, actually. To be honest, I thought he was going to completely ignore the religious thoughts on the subject or brush them away as crazy lunatics who have no right to say anything to anyone. He did neither. Strangely enough, I thought it was something the religious community needed to be reminded of: consistency. If they (and by that I mean “we”) are going to put our necks out there in this really intense and messy issue, and hold to a stand point that will alienate people we truly love and care about, then there isn’t room to get it wrong. There has to be consistency and that means that there is no hierarchy of sin. It is all the same. All the brokenness in this world gets the same stamp of condemnation at the end of the day. That is actually the most hopeful thing that one could hear. I was also really impressed with his response to Gary, the Willard Preacher. That was probably the most respectful treatment I have heard toward him from any corner, religious or otherwise. It gave me a way to see him with respect.
One thing I’m convinced of: it does affect me. It all affects me. My strings are tied to other people and we are all part of this mess together. I’m supposed to care. The LGBT community is supposed to care. This is serious stuff and it shouldn’t be a problem to have issues and disagree. Why can’t we disagree? Is that an infringement on someone’s freedom to tell them that they shouldn’t care? Only if freedom means that we can do whatever we want.
Questions I’m mulling over: What is freedom? Is it the ability to do whatever we want? To have some things private and some things not private? Where is that line? Who draws it? Why does it differ between topics like credit reports and online purchases against sex and sexuality? What defines a person’s sexuality? Is that something worth staking one’s identity on?
Perhaps that is way too much to bite off in one response post. But they are things I’m considering, especially the question of freedom. It is weird when I know that I consider myself a political conservative and yet I distrust government with all my heart and big corporations even more…. and I think there are places where a society should make a declaration about a moral action that is affecting everyone. I’m not sure the government has a right to say one way or the other… and yet we’ve told them they have to because of taxes and insurance and all this rot we have in our world. I don’t know. I really don’t know.
For this week’s journal, I’ve decided to reply to Sam’s short YouTube video on LGBT issues. LGBT issues are something I feel very strongly about and anytime I discuss them, I make sure my point of view is known. I hate the intolerance that plagues our society even though our society claims to be so open and accepting. If we took a long, hard look at ourselves, we would see how much hypocrisy is all around us. People who know how painful it is to be discriminated against find it okay to discriminate against other people. Whether they are racial minorities or religious minorities, they find some way to justify their hate and discrimination. Everyone always finds a way to justify their discrimination because no one wants to face the fact that they are a hateful person. The fact of the matter is that hate is hate no matter which way you spin it.
It also bothers me greatly when people who are very religious tell homosexual people that they are evil. Religions are supposed to be all about love and acceptance and definitely not about hate. I don’t know of any religion that spreads the message that we shouldn’t treat people equally. As a Catholic, I know it doesn’t make sense when other Catholics say that hate gay people. Our religion teaches us that it’s okay to be homosexual, but it’s not okay to have homosexual sex. If gay people are not having sex they aren’t really bad people but devout Catholics seem to forget that rule. If you are going to claim to be a strong follower of your religion, you should at least know the rules. I can understand why some religions don’t want to accept marriages between two gay people but they shouldn’t have any problem with people being married by law. A legal marriage won’t disrespect a religion in any way so religious leaders should have no problem with it.
Whether people are religious or not, I don’t think anyone should have a problem with homosexuality. I know it’s different, but we need to start accepting that everyone isn’t the same. Our society has a history of treating people badly when they aren’t the same as everyone else. After hundreds of years, we should have learned our lesson by now. Gay people have to face discrimination for a choice that isn’t even theirs to make. I’m glad we are making strides towards equality but we aren’t making them fast enough. Gay people aren’t hurting anyone with their lifestyle so I don’t see why there is a problem in the first place. What two people decide to do with their lives is their decision. They aren’t committing any crimes so they shouldn’t be punished for what they do and who they love.
I want to start off by saying I loved Thursdays lecture on sexual orientation. To me it was one of the best so far. There were some very touchy barriers hit in class that effect many people. The first thing that I can think of is gay marriage. I grew up in the Mormon Church were to be gay was one of the worst things possible. To me your sexual orientation was never something that was a big issue. I’m straight. I have always been straight. It is not something that I chose, it is who I am. That is the same way that I look at being gay. I also look at things in a scientific point of view. I look at the facts and make a decision based off of the information gathered. I think that gays should be given the right to be married if they would like to be. If there s a church that acknowledges gays as being able to be married, then they should be married. Who cares? Are people afraid that gays are going to move into their suburban areas and change everyone gay? Are they afraid that they might actually benefit from being married? I’m not sure what the American population is scared of losing by letting gays get married. Even if they get the benefits that the government acknowledges their union they really aren’t taking anything away from anyone else. I look at the facts and the facts are that gays are people just like you and me, and they should be treated the same as you and me no matter their sexual orientation.
The next item I found interesting was the topic of how men who are homophobic are the ones who get turned on by gay porn. I have never cared whether people are gay or straight, if you are a good person then I like you. I have even been asked out three times by three different gay guys and it has never changed my mind about the situation. In fact I was kind of flattered that a gay guy found me attractive on more than one occasion. I know guys that will not go places because they know homosexuals might be there. That’s absurd. He never even had a bad experience; he’s just terrified of them. Maybe he is one of those guys who gets turned on by gay porn. To me not going somewhere because of someone else who you don’t know might possibly be there. I have friends who are gay and my first thought is “okay, are you still my friend you have always been?” The answer every time has been the same, they are the same person they always have been. Plus most of the time I knew before they ever told me that they were probably gay. My view of that person does not change. The fact is they are the same person as before, they just don’t find the same person that I do attractive or maybe they do. I have to admit, I really felt the same way that Sam did when he said that he has thought about guys. I have checked out guys, but I know that I’m not gay and that I would probably be with a guy. I am comfortable with who I am. Like Sam said, it’s the people who are trying to hide something that are really the ones who fear it.
The LGBT class on Thursday was probably the most interesting and enlightening class of the entire semester for me. I really enjoyed hearing what different people had to say about the subject. I appreciate Sam’s openness and willingness to say controversial and unconventional things, just so that we could get some perspective and to think more outside our own ethnocentrism. What really stuck out to me was when Sam mentioned the sins that are stated in the Bible. It really got me thinking that if all these things are considered sins then how is every single person in the world not going to or currently residing in Hell. That just really sparked my interest. When Sam said how, in the Bible, all of these sins are equal, I was baffled. I know this might be my ethnocentrism coming through, but I cannot see how being a homosexual and murdering someone is the same thing. I understand that different cultures believe different things and so do different people, but this concept is just crazy to me. To put two completely and unequal things on the same level is not right in my head. One of these things is an action that one chooses to do, and one is a characteristic that cannot be changed. They are just so different I can’t believe people think this even though I think of myself as an open minded person.
The class was so interesting that it carried onto my discussion group today. I think the stuff Sam said about freedom in this video was very accurate and I completely agree. In my discussion group today I realized that I value freedom a lot more than I ever expected. I started to think about how I would feel if my freedoms that I am privileged to have were suddenly taken away, and I cannot even comprehend it. I would be the most miserable person in the world. I originally said that I would not be willing to die for freedom, but when I really thought about it, I would definitely be willing to die for my freedom. If I were forced to change my way of life and the way I conduct every part of it, I would not be happy and therefore not be able to carry on with my life.
There are some people in my group who are from different cultures, and to them the United States has too much freedom. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this concept, but I see how different cultures feel comfortable with what they know and how they were brought up. They are perfectly comfortable with not having as much freedom as possible or as much as the United States. It is totally different for them because they are comfortable, and at the same time I would be horribly miserable if I had the same amount of freedom that other countries have.
I really enjoyed the class on Thursday. I thought it was extremely intense. I personally consider myself that I do not care about the gender differences. For the first time in my life, I was forced to think about the gender roles very seriously. I didn’t think the topic wouldn’t be that interesting because I do not care about people having relationships with same sex. I mean there aren’t any reasons me to care and criticize about those homosexual people. It would be extremely pathetic of me to do that.
From my high school, people tended to understand about homosexual people. I am not sure if school being catholic mattered, but everyone seemed to face the reality so that they recognize the homosexual people are not different. I remember me using the word ‘faggot’ in front of a gay person in my senior year of high school. I would have never known that he was a gay until one of my friends told me who was sitting right next to me when I was saying that word. I was absolutely shocked by the fact that he was a gay and I used that word right in front of his face. What would’ve he thought about that? I gave like the worst scar on his heart. He probably never meant to be a gay when he was born. It was just in side of his mind to be a gay and I completely have any solid rights to make fun of him that way even though I didn’t mean to. After that incident I had, I am extremely careful of using those kinds of words and even by just looking at people using those, I feel very careful of people around me. I guess that incident was very reasonable because I wouldn’t have these kinds of thoughts if I kept myself that way still.
I was very glad that Sam tried to portray LGBT as something approachable easily and common because this issue certainly is not easy to talk about. Every single people on the earth deserve to have all the same rights to live happily. It should not be prejudiced even though the statement that Sam made about his sexual status as bisexual. But being adaptable to those kinds of statements. I agree with the theory that the most homophobic men are actually gay and taught to suppress their homosexuality because of what they think is deemed appropriate for society or maybe they were taught as a child that they are only supposed to be attracted to the opposite sex. I hope our society becomes more acceptable to gay and lesbian marriages because they absolutely deserve those kinds of things. I thought the class was very interesting and it was the most fascinating class so far.
The class last Thursday was absolutely amazing in my eyes. This was by far the “best class of the semester.” I think this made a lot of students open their minds and think about this topic that so many ignore. I have a few gay friends and it angers me that they do not have the same rights I do, as a straight person. Oddly enough, like Sam said, the United States claims to be “free.” People are supposed to be able to think and act as they please. But how can everyone be free if they cannot love people they want to love without facing discrimination? Or marry people they want to spend the rest of their lives with? If we were all “equal” and “free” sexual orientation should not matter.
My best friend’s parents completely stopped talking to him when he moved in with his boyfriend after graduation. WHO CARES! I understand that it is their only son, who just happens to be gay, but they should not stop loving him because he loves a man. It does not affect them in any way except they will never have a daughter-in-law. Not speaking to him is not going to change the fact that he is gay. He is never going to change. This is like my mom not talking to me because I love a man. Why am I accepted and he cannot be?
It also makes me mad that people cannot accept those in the LGBT community. Someone’s sexual orientation does not affect anyone else. It is not like these people who preach against it have to witness these people in the bedroom. People are people. Sam mentioned in class that if his wife were to pass away before him, he would be with a dude. Rock on! The fact that he could stand up in front of 700 plus students and openly say that is awesome. If this would ever happen, he would still be the same person. Nothing will change except his personal life, which is truly no one’s business.
I support gay marriage 100 percent. If a man and women love each other, they get married. Gay people do not have this privilege and I think it is unfair. People need to get over the fact that the LGBT community is a reality and it is not going away. Acceptance would be key in letting these people share the same rights as straight people do in the United States. If everyone could take some time to get to know someone in the LGBT community, I think it would open their eyes. These people are really cool people and they are the same as straight people, they just have different attractions. Who cares? Not me.
There were many good points that Sam brought up in lecture about the LGBT and in his blog. The most striking comment to me is when Sam asked how it affects me. Why would the allowance of marriage in the gay community have any impact on my life? There is no affect on me (being that I am not a part of the gay community). The one thing that has blurred societies vision of this simplistic idea is ethnocentrism and the need for all to believe in the same morals as you. It seems to be all about adapting to the social norms. Well recently this social norm has begun to shift to a “don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t tell” type of opinion or even the beginnings of allowance in some areas. I believe that society is becoming more globalized and open to change. The thought of interracial or intercultural marriages would cause outrage a mere 20 years ago. Now this is generally accepted in most societies. The next frontier seems to be that of same sex relationships. Eventually, I believe that same sex relationships will follow that same path as interracial relationships. There will always be opponents of the idea, but society will generally accept it.
Growing up for me, I had it engrained in my head that gay equals bad especially with the increased use of the saying “that is gay”. Stay away from gays. Gays are not like me. You play sports. They do dance and theatre. These are the schemas that are created when I hear about a gay man. This is utter ignorance on my part, but I did not know better. It was completely out of my control. This is why classes like Soc119 are so valuable. If this class was given to freshmen in high school, it would limit the hatred that is commonly found in that age group.
In my high school, there were a few eccentric students that were classified as gay even if they were not openly gay. Most of these classifications were correct as it has turned out. But I can recall that a major breakthrough in my thoughts of gays was when I was watching the Real World. A participant was gay on the show, but not like all the gays I knew. This gay was athletic, masculine, and partied with women. Could this guy really be gay? Yes. I am shocking myself by saying that the Real World has benefited society. It shows that gays are sometimes inconspicuous and that when you do not know, it does not affect anyone. If you can live with a person when you did not know they were gay, why would you not be able to live with that person if you did know? This prejudice does not make sense!
I would like to comment on the LGBT class last Thursday. Honestly, this was definitely the best class of the semester so far. I think that most of us, like Sam said, have not had a class that really addressed sexuality and really sex in general. I think that classes like this help people to really become more open to LGBT ideas.
Personally, I have no problems with the LGBT community, and I think that most people have a gay friend which makes everyone more open to these ideas. I think that transgender/ transsexual people are the harder part of the community to accept because although they have always existed, just now in recent years has it started to become mainstream. There’s shows dealing with Trans people and I think that most people before didn’t really understand. If a boy thought they were really a girl then most people would say, you are probably just gay. But now I think that’s all changing because people are being educated on Trans.
Like Sam was saying, it is pretty disgusting that for as free of a country we claim to be and for believing that all men are created equal, we really do not live up to what we claim to be. I also think Sam had a great point when he said that people do not choose to be that way. People would not voluntarily put themselves into situations to be ridiculed. A few classes ago Sam mentioned something I had never thought of before. I can walk down the street holding hands with a boy, I can kiss a boy in public, I can go on a date with a boy with it seeming like date and that is perfectly acceptable in our society. Gays and lesbians could do all of those things but then they’d have to deal with the comments from people, the stares, the mean words. It’s really not fair. I understand that men and women ‘fit’ together in a way but God doesn’t make mistakes, people are homosexual because God made them that way.
I know that Thursday’s class was all about being open to different things and I am open to learning, understanding, and accepting the things we talked about but not so much acting on it. Sam said that women are more likely to engage in same sex sexual activity but the class kind of made me like guys even more. I don’t mind gay people and I’m not saying I do not accept them but for me, not going to happen. Just as there’s some people who are completely homosexual out there I am sure that there are people who are completely heterosexual. For some reason during class I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I really like being straight- that might sound weird or ignorant but it’s not.
LGBT is an issue that, with time, has become more and more accepted. It starts little by little, but throughout the 90s decade it became an important aspect of life. People began to recognize it, and learn what it even means to be gay or lesbian. The media has allowed this topic to become popular by portraying gay characters on T.V. shows, movies, etc. These characters may be stereotyped to how a gay person may act, but it is opening the door for our society.
After watching and re-watching every episode from Sex and The City series, Stanford is the character who stood out to me, not because he is gay, but because of how the whole cast acts and reacts to his lifestyle. After sitting in this class, he is what came to mind. He is obviously gay; he wears the flamboyant outfits, he has the feminine voice and extreme “girly” side to him. He hangs out with both Carrie and Charlotte to help them with their relationship issues, and he discusses his. It is when he is discussing his that it just seems natural. No one on the show makes it a big deal that he goes to gay bars, that he has boyfriends, or has sex with other men. He talks about it like it is just normal, which it is. He is set up on blind dates, has bad and good dates, and has bad and good nights of sex, just like all of the women who are heterosexual. Stanford is just being normal. By watching this show it is showing to our society that being homosexual is not out of the ordinary. It does not affect the lives of either Carrie or Charlotte, nor anyone else living in New York City. It is his way of life and his entire story line just blends into the others. It does not stand out in a way that one would not want to watch it, or offensive. It is just love. Love in a different way than some people can accept, but it is all love. He is experiencing the same struggle that all four other women are because they are all single people living in the large city of Manhattan. Stanford being gay does not hurt the show, it just adds a new aspect. An aspect that our society needs to see and experience. His lifestyle adds flavor and spice.
An other medium that has portrayed gays in a normal and natural way are Will and Grace. This show was extremely popular while it was running. Today, reruns are still shown and loved by our society. In addition, Broke back Mountain was a movie, which won many awards. The story line involved two gay men, yet it was a great film. It could be controversial to some people, but why? These men are free to behave as they please. They are not harming anyone; they are just being themselves. It is their way of life. Homosexual is a way of life. Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell are both talk show hosts who came out of the closest. Ellen, especially, freely talks about her homosexuality and makes it public. Her and her girlfriend are happy, and do not seem to be affected by negative press. Ellen is great at what she does. She is funny and an excellent entertainer. Our society still loves her, and has not ruined her career based on her sexual preference. Why should it? Why should it even be a topic of conversation when it does not affect our lives? We still watch these shows and movies regardless of the characters sexual preference. It is love. Love is universal and should not matter whether its two males, two females or a male and a female.
As far as Sam’s class went, it was great. I was uncomfortable for a lot of the presentation, but that is what I liked about it. It kept me listening and interested. I also was made to hear many LGBT issues that I had never accounted for. I was slightly a homophobe before but I think I am over it now because of the perspectives that I saw throughout the presentation.
One of the issues that were presented was whether gays and lesbians should be able to get the benefits of being married if they sought to be. I had never really put much thought into it previously, but after the class I sided with the option, “thought gays and lesbians should get the same benefits, but not be considered married.” And my reasoning for if it is, that the definition of marriage is between and man and woman. I believe gays can love and I think something should be done so that they can receive some kind of union and benefits that equal that of marriage, but I do not think it is marriage and it should be called something else. This is not true for every religion but I associate marriage with religion and if a particular religion allows gays to get married then in that religion can do that, but it is not common. The government could allow gays to get married tomorrow and I wouldn’t loose one minute of sleep, because it doesn’t affect me. I guess my real problem is governments issuing marriage certificates in general. Call me old fashion, but most people get married by a church not a government. No one should have to have the government say whether their marriage is legal. To me that is a violation of church and state. As far as receiving benefits of marriage I think the government should issue certificates of union benefitting gays and straights and then let the church fight over who can get married. In reality churches are like a private organization and they, for the most part, get to make the rules. I’m sure this has already been thought of, but if gays wanted to get married they could find or start a church that would marry them or also they could have a church that recognizes their union under a different term.
I think this would completely solve the issue of whether gays can get married. It would completely separate the government and marriage, although legally the union will be seen as no different. It will satisfy many people’s religious problem with gay marriage by putting the option of marriage in the hands of the people instead of the government and also allow benefits for all couples across the board.
The topic of LGBT rights is so interesting to me. Partly because one of my good friends has two moms now after her mom came out as a lesbian about 5 or 6 years ago. The other part is the because of the discussion I had with my parents about LGBT rights after my whole town had found out the news about this friend of mine. Let me first start off by saying I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business; so being in sixth grade and finding out such news (when most kids really don’t know what it means to be gay at that age anyway) wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary. Anyway, I remember going up to my parents and obviously spreading the gossip and my mom had told me she knew from the day she met my friends mom that the woman was a lesbian. I guess it may have been the short hair, the manly look about her-the stereotypical look of what it means to be gay. The things I immediately wondered were; did her mom always know? Was it something she dealt with for years and years? Did she just decide one day that she was gay and that was that? My friend’s mom had divorced her husband and in the process happened to meet a woman who was a great “friend” of hers. As soon as they started spending time together it became almost inevitable that people started to question it, including her children. Eventually the two came out as a couple and the news was the talk of my small town for a good few weeks and that was that. Being a little older, I now know that this wasn’t a choice. Maybe she in fact did love her husband, but had to suppress her feelings because of the way she grew up or her family. Going back to the talk with my parents, I remember how they told me that when they were younger growing up in the 60s, my dad grew up in the same town on long island that I did, and my mom in Little Neck which is right by Queens, NY that people never just came out as gay. It was just something people didn’t do at that time- it was wrong, it was weird, it was gross. Now it is something that happens all the time. My mom proceeded to explain to me that the decision my friend’s mom made to be gay wasn’t a decision. It was the way she most likely felt for a long time, since she was young and had to hide those feelings to live what people thought was a “normal” life. What I like most about the country we live in is how people are becoming more and more open to topics like gay marriage and relations. The fact of the matter is, everyone has some sort of secret or something that is a little different then anyone else- whether it is a feeling or a physical attribute. Imagine if society shunned people for their individual differences like we’ve done in the past and people still do today for LGBT rights?
I think sex in general is a topic that is still taboo for Americans to talk about. As Sam’s TA pointed out, the class got much more uncomfortable when we started talking about sex and LGBT topics. I have never had a sex talk with my parents beyond a mention of using protection and I’ve never wanted to. Our reluctance to talk about sex is demonstrated by the controversy over sex education, too. Talking to teens and children about sex in or out of school seems to be a continuing controversy regarding what to say and for what age group. In my opinion our sex education is not working too well when the U.S. has one of the worst teen pregnancy rates. I think we have trouble accepting that we are sexual beings from birth. But I think as we get more comfortable with homosexuality and bisexuality, maybe we’ll get more comfortable talking about sex and all types of sex. As Sam said, as a society we are moving towards acceptance of LGBT.
One thing that got me thinking differently is Sam pointing out that maybe most of us are in fact bisexual. We could go one way or the other. We could call ourselves gay, but fall for the opposite sex at some point. Or prove we can go the other way in experimenting and enjoying it, like the the story he told of two female roommates who had sex one time. Are we really all just like Tila Tequila? Anyone can be a lover in a relationship? It would really open up a person’s dating pool, I can say that. I think if people let themselves feel what they want to feel instead of what society tells them to feel, there would be a lot more bisexuality in society. If you were raised in society to like one sex, maybe you would not even consider the other sex until the possibility was revealed and allowed. Nowadays, I think society is moving toward accepting all kinds of sexual orientations, and one day kids will see the options early on. Future generations won’t be clueless about their homosexuality or bisexuality or won’t have to suppress it until they are older and feel comfortable coming out. They would be able to figure it out early in their lives or be able to openly be with one sex or the other as they explore their sexuality. Do we always need to define our sexual orientation? Can the terms of homosexuality and heterosexuality just disappear? I think we will still need them because some people are mostly straight or gay and straight or gay their whole lives with a dominant preference for the opposite sex or same sex. But, still, maybe we are all just a little bit bisexual.
Sam says he would get with a man if his wife wasn’t around anymore. I only half believe this though, and I suspect it as simply making a controversial statement to make people think. It wouldn’t be THAT easy to change over..would it?
One of the most valuable lessons I have learned from Sam’s class is the importance of hearing and at least trying to understand people’s points of view on any given subject. After this class though, I can’t help but feel even more angry toward people who have issues surrounding the LGBT community and even more confused as to why these issues even arise.
Many people who claim to have problems with the LGBT community base their beliefs off the fact that their religion tells them that they should not believe in or allow homosexuality and therefore they do not. Maybe this is why I have such a hard time understanding religion. I mean, it seems to me that first and foremost someone’s God would want them to lead a good and full life. Isn’t a big part of living a good and full life caring about people and loving people for who they are. I know that people are serious about their religion, but I cannot sit here and believe in a God that only “loves” certain people.
The other thing that confuses me about people who have issues with LGBT’s is how they find it any different than having a problem with someone based off their skin color. Not so long ago in this country, people were discriminated against for being black and were not viewed as equal and for this reason were not allowed to get married in several places. Today, however, denying someone equal rights based on the color of their skin is a major taboo and illegal. Yet, these same people who can sit here and say that it was horrible what happened to african americans in the United States are some of the same people who want to deny these SAME rights to other people. But I guess to them, just because its not based on skin color its ok.
Now here is the biggest thing that bothers me about this situation. People will sit around and complain, and protest, and not pass laws legalizing gay marriage because they don’t believe its right. How can you have such a strong opinion on something that has such little affect on you. What does it matter if someone is getting married to someone else of the same sex? Do you have to sit there and watch them get married, or have sex, or interact on a daily basis? No. So what makes it okay, then, to deny granting them the right to be committed and happy to a person they love? I just don’t see how anyone could argue anything different, love is love and the law should never be allowed to get in the way of it.
I really like it when we talk about controversial topics in class. You can look around the room and notice how people react every time that professor Richards says something that is out of the “normal”. There are so many view points and controversies when it comes to the topic of LGBT. There is a big ambiguity regarding being gay. People often wonder if it is a choice or something that happens naturally. In one of my discussion group a girl brought up a good topic. If being gay was a choice then after the struggle these individuals go through wouldn’t they want to not go through that and have the choice of being heterosexual? I think that homosexuality is not a choice but something that happens naturally. I personally don’t understand why people make such a big deal. These individuals who are homosexual are normal human beings who only want their rights heard. One of the biggest problem that others highlight is that is against god and that things would get confusing but really these individuals are not hurting no one. I think they deserve their right and not be discriminated because of their sexual orientation. Sometimes society is so rude. People don’t give them a change or even get to know them. Seriously I think that their sexual preference is no one’s business and is not like they are hurting anyone.
What I find unbelievable at times is the ignorance of certain people. There are those who think that homosexuality is a sickness or a disease. I remember back in my hometown people were so ignorant that they thought that being gay was a disease. And if you showed any sign you were taken to the doctor. No matter if the doctor said that it wasn’t a disease, people still had the idea that it was a sickness. Some people look down upon homosexuality as a shame. Actually I think that these individuals are brave enough to go against everything they have been taught by society and what is considered to be “normal”. I actually admire them because instead of just following the crowd and being the same they decided to truly do what they want to do and be different. I don’t think that anyone should be persecuted or feel shame for being a homosexual. I think life is so beautiful when you accept others as they are, without judgment, or preconceived ideas. I think that in the future people will eventually have to recognize that there is nothing wrong with being a homosexual. Society is going to eventually going to accept that there is nothing wrong. I don’t think this is going to happen overnight, but like every struggle over a long period of time.
No matter what age I’m at, I still find that talk of sex seems to elicit the same nervous laughter that I heard when my fifth grade teacher first mentioned the act in class in what already appears so long ago. And judging by the response of most of the class on Thursday, things certainly haven’t changed. Maybe it is simply because we still aren’t at an old enough age to maturely talk about the subject. I can’t really guess as to what percentage of the campus is sexual active or not but on the other hand, perhaps I’m missing the issue all together. It is possible that the issue will always be whispered about as long as sex remains a controversial issue in our society today. I’m not implying that a radically liberated world (i.e. Brave New World) would be anything conceivable or even worthwhile, but something as natural and commonplace as sex should definitely be more openly discussed in an intellectual dialogue. Sex is everywhere. In film and literature you would be hard-pressed to find any serious piece of work worth looking into that doesn’t involve at least the mention of sex. Yet, whenever sex is referenced it automatically becomes a somewhat unmentionable and commonly awkward conversation. What I am suggesting here is if the topic of sex was more publicly accepted, then maybe issues such as gay marriage and LGBT issues would also be easier to negotiate. If it became easier to talk to a child about sex without skirting around certain issues perhaps the next generation will be more knowledgeable of the wide spectrum of sexual orientations and its derivatives. I find that the people most opposed to gay marriage and LGBT individuals are often the most ignorant on these subjects. How can you be against something that you have never been acquainted with in the first place? I found the best message to come out of this particular class is that people will be more accepting of things once they experience them. I was rather intolerant of homosexuals until a buddy of mine that I had known all through high school admitted to his parents that he was gay. Even after this, I imagined a completely separate person from the one I had known my whole life. Of course, when I met up with him the next time I was able to regain my senses and understand that it was plain ignorance of homosexuality that forced that original impression of my friend into my consciousness. This is not to say that everyone against homosexuality and gay marriage is ignorant. Some people simply hold values, especially religious values, which force them to be opposed to those lifestyles. Being religious myself, I can’t argue against the power of religious conviction, but don’t blindly accept the beliefs that were doubtlessly imposed on you without testing out the waters for yourself.
Last Thursday’s class was definitely not expected. I have a quiz in my next class after Soc 119 every Thursday so I try to look over my notes while listening to Sam. Let’s just say that on Thursday, I couldn’t help but listen to Sam. I literally could not even try to study. First of all lets be real, I think the entire class was shocked when Sam said that if his wife were to pass away before him, he would undoubtedly be with a man. “Because I am attracted to men,” I think were his words. I kind of had a better understanding of the class after Thursday. Beginning of the year I thought the class was ok but I actually look forward to going to my discussion groups now. Sam asks in the video if any of what we talked about actually effects me. Well, in reality it doesn’t. I’m a straight female and I don’t plan to ever change but it’s very uncommon nowadays for gay and lesbian relationships. I’m not saying I agree with them and I sure wouldn’t want my children to be exposed to any of it. But it really doesn’t affect me. I do not know what its like to be lesbian or gay so there is not much I can say because I am sure that if I were to know what it felt like to be those things, my opinion would change. But I think that everyone in the world should have an equal chance to be happy. And if you’re a guy and want to marry a guy, go ahead! As for the children (if there are children involved), I think that they are more likely to experience not-so-normal lives because of what they are raised by. Children copy their parents all of the time and I just don’t believe that it is a good example. I want people to be happy and I understand that they cannot change who they are or who they are attracted to. But I also think believe in God making Adam and Eve for a reason. I watched a video that was on the Tyra Banks show about a month ago. Tyra interviewed a boy that had actually had an exorcism performed on him to get the “homosexual demon” out of him. Is there such thing as a homosexual demon? As Tyra interviewed the young boy, he said that he did not want to be gay. He said he grew up being attracted to men and couldn’t help it but wished that he was normal. He talked about cross-dressing when he was younger. There is an actual video of the exorcism. The boy is lying on the ground of the church convulsing while the preacher is yelling and casting out the spirit. His body looks unreal the way it is moving. The boy continues to convulse and starts to vomit. It’s absolutely ridiculous. He said that he doesn’t remember it. He said that when it started his body went numb and he fell to the floor and does not remember anything after that. After the exorcism was performed, he said he was no longer attracted to men. He did not sound 100% confident in his statement but he did declare that it worked. So is it really considered a demon or curse if you are homosexual? It’s a whole entire different way of looking at it. I do not think we will ever know.
The past two classes discussing LGBT issues has brought up a lot of key issues surrounding our Country at current time. I was both uncomfortable feeling accused of not accepting Gays and at the same time realizing that I didn’t completely accepted them because I have never had the same experiences as them. It wasn’t until high school that I met my friend came out to us that he was gay; but that didn’t change our relationship at all. In fact, I think I became closer with him after the fact because he did end up loosing some of his guy friends over it and had more girl friends. There is nothing that I would ever do to deny his happiness; and although I cannot completely understand him, I still care about him as a person. I do not look to him as a “gay” person, but rather see him as a person with a fun-loving person who would rather I went out bike riding or played some intense Ultimate Frisbee with him than sit around and gossip. He’s a lot like my other guy friends, except that he dresses nicer. Or friendship is easy because we both know we can joke around without the sexual tension that some girls and guys have wondering of the other one likes them or not. And one great thing about him, is that he is one of the most excited of my friends when I head back home, since he doesn’t go to college with me. Up until a few years ago, I did not understand anything about being gay, but he really opened up my eyes to understanding. His relationships with guys are very similar with my relationships to guys; if I do need advice, he is more than wiling to help and can even be more helpful than some of my girls, because he can somewhat tell how straight guys think, since had “been” one for a while.
You nay not understand where I am going with this, but I really wish Sam had focused less on the actual “sex” portion of the LGBT issue and more on the understand of someone that is different than you. A lot of what Sam said put too much shock on people, and although this really promoted the eye awakening for about 700 people, it also detracted from a sincere message. And this is that sincere message: gays and lesbians are people too, and they deserve to have equal rights as us.
That being said, I do have to admit a struggle I am still having . I was raised based on Christian-Catholic ideas and morals. For my whole life, until Junior year when I began to get really close to my gay friend, I always thought Gay marriage was wrong—or at least I was taught that. Now, I ma not going to say that I have now switched sides against my religion, but I have come to a central ground on the matter. I think that marriage is a religious sacrament, so if the any Religious institution denied a gay couple the right to get married, they would be legally allowed to do so. The couple could go to any other institution to make their “union” which is what I would term it. I would hope to give my friend the happiness he deserved by being “unionized” with his partner. He can call it married if he wants, and I would support that. But I would say that a Religious institution does not have to call it a marriage, they can call it a union. The issue on this whole matter is that you have to RESPECT EVERYONE involved…that means you have to respect both the gay couple AND the church. If you can’t respect BOTH SIDES and allow each side to disagree, then you are defeating the purpose of ACCEPTING EVERYONE.
In today’s society, everybody’s talking about sex. From a peck on the lips to the “real deal”, if a person is in the right environment, the topic of sex is pretty much open for discussion, without too much cringing or resistance. People in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community can talk about sex openly, too. Kind of. However, those of the LGBT community are forced to place themselves in the appropriate open enough forum in order to state their case, to inform other people both inside and outside of their community. Why do I believe this is? Because heterosexual sex is what we know. It is what we were raised to expect and to obtain ourselves. And homosexual or any other type of LGBT is unknown to many. People are afraid of the unknown. It is just a fact of life.
I believe that education and exposition to the LGBT community is the way to make people more accepting, for example, what we have been talking about in Soc119 this week. People are completely ignorant for many, many reasons…whether they are just very conservative, they have been ignorantly raised to dislike people that are unlike themselves…they use the whole “if everybody was gay, there would be no procreation” bogus excuse, etc. People like this are often left to their own devices, however, then the LGBT community is still defeated. Society must educate people so that they understand that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is not a “choice”. They are not making a statement, they are just living life the way they believe they were born to do so, just how many of us do this as a straight person, and we are respected for our decision to instinctively do that.
One way that I believe education and acceptance could be achieved is for gay public figures to be activists in the LGBT community and use their popularity and public forums to educate society that they are no different than them (more successful, if anything!). People such as Ellen DeGeneres and other respected celebrities who happen to be gay should use their prestige, power, and popularity to advertise the normality of homosexuality. A sad fact in the celebrity world is all the debates that go on about whether gay public figures should come out, or remain in the closet. This is incredibly reflecting on our society. If we openly say that we cannot support a successful, powerful public figure who is gay, it is clear that we have even bigger issues with the commonfolk that come out.
I, for one, know that if somebody close to my heart confided in me or came out as gay, my thoughts or feelings about them as a person, a thinker, a friend, a sister or whatever else wouldn’t be altered in a least. If a person is straight, their sexual preference does not define them at all. If a person is gay, they are constantly labeled and the label seems to define their life and most aspects of it. This is certainly not acceptable.
I personally have no problem with the sexual orientations of others. I personally do not care about the sexual decisions other people make in their lives. That has absolutely no relevance in my life. It does not affect my choices or the person I decide to get involved with. Who am I to judge what goes on in someone else’s bedroom and/or who another person is in love with? It is, personally, not my place to show the slightest bit of disgust or express any aggressive disagreement towards a same sex person or couple, even if I did hate the idea of it. But why do people feel the need to bud into other strangers’ lives? The answer is clear, but STUPID. Society is so wrapped up in what they think is “right”, what is socially acceptable, and what constitutes as an American modern family, that society has forgotten how to think holistically for themselves. There are no rules and regulations to life. There are no set standards on how to live accordingly. How can we possibly have rules, regulations, or set standards when every single person on this planet has their own story, their own well being, or…how about this one…their own brain? I understand how the idea of gay relations can go against religious ideas, and that’s fine. If someone truly does not agree with other sexual orientations then heterosexual whether due to their religion or otherwise, then that is that and you’re set in your way, BUT to cross the line and believe that you have the right to deny those people their comfort ability and rights…that’s just wrong. The world has to stop thinking that the people living on earth must all be the same. Everyone has their differences in every way possible. Why can’t we ever embrace that? Why can’t we step out the hole of conformity and look at others like human beings inside of, I don’t know, robots? Everyone feels and everyone loves. Who you love should not be of anyone else’s business. It saddens me to know that gay couples can’t even be with their partners legally or even in public, for that matter, most times. Society will always have its differences, but maybe we will learn how to respect those different from us in the years to come. I think we are warming up and accepting LGBT couples now more than we did, though, which is a great thing. When we learn how to show compassion and love even to our stranger or enemy, then we will learn how to live because you will be able to look at the world in a different light…and that’s a blessing in disguise. Word of advice: Live your life and leave the ignorance behind.
I am glad that “God was in the room” towards the beginning of the LGBT lecture because I believe that it forced some people to rethink his/her prioritizing of sins. I see it all the time, and honestly it is why I’m usually not a big fan of people who claim to be religious. Some of the most religious people I know that are truly religious do not go around cursing people for their sins, but instead try to help people through a difficult situation. If you are a casual church goer and condemn one sin, but partake in numerous others, what does that say about your views on God and religion. It is disrespectful to God and religion. Just because a sin in partaken in more than others does not make it any less wrong in God’s eyes.
I am also glad that “God was taken out of the room” later into the lecture because many people I know that do not support gay rights fall on the argument that it is considered a sin by God. Once god is taken away, the argument often cannot be supported or at least not very well. It opened a door many people have not considered those points, which is what I enjoyed about the lecture. However, it was only a start. It is good that people are thinking about these issues and equality needed, but in class on the following Tuesday there was a recognizable stir amongst the students when Sam put up an image of a gay couple kissing after being married. It is unlikely there would have been the same commotion if the image was of a heterosexual couple kissing after the ceremony.
I think the commotion showed that people are okay with the subject at a distance, but when it come up close and personal there is still quite a bit of uncomfortableness in the matter. Why should it be uncomfortable though? You aren’t the person being kissed or kissing someone of the same sex so it shouldn’t matter. You aren’t in the relationship so it should not make a difference. It is two people that care about one another and are comfortable in their own skin. I wish I could be that open about my differences.
On a different note, I think it is hard for people to understand the LGBT community because people really don’t even talk about heterosexual sex. It is not something people are very open about. Sure we watch porn and hear about sex every day, but when do we ever talk about it on a personal level? It is still one of those subjects people get immature about and don’t know what to say about it. How many people talk to their spouse or partner openly about sex and what he/she likes? I don’t think it happens too often. Like Sam said in class after the LGBT lecture, he explored sex because he was not surrounded by it as our generation tends to imitate something we don’t know much about. It is about imitating rather than learning and understanding. When people can openly and maturely discuss sex in general, LGBT issues will slowly fade away because there will be a better understanding about sexuality in general.
It really caught me off guard when Sam said that were all a little homosexual or that we all had it in us. I’m not exactly sure what all he said but it was something along those lines. I kind of agree with him that like there is a spectrum and people are all somewhere in the middle. I think he said something like you aren’t just straight or gay. Maybe that is true. I like to think of myself as straight and I don’t really think I’d ever be interested in another female or anything like that. So maybe some people are just straighter than others. This is such a controversial thing and no one is ever going to think the same thing. We talked about this in class today a little. I am not against being gay. I have taken classes in the past that I think I know for a fact personally that it’s not a choice. Therefore I don’t condemn it at all. Love the sinner; turn the other cheek to the sin. I can completely understand why some is gay and I really don’t think that they can change it about themselves at all. Like we talked about today though, I do not agree with gay marriage. I think the unions are fine. If I know what I think I know about a union, it’s just rights granted to you and your partner for your partnership. Marriage is completely different. Marriage is, the legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of a man and woman to live as husband and wife. I got that from dictionary.com. But anyway. It makes zero sense for someone of the same sex to get “married” if they get a union it is the same damn thing minus having the religious part. And someone in the class today said that well they should still be able to get married. Why, do they even know what “marriage” is? It really pisses me off. It is a scared sacrament not be toyed around with. And yes people get divorced, well that’s their own decision and they can deal with the consequences, but for a priest to unite a same sex couple under God is blasphemy. That’s just my opinion. To someone that as no religion whatsoever I can see how this would be ok. No one is ever going to agree on this topic so we should all just meet in the middle and go from there.
Prior to the LGBT class I was very elusive regarding the issue. I took a very, “well I’m not gay, I’m not around gay things, so I don’t think about it or care about it” stance. But some of the things Professor Richards said during class kind of lit a spark in my brain and got my thoughts stirring regarding the issue. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only person in class who experienced the same thing.
Sam did a very good job of keeping people guessing, but at the same time he made us all think critically. For example, I have never asked a gay person why they are gay. I always just judged them first. I was quick to look down upon them and judge them for something that after lecture I truly believe is out of their control. Prior to lecture, I believed that it was a choice that they made that I just didn’t understand or believe in but now, since Sam has asked us to look at why we are straight, I understand that it isn’t a decision, but just how a person is. I didn’t choose to be attracted to women, it is just the way I am. Now that I understand that and have taken a step back, I understand a gay person doesn’t choose to be attracted to someone of the same sex, they just are.
At the same time, I still feel that being gay is a choice to some extent. This is because of the middle ground, on the fence portion of sexuality. Like I admitted above, it isn’t a person’s choice to how they are wired, but they do have choices of how they act upon it. I am straight man, but I have bro-crushes, and there are men who I genuinely think are attractive, for example David Beckham and the wolf from the new Twilight movie. I just choose not to act upon those attractions. The same goes for lesbians and gays. There are gay men who find women attractive, but choose not act upon those attractions because they are more partial to other men. On the other hand, there are gay men and women who fear the stigmas associated with being homosexual and choose to suppress their attraction to the same sex.
Regardless, my eyes were opened by the LGBT lecture and now have a greater understanding and appreciation for homosexuals. I never had an issue with homosexuality, but I also thought it was merely a choice and didn’t take the time to ask a gay person why they are gay. If someone is homosexual I hope they find happiness, and next time a gay guy comes up to me on the street and compliments my ass, I’ll thank him because like Sam said, what harm is a compliment, and when was the last time a girl gave me one?
LGBT rights have always been an issue with the government and how people are supposed to feel about it. In the past years, with all the issues revolving around gay marriage my generation has been exposed to a lot of different ideas and have all developed our own views on issues of this nature. I came from a very diverse high school and LGBT kids were by far the most discriminated group of students. I never participated in this discrimination but, I found myself just steering clear of LGBT groups and just never wanted to get involved with any of it because of how horrible some of the kids treated LGBT students. It was not until one of my friends came out of the closet where I learned that there was nothing wrong with being gay and that most gay people do not to choose to be this way. When Sam brought about the studies that have been done on animals that choose to have same sex intercourse even when they are around animals of the opposite sex it goes to show you that animals are born this way and do not choose to be gay. If some animals are born gay then humans are born in this same way. I think that once a person gets the thought of people choosing to be gay out of their head one becomes very accepting of gay people. Plus gay people have no affect on my life it really doesn’t matter what they are doing out in the world in relation to my life. If LGBT people don’t bother me why should I have a problem with them? Who are we to tell two gay people in love that they cannot get married? The example that Sam gave in class with the comic strip of some of the reasons two straight people get married was eye opening to acceptance to gay marriage. Straight people get married for some horrible irrational reasons. To tell two people of the same sex that there is something wrong with getting married is wrong. Love is a natural emotion we as humans feel. Why does it matter if they are of the same sex?
I believe that more people are becoming accepting of gays and gay rights. It is now legal to have a same sex marriage in various states and I can predict more states will come around. I have seen much more acceptance of gay students here at State College. It seems people are beginning to see gays in a different and better way. The lectures in class really opened my eyes to new ways for looking at gay rights and LGBT people in general. More people need to see statistics and proof that people do not choose to be gay and that gay marriage is perfectly acceptable. At times gay marriage can even be more acceptable than straight marriage. The world is coming around and the lecture about LGBT issues made me look at these issues in a different and better light.
The class in which we discussed Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issues was a very humorous yet informative class. I feel that because I am not around LGBT people often that I do not truly understand the struggles and the issues that they have to deal with on a day to day basis. In some ways you could say that I am partly in the pre awakening stage when it comes to interacting with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. Although, I am aware and can determine the differences between straight and gay people, I am not truly informed about all the issues related to LGBT. I believe that the main reason for this ignorance is my lack of exposure to those types of people. Part of that lack of exposure is my fault for not really wanting to be around that crowd. Nothing against LGBT people, but I feel more comfortable around people that are similar to myself. I guess that makes me a bad student in this class but who cares. I am a big fan of having a routine and being a creature of habit.
I was, like many people I believe, a little thrown off guard when Sam said that if his wife died he would definitely want to be with a dude. As a straight person I felt a little bit uncomfortable for a second or two, but I quickly resumed my Sudoku puzzle. I know that many of the stories Sam tells are completely true and he has done a lot of stuff in his life but I feel that he embellishes some on certain things he says. For example, when he says that he doesn’t look at or isn’t attracted to any other women other than his wife, but he will see guys and checks them out. Personally I think that is a lie and he was trying to get a reaction from the class in order to make the class seem more interesting. At the beginning of the semester he said that he will not try to change any ones beliefs and that he just wants to get us to think more open minded. I have noticed that when talking about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issues he is much more passionate and really shows his bias. On issues relating to African Americans or whites he was very impartial and clearly presented both sides. Nothing against Sam, but I found it interesting that I could see his bias on the topic of LGBT. As a sociology professor he is supposed to be impartial and he almost always is. I think that there is nothing wrong with expressing ones opinion when one feels strongly about something. That is the whole point of believing a certain way.
I personally care if someone is gay or not gay. It still creeps me out, and I do not know if I can get over it. Like I do not understand how having sex with someone of the same sex is natural. I know that other animals do it, but the vast majority do not, and neither do people. This is why I do not think they should be married. Marriage to me has always been between a man and a woman, and it has been throughout the history of mankind. They can have all the legal benefits of marriage, but do not call it marriage because it is not marriage. Calling gay couples marriage is a disgrace to the name of marriage. This is coming from a kid with divorce parents who hate each other and cannot be in the same room without a terrible argument breaking out. The definition of marriage according to dictionary.com states, “he social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.“ This therefore proves my personal defination of marriage. The marriage definition that Sam put up in class was very biased to his viewpoint and had no valid source backing it up.
What I do not like however are the extreme gay bashers. These people are also morons and need to find something better to do with their life. If there is something that pisses me off, it is extreme fundamentalists of any religion who take it to seriously. Example being Protestants that have posters quoting the Bible outside chanting at anti-gay rallies. These people, as Sam stated, are hypocrites, as they have never committed a sin. It is a certainty that some of these people had sex before marriage, which technically is a sin on its own.
About gay people being in the military, I do not know what to think about this because I personally have never been in any United States military situation, so I am not a good source to comment on this. I have heard arguments from both sides on the situation. My opinion about it is they should be let in as long as their not flamers, and also if someone makes a move on a soldier, they should be discharged. Also gay sex should not be taking place.
Transsexuals to me are not really people because I have no idea what to classify them as. They are just way to weird for me to comprehend. Like what are they. Trannies are not male nor female, it is like they are their own class of people. Which bathroom do they use? They are not equipped with anything.
I’m writing journal in response to Sam’s video blog entry on LGBT issues on November 6th. In the video Sam talks about why it is so difficult for the LGBT community to be accepted in this world, especially in the United States which is supposed to symbolize “freedom”. I think a lot of it has to do with the way that people are brought up in our society. A lot of movies that you see tend to be discriminatory towards the LGBT community. In return, our youth are taught to believe that these people are different than everyone else and shouldn’t be accepted in our society. This wasn’t an issue for me since I found out an early age that my sister was a lesbian. This changed my entire perspective on the LGBT community and I’m definitely more accepting to meeting gay people now. I believe that when most people think of LGBT’s they think of flamboyantly gay people and thus are somewhat tentative towards speaking to them. I understand why this occurs, but I believe a majority of LGBT’s don’t act in this manner. My roommate had one of his gay friend’s come to Penn State last year and I would never have guessed that he was gay if he hadn’t told me beforehand. I’m sure that I’ve met a ton of gay people in my life that I didn’t know were gay. Every Christmas my sister has a party at our house and invites a lot of her friends that are gay. All of them are extremely friendly and I get along with all of them. When we go out to the bar you can just sense other people talking about them under their breath. This made me extremely irritated and I wish I could try and make all of them understand and stop being so ignorant. For some reason people think that making fun of LGBT’s makes them feel better about being straight. Of course most of these people are uneducated and dwelling in the low-life of society. I grew up with a ton of people with these sorts of ethics and it’s nearly impossible to change their opinions. It’s tough to predict what will happen in the future, I really can’t see things getting much better. There will always be people that will be ignorant and hatred towards the LGBT community. Most of this will be because of their parent’s opinions and prejudices that will rub off on them. I hope someday there will be some sort of significant change in the way that the LGBT community is perceived and a majority of people accept them. I don’t really count on seeing that happen in my lifetime.
I feel that people tend to forget that humans are social creatures. Us humans long for interaction of any kind by any gender where it be from our same or opposite sex. I start off by saying this because the things that Sam said (although they may have seemed a little far fetch at the time) followed this same ideology. I identify myself as a straight male, I am attracted to females an always have been but I can understand the concepts that Sam was trying to explain to our class. For example it seemed that the underlining message to Sam’s lecture was that sexuality as a hole can be seen as a continuous spectrum and not just the three labels homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual. An example of this that kind of stuck out to me and I found odd at first was the prisoners’ aspect. Male prisoners go to jail an often exhibit homosexual activities because they have no females around, but upon being released from prison they don’t identify with being homosexual and continue on as a heterosexual male. I feel this happens because, with the theory that sexual orientation is a continuous spectrum, when presented with the obstacle of not having that human interaction (i.e. sexual contact, compassion, .ect) some people are prone to changing there position on the spectrum to became more adapted to their surroundings. This of course is only the male example, which I feel it takes extreme circumstances (like being completely isolated from our prefer partner either same or opposite sex) for this to happen because we are not as compassionate and secure with our sexuality as females are. Females on the other hand seem to be more in tune with this and I base this off that fact that females seem to have more intimate friendships with other females that have somewhat of a romantic feel. Also the study Sam presented that showed females get turned on by all types or pornography is another reason that I came to this conclusion. Most females can make out with another female because they like the interaction and feeling of it without being classified as gay and not ultimately change their overall preference. I feel that this is because they are more compassionate and have a better grasp on what sexuality really is. This could because of biological differences between males and females but I lean more towards it being a cultural/imprinted difference. To make it simple basically as a male u are breed to be tough and hard like a protector (i.e. boys don’t cry) where as females are breed to be more caring and compassionate (i.e. most females are taught it is ok to exhibit emotions and express them).
The reason why Sam’s class is so interesting and important is the main idea behind each and every one of his lectures, and that is to not have a narrow minded view on issues. The key is to open yourself so that, even if you do not change your mind, you can at least see other people’s views and angles on issues. There were about three classes that I thought were especially eye opening, and one of them was definitely the LGBT class. Even before I started to really think about LGBT issues, I was never against homosexuality and always felt like they should be given equal rights. I am from Massachusetts so I am familiar with the gay marriage debate and live in a place that is predominately open minded about homosexuality. Surely if I grew up in the south or something I would most likely have been exposed to very different ideas about homosexuality. Although I never had a problem with someone’s sexuality, I admittedly never really thought too much about what it was to be LGBT. As a straight, white male I rarely ever see what it is like to be a minority or live in a society with people who aren’t all pretty much the same as you. That said, Sam’s class really opened my eyes not really about tolerance of gay people but rather the discrimination and extreme injustices that they face.
One of my favorite points of the entire lecture was the portion about selective sins. It’s the idea that religious people often select the sins that they are least likely to commit and then dub them the “worst sins”. In most cases even lashing out at people who commit them. This is one thing that I have never really thought about but find to be absolutely true. Although people may drink, have premarital sex, and even commit sodomy (by its definition) they are so quick to say homosexuality is wrong because the bible says it’s a sin. Really? I am so sick of people justifying things like this with the bible. I mean if we were going by the Bible at all times we could justify slavery and even sentence a prostitute to death by stoning. Are people serious? The hypocrisy here is incredible. Sure, I will not argue that the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin, but you know what else the Bible preaches? Even more than straight sexuality, the Bible preaches tolerance and love for all people. Love thy neighbor. Isn’t “love” arguably the most important idea in the Bible. God loves all men. Jesus died for us because he loves everyone, sinners and all. Now what I have a problem with is Christians who can’t stop saying the word “hate”. Like for example, the people who preach outside the hub. They seem to hate everyone but themselves. They preach from the Bible, but seems like they are missing the point. Anyway, what was so interesting about that point was that it really uncovers the hypocrisy of people who justify being homophobic with the bible.
I believe that homosexuality is not a choice and that people who happen to be homosexual deserve equal rights as any group in the United States. I really loved the part in the video where Sam points out that we like to believe that the United States is the “freest country in the world” yet we have the Government and other people going “into people’s bedrooms” and trying to control who they are attracted to. It is quite honestly an outrage and a gross injustice.
We had an interesting discussion in our small group meeting class this morning about this subject of LGBT. We talked about a variety of different topics and an interesting question asked was how we would react if we had children in the future and they turned out to be gay. Some people said that they would be completely fine with it but I feel as though some of them were just saying that just to give a socially correct answer. A few people as well as I said that we would be uncomfortable about it and they asked if I would try to change our children’s sexual preference to heterosexual. This is a tough question to answer because as one person brought up in the discussion, sometimes it is hard to tell what you would do in certain situations until you are actually in that situation. For me, I would be upset about it and talk to them about it. I would not try to force them into changing their sexual preference because the result of that would be that they would grow up unhappy and it would make things turn out worse in the future because of this.
This leads into another topic that was brought up about LGBT in our discussion. The question was asked if we think that everyone’s sexual preference is something that is a choice or is it something we are just born with and we do not have any control over it. The decision was unanimous that sexual preference is something that you are born with; it is not a choice. However, now that I really think about it there is a situation that questions that it is not a choice. My friend whom I met my freshman year in college is a lesbian and she is open about it. She is a really cool person: down to earth, funny, easy to get along with. I would always joke around with her asking if she was sure that she didn’t like guys, because she is attractive. She then told me that she used to be straight but she had some bad relationships with guys in the past and it made her change her sexual preference to liking other females as a result of it. So in this situation, I feel as though her sexual preference was made by choice because she liked males growing up.
Another subject that came up was gay marriage and if we were against it or not. For me, I wouldn’t say that I am for it or I condone it but if that is what certain people decide to do, who am I to judge them?; it does not affect me in any way.
Something else that came up was seeing gays and lesbians kiss in public, whether we see it in person or in the media. For me, as well as many other straight men, I feel uncomfortable seeing two men kiss though I am more comfortable seeing two women kiss. I feel this way because in some instances it is a turn on for heterosexual men. If the females are attractive and they are kissing it is like getting turned on by seeing it in a porno. Celeb-reality star Brook Hogan had an episode on her reality show where she started having feelings for a female and went out on several dates with her. After one of their dates, they kissed each other goodbye and I was surprised. It wasn’t that I felt really uncomfortable seeing that, it was more of shocking type thing because I wasn’t expecting it, whereas if I saw two men kiss on the show I would feel uncomfortable. There’s no real explanation that I can give that explains why this is so, it is just the situation I explained earlier of many straight men being turn on by seeing two females kiss because they are attracted to them.
I believe that being gay is a choice. It is something that I am not approving of. However, it is something that I have learned to accept and embrace. I have friends who are gay and I don’t judge them or treat them any different from all of my straight friends. I do not approve of them because of my beliefs; however, part of my belief system is not to hold judgments against anyone. I do not have the right to judge and therefore will not. I have learned to embrace it because I have discovered this fact and Sam have also mentioned in class the other day. It is concerning sins and how all of us are sinners in so many different ways. I also believe that all sins are the same, both big and small. Although I believe that being gay is a choice and am not supporting its existence, I do feel like it is unfair for the government to strip gay couples of their right to unite. As a fair intuition that is basing its belief systems on freedom, it should not pick and chose what sins to punish and what sins not to punish. Please don’t take me wrong. I do believe in the laws that try to punish crimes, what I am talking about is about all of the fighting in the Middle East. Getting back to my point, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t support same sex marriages but I will not be in other people’s businesses when it comes to their personal lives. I feel like if a people chose a different lifestyle compared to the norm but does not bring harm to others, I don’t really have the right to tell them what they can and cannot do. I think ultimately, the questions lie on the debate of them should or should not be able to raise a kid in such a household? I feel like there is a plan for everyone and I cannot be the one who make the decision base on my opinion. I think that they should have the right to raise children because I do believe that the child will not have any affects from his/her parents being gay. I know that all of have make mistakes and will continue to as long as we live. I also know that no one on this earth have the right to judge us and take away the things that have given to us. To be against gay marriages is not only hypocritical but also unrighteous.
To add a comment to all of the studies that Sam have mention in the class. I have doubts about them just because they are so psychological and there are really no references or scientific background to back up any of the statements that same have made. There are many factors that are involve in an experiment that can determine the outcome. The researchers could be bias and get the outcomes they wanted. With all this being said. All of the statistics in class seems interesting but definitely too vague to take into real consideration.
This class was probably the most exciting class that i have ever been in. I dont see how anybody can get any better than the class that i sat in. There were so many perspectives that were aired out in class that made me think about alot of stuff that goes on in society today. There were some comments made directly by professor richards that made me really think about gays and lesbians in a different light. To begin with, i have always had heated arguments with other people about how i though gays and lesbians chose to be that way. I mean, from my current knowledge i really dont see any other way that it could have been because it was pretty straight simple. You either like girls or you like boys. But the other side of the spectrum was presented when professor richards said “when do you actually know that you are attracted more towards girls than boys, and vice versa.” This startled me greatly because this was another perspective that i never took the time out to think about. As i sat there and pondered this argument, i really started to believe that what professor richards had said was actually true. I began to find this idea more acceptable than what i had previously believed. If a person is to take the time out of their busy schedule and actually think about it, hey would find this perspective to be more acceptable than others. Before i heard this other viewpoint, i think that i was a person who likes to think of himself as “right” most of the time and therefore never took the time out to think about the other side of the argument. There was another comment that was made by professor richards that stated how homophobic people were not comfortable with their sexuality and that they probably would feel a certain way towards gay porn. I thought that these comments were partly true. For someone to be homophobic is amazing to me to say the least. I believe that everybody should embrace each other as they would like to be embraced by others in society. I mean, if you think about it, it is the same thing as saying “treat others as how you would like to be treated.” Also, being homophobic in my eyes does mean that you are not comfortable with your sexuality. If you were comfortable, then gays and lesbians would not affect you at all because they would be living their lives while you were living yours. As for the being homophobic and feeling a certain way, i felt that that came way out of left field. I mean common, there are plenty of different types of peoiple in this world today. Some are homosexual, and others are heterosexual. But that does not mean that if you consider yourself to be heterosexual but think you are homophobic will not equate to you somehow being homosexual. If the world was like that, simply i believe that we would have an increase in the problems that exist with sexuality.
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I often find it so strange that growing up in a conservative very white town and going to a rich, white, conservative high school has actually made me a much more open-minded and accepting person. As I said in my last journal, my high school had a Gay-Straight Alliance club that everyone seemed to think was a very funny joke. I always wondered how people could ignore the Straight part of the club. It was a chance for them to connect with other homosexual students that weren’t like them and to get to know them for who they were as people instead of as just homosexuals. This never made sense to me as someone who always accepted people from all different walks of life.
My openness can sometimes be difficult, however. One day, I was walking past the HUB when I saw a man out front preaching from the Bible. His main point of contention, however, was with gays. Next to him was a college age man wrapped in a rainbow flag with a sign that read, “If God doesn’t love me, at least my boyfriend will.” I found the juxtaposition funny so I snapped a picture on my phone and sent it to my conservative and somewhat homophobic father. He replied with a text that read something along the lines of, “Oh man, what am I paying for you to go to college for?” Dealing with my father and his inherent homophobia has been difficult for me. I cannot seem to understand why something so natural is so offensive to him. To me, the love between a man and myself is every bit as natural and beautiful as the love between a man and another man or a woman and another woman. I want so badly to understand why my dad feels so uncomfortable with something as natural as the love he has for his girlfriend. One day, I hope to use the things that I have learned in this class to try to teach my dad to be more free and accepting.
Another issue I wanted to address was the idea that Sam introduced about all people being inherently bisexual. Before this, I had always felt exactly the same way. I have never felt sexually attracted to a woman, but I have always found them and their forms beautiful and inspiring. There is something so extremely powerful about being a woman and having the ability to create and carry life. The female aura is so captivating that I find it no surprise that I could see myself one day being attracted to a woman. We as a sex can, and I am sure most men would agree, be so mysterious and exciting. One day I hope everyone gets to explore these mysteries.
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A thousand years ago, for someone that believed in God, the ideas of natural selection would be inconceivable because they would go almost entirely against the explanation set out in the Holy Bible. In the 19th Century, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species and started making the evolution theory more widely accepted around the world, but most Christian followers would not concur. Even today, a large number of religious people remain contemptuous towards the theory, but many others are making efforts to understand our existence from a scientific perspective and to maybe integrate religion with science in some possible ways. I am not a religious man, and I am not even sure how I should describe such a phenomenon but I hope you are getting my point: people’s opinions changed throughout history – it is changing every minute now and it will change more radically and quickly in the future. The same applies to our interpretation of the LGTB issue.
If you were a Christian man, and you were born in 1209 instead of 2009, and someone came up to you to tell you that we had all evolved from chimpanzees about 7 million years ago, there is a good chance that you would consider this idea totally insane or ridiculous. Just about two hundred years ago, homosexuality was considered quite commonly as a kind of sin/disease or even crime. It was actually criminalized by law in many (developed) countries. It was the social norm back then – so what do you think you would do and think if you were born in 1809 when about everybody would teach you that it was sick to be gay? And then in the 19th/20th Century, people started opening up their minds a little bit more, and gays and lesbians were not treated as criminals anymore but still isolated as an abnormal group of people. Recently, we are seeing more equality as the gay population became increasingly courageous to ‘come out’, and sometimes be assertive enough to march down the streets and demonstrate for their rights. Also, gay marriage is being legalized in increasingly more places. People’s opinions change – and it will change more.
I suppose my point is, we think the way we do because since we were born, we have been fed with information by television and other media and parents, friends, people who get their information from the same media too. This media reflect ideas, opinions and information of this current period of time – so a lot of the time we cannot escape from this time frame. However if you are able to see history and then have a little bit of foresight maybe you will see all things a little differently. Imagine you were born 100 years from now when homosexuality is widely accepted like how we accept racial equality and evolution today, would you think the same way still? I would say no.
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Thursdays class… where to begin?!? Well first let me start by saying THANK YOU SAM!! It’s about time someone took the risk to comfort all of the issues society faces with the LGBT community. Thursday was honestly my favorite class of the whole semester. If people took the time to learn about the LGBT community, took the time to get to know a few members of the community, took the time to just listen maybe American society would be a more pleasant and accepting place.
I am a big ally of the LGBT community and have many gay and lesbian friends so the topic covered in the class was very important to me. There were many great points made throughout the class. My favorite point made was the bible verse. The bible not only condones homosexuality, but also premarital sex, lust, worship for other gods, etc. Most people do not read the whole verse, they pick out the one aspect that they agree with and highlight it. What most people also do not know is that the verse that states the above is in the Old Testament and not the New Testament! Also, the Old Testament states that women cannot sit in church, which I am sure most Christians do not know. Another great point made is that being gay or lesbian is NOT a lifestyle. Homosexuality is a sexual preference, not a culture or ethnic group. Homosexuality spares not race, language, or personalities. So when people group LGBT as a cultural group or a lifestyle there are highly mistaken. Also by classifying homosexuality as a lifestyle you give the idea that it is a choice. Aspects of lifestyles are choices. It is a choice to buy Ugg boots, it is a choice to buy designer jeans, and it is not a choice to be gay, lesbian or transsexual. Why would any person choice to face prejudice, unjust law, and discrimination? Nobody just chooses to be a member of the LGBT community. Yes, some people may experience with their sexuality but that does not make them gay or lesbian.
While listening to the lecture in class and hearing the questions presented, I was really hoping a gay or lesbian students would speak up to hear their point of view. The biggest weakness of the lecture was the presentation of LGBT statistics. Students our day in age are very skeptical and desensitized to statistics, so use the use of them during lecture gave way for many questions. The only intriguing statistics presented was the study of arousal in homophobic men and accepting men. I was extremely surprised to see that 80% of homosexual men were aroused while watching gay porno. I just really hope that every student left the classroom critically thinking about the topic. I hope the next time they hear a friend call someone “Gay” that they correct them and tell them “That’s not cool, just say your dumb”.
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Ok ok so class was a little bit reckless. Normally after reckless classes I usually pose questions, however I really was kind of speechless. Not because I didn’t have anything to say but because I had so much to say. It was crazy, now I mean Sam often does a good job trying to break through ethnocentrism and get us to see outside our own mindsets, but Thursday did not really do much for me, in that regard at least. Like I said before I have come a long way in terms of how I view homosexuals and their rights. I really started out as a hard nose conservative that would say no to anything involving it at all. No they cannot marry, no they cannot adopt, etcetera. Now I kind of have that I don’t care attitude. Whatever, get married adopt kids, I don’t really care, but I definitely don’t agree with what you do. It’s wrong and I don’t like it but whatever dude I’m not going to be a dick about it so go do what you want.
But here’s my beef with the whole topic. When the dude asked about bestiality, Sam wrote it off as if it were something so different and so foreign that it couldn’t even be compared. That kind of irked me. To say that homosexuality and bestiality are different only reflects Sam’s own ethnocentric views. To someone who grew up in the gay community and knew a lot of gay people for all of his life being gay sounds like something familiar, and therefore something that is acceptable. Bestiality on the other hand was something Sam wasn’t surrounded by and thus it seems “wrong” to him. So why do we draw the line where we do? Why are they any different? The excuse that there are different species involved holds no logic. It’s stupid. To someone who likes to fuck goats bestiality makes perfect sense and that person doesn’t view it as wrong at all. The same concept applies to gay people. They don’t view what they do as wrong, or as a choice or any of those other things. I just feel like we operate on social norms. Is it just because there are sooo many gay people now? Just because there are enough of them to make noise suddenly what they do is now acceptable. So in twenty years there could be an influx of people fucking goats, then what? I’ll tell you what. If that happens, in twenty years we are having this same debate on behalf of the growing population of people who want to fuck their goats and want to marry them. Now yeah hearing it now makes it sound ridiculous, but I tell you what give it time. Maybe not the next or the next after that, but eventually you’ll reach a generation where bestiality is “okay”. From that point it is a short time until they get “rights”.
And that’s the bottom line cuz Stone Cold said so…
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Sam,
So what about LGBT is race related? I just thought it unusual you’d put it up on this blog. Is it to compare race to sexual preferences/orientation? LGBT doesn’t fit your definition you gave of racism, as far as I can see. Separate issues.
If this entry in the blog is about more general sociology issues (vice purely “racism”), I think an interesting avenue is the “why” as to LGBT things being “taboo” in many cultures. Or another interesting avenue is the role minority votes played in passing Prop 8 in California. Especially if your position is that racism is the same as LGBTism (is that a word? I think it needs more vowels
). I don’t believe the minority voters in CA who voted for Prop 8 would agree with that position, if that’s you’re saying.
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I thought our class on Thursday was amazing. Sam was able to say and address issues that you never really get to talk about in every day life. I am always interested to hear what people have to say about gay marriage because I don’t believe anyone has say in who you can and cannot love. One of my good friends came out to me last year and it was so liberating to him and I could just see the weight lifted from his shoulders as soon as he said it that how can that ever be a bad thing? Sam said something interesting the other day that stuck with me because he said how much it would benefit the world if forty percent of the population was gay. We have some serious over population issues that aren’t addressed but this would completely rectify that situation. But it is interesting way to think about why people and animals are gay in nature. Maybe it is a hidden way to keep the world at a happy medium without mass amounts of people.
I most hate it when people hid their belittling views behind religion. If you feel a certain way then fine but you can’t turn to the bible to back you up because that is a weak stand to make. What God would make a person gay and then punish them for it? That is not a God I want to pray to or believe in. I don’t think that God cares who you love and why but the point is, is that you are a good person and that you are happy. Gay marriage is real marriage. The same feelings go into that decision as in any other relationship and in fact it is harder so if they can get to that point they should be given every opportunity. It is utterly absurd to me that gay marriage is even a legal question. It is saddening how behind the times we truly are. Also people seem to think that gayness is a choice. Choosing to be gay is like saying I chose to be a girl. It was never an option but it is something I live and deal with everyday. No one would choose to try to live their life a harder way just for the fun of it because being gay is a harder life to most.
I loved how open Sam was with how he feels about men. He basically came out to the class and made no excuses and no reasons but just said this is how I feel and you can deal with it. Even I had to go home and think it over but what I came to is “Why not?”
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I think that yesterday’s class was my favorite of the entire semester. I think that it was really thought provoking and it covered a topic that is very rarely discussed in public. As Dr. Sam Richards noted, it was pretty out there for a Penn State class, but it was pretty normal for a sociology class. I think that if our society were more open and discussed sexuality and sex, there would be less ignorance, less misconceptions, and more people that felt free to explore their own sexuality.
One part of the class that really stuck out to me was the questions that people asked. These questions made me think how little our society actually knows about these issues. I think that there should be a more open society and more opportunities for people to discuss their sexuality. I do not think that there would be negative effects if this happened. I think it would only make our society stronger. I also thought it was interesting that these people felt that they could ask their questions in 100 Thomas, which is the biggest lecture hall on campus. At first, it made me wonder why they had not asked others around them, in a more private setting. But then I realized, that for many students, this race relations class is the only place that they feel comfortable asking these questions. Clearly, more opportunities to discuss these issues would lead to a more informed society. I think that if people were more informed on lesbian, gay and transgender issues, they would be more accepting, and more open to exploring their own sexuality.
One point that Dr. Sam Richards brought up on the video that he posted was why these issues bother so many people. For example, he was discussing why gay marriage strikes a chord in so many people? On the one hand, I know that religion plays a big part in peoples’ feelings and beliefs about gay marriage. However, I personally think that while religion is an important factor in your beliefs, I think that people should still make their own decisions about issues such as gay marriage. In other words, I think that religion should only affect your opinion so much. I think that it would be better to make an informed decision on this issue. Dr. Sam Richards also brought up the point that gay marriage does not affect him, so why should it bother him? I feel the exact same way, since gay marriage has no affect on me, I feel like people should be able to marry whomever they want to. I think that if I felt that it did affect me directly, that I somehow felt insecure about my own sexuality. Overall, I think that the LGBT class was the best class so far this semester, since it opened a lot of peoples’ eyes to issues that people are rarely able to discuss.
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SOC 119 is titled Race and Ethnic Relations. So when my discussion group facilitators asked anybody in the circle if we had any thoughts on LGBT issues I was first confused and immediately just assumed my facilitator was simply trying to fill the silences or couldn’t think of something to talk about in terms of race. But after Thursday’s lecture on LGBT issues, I realized the connection between people of the LGBT community and racial minorities. We’re all struggling for equal rights, acceptance, and fighting against embedded prejudices. We’re all fighting epic battles and it’s something we carry with us on a daily basis.
I was watching TV the other day and while I was flipping through channels before I stopped to watch a sitcom. The scene was of two gay men on a plane taking home their newly adopted baby, Lily, from Vietnam. One of them was apprehensive and on edge because he knows some people do disapprove of two gay men raising a child, let alone gay unions. He nervously surveys the surrounding passenger’s responses and expressions based on him and his partner and their baby. When a woman remarks about Lily being seen with a couple of “cream puffs,” the uneasy one of the two, rattles off a standard speech he has for all those judgmental, small-minded people who question their ways. Turns out baby Lily was actually holding some light pastries with cream filling, aka cream puffs. This is similar to situations when people of color are always on-guard and always expect to run into conflict of to be treated unfairly because of the color of their skin.
While I always was aware of the struggles homosexual people experience, I never made a connection to the possibility of that struggle being similar to the struggle of those who are colored. It’s something we’ve had with us since birth; we didn’t choose to be colored or homosexual. It’s just something we are. Who decides that we should be considered inferior or deemed not as worthy because of these things? During class, when we had the discussion on “Being black or homosexual: Who faces the bigger struggle?” many people tried to justify who had the tougher struggle, when one person voiced their opinion, “Why does it have to be a competition? We’re all struggling” And I whole heartedly agree. We’re all fighting the same battle.
This leads me to think about a point that Sam brought up during lecture, that I never really thought about prior to this. People of color should not be homophobic. When people of color are so adamant on their disdain toward racists, how can they be homophobic, because being a homophobe or racist shares similar qualities.
The LGBT lecture opened my eyes to the fight of those who are homosexual and made me realize, as a person of color, we’re all fighting the same battle.
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I consider myself a very laidback and accepting person, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I plan on or expect to have a homosexual experience in my life (the idea simply doesn’t appeal to me) I do find it fairly ridiculous that there are some who seek to tell people who they can and cant love. Why is it that people see a need to set rules and regulations about something like relationships? Why should homosexual relationships be considered any less legitimate than heterosexual relationships? One very comical answer to this problem is the explanation of Robin Williams in which he states that the only reason people want to ban gay marriage is that the thought of gay people having sex creeps them out. His answer to this, obviously being part of a comedy routine, is that there is no better way to get people to stop having sex than to let them get married. Now while this may just be a funny joke with little practical application, it points to an obvious conclusion: WHO CARES. The best point Sam made during the video prompt was when he asked “How does it effect me, how does it effect my marriage?” The answer is that it doesn’t, at all. People who argue that sex should be for procreative reasons only should take a look at some science. The fact there is that the world is already drastically overpopulated. The environmental problems occurring throughout the world would cease to exist if the population of the world were brought down to the limit that this planet has resources to support. There are many arguments for why gay people should not be allowed to be together, each less logical than the one before. It simply does not matter who is allowed to be together and in what context. If you really oppose gay rights than answer this question, how does the issue effect you as a person? Do you sit in your bed at night and think to yourself “Those damn gay’s being allowed to marry is ruining my” I don’t even know how to finish that statement, what could it possibly ruin? Seriously here people, everyone should have the same chance at happiness as everyone else, if that means they should get to spend their life with someone of the same sex why is that a problem? The important thing to remember here is that there really is NO good argument against gay rights. Those who oppose these rights will often give the argument “its just wrong.” What kind of half assed answer is that? You might as well just proclaim yourself dictator and make everyone do exactly as you say. LIVE AND LET LIVE.
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Thursday’s lecture was by far my favorite lecture of the semester. It really got me thinking on a topic that seems to be ever-present and I really respect, and even thank, Sam for being so open about everything and not holding back in any form on any subject. I really enjoyed how Sam started the class with the “pop quiz” and showed how basically, everyone sins and then relating this to the fact that all gay people are going to hell. Obviously there are many heterosexual people that are worse off than those gay people who are supposedly being sent to hell because they are more attracted to the same sex than the opposite sex. I am Catholic and this is an issue I do not necessarily agree with the church on. I agree with Sam that if these couples want to be married, how does that affect my everyday life? Why shouldn’t these couples be allowed to fully commit themselves to each other in the same way that straight people get to? I believe that in most cases gays and lesbians are born that way, however I understand that some people choose that decision. I think that is the same with transgender people as well. I am honestly not sure where I stand on whether or not bi-sexual people are born that way, or make a choice to just swing both ways. Either way, it does not change the fact that they are bi-sexual. That is who they are, and unless they hit on me, it really doesn’t affect me. If a girl who was bi-sexual hit on me, I would probably take it as a compliment since they are attracted to girls in the same sense a guy is. I also agree with what Sam said about how if you are homophobic, it is obviously because you are not comfortable with your own sexuality. There really is no other reason. I think it is different to not be able to understand how they feel about hooking up with and having sex, or wanting to marry another girl, and just being afraid of the actual person. I do not care if someone wants to make out with a girl or a guy, no matter what gender they are. I may not be able to be attracted to the idea of also making out with a girl, but they can do whatever they want. It all circles back to why are people making a huge controversy out of something that doesn’t affect them? This battle between heterosexuals against homosexuals is honestly stupid. Homosexuals are not asking straight people to turn gay, yet straight people want homosexuals to turn straight. I feel like right now, at the college age, this topic is almost taboo and I am really pleased with how this lecture was carried out with walls down and nothing off limits.
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I could definitely feel the tension in class on Thursday when we were discussing the LGBT issues. I myself am bisexual, I the reactions that I felt in class on Thursday were pretty intense. People were not very willing to participate in questioning the identity of other people let alone their own sexual identities. I was struck pretty hard when Sam said what he said in class about himself, the fact that if it were not for his wife being the epitome of all feminine beauty, he would be with a man. That comment was very strong and I felt like it almost reverberated throughout the entire room. Mostly I think because most people look up to Sam in a way that students should look up to any intellectual being, but to think that this cool guy could possibly be with another man? I don’t know. Maybe I was just thinking that the class had their expectations of Sam’s sexuality shattered at the drop of a hat in one session. As far as ethnocentrism is concerned, I think Sam also made a very interesting point in class. He said that people parade their heterosexuality and I never really thought about it that way. Of course, it is completely normal to see a straight couple walking holding hands, but even on campus at one of the largest public universities in the state, I still get stared at if I’m walking down Pollock Road with my boyfriend. Sam walking down the street holding hands with his professor is a perfect example of what I am talking about. I think that as far as issues concerning the LGBT community, the United States has a long way to go. We could even be further behind than the black struggle in the United States. We already have a black president, but when will we have a gay one? That’s an interesting thought I guess. Especially because gay marriage hasn’t even been passed in the states completely. Why does it have to be everyone else’s business? Does it hurt anybody? Or is it just the religion aspect? To be completely honest, I am usually baffled by the way this country works when it tries to handle issues such as these. We parade around in the world as if we are the free country, the proud country, the best country to live in but we cannot even grant our citizens full rights of marriage just because they like the same sex. I think it’s a load of crap but I guess it’s going to have to take another 40 to 30 years to get everyone to see that the homosexuals aren’t the cause of AIDs/HIV or the end of the world just because we can’t reproduce on our own. We are people too. Don’t treat us like a problem.
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Last class was my favorite class of the semester. I think that gay and lesbian issues deserve more face time and people never seem to get it because the queer community seems so hard to penetrate. Just last week my sorority helped sponsor and participate in a Gay- Straight talk that was so beneficial for both sides. Personally, I was interested to hear the personal stories about the struggles of coming and and living as a homosexual in today’s culture. I tried to put myself in their shoe’s and found myself admiring their courage and self-love that they were able to come out and live their life according to their own rules.
I agree with Sam that people do not choose to be gay. I have a few close friends who I have been friends since childhood that have since came out. Clearly, I knew from an early age that there was something different about my friends. I believe you are too naive at age 12, (when my friends started displaying signs of being different) to choose homosexuality.
Something I learned during class was the definition of sodomy. It seems comical but I really just associated the word sodomy with anal sex- specifically gay sex. The more I thought about it, I realized I really only thought that was the true definition. Little did I know it means anything other than vaginal intercourse. Interesting. I guess I’m in trouble come judgment day.
One thing that I do not get from class is the discussion on transgender. I do not understand how one with female body parts can “feel like they are a boy.” I am open to learning about it because clearly there are enough instances of transgender to make it a real issue. I just have trouble grasping the concept that someone can think they are a boy when they have all the body parts of a female. It would be easier to identify with a different gender but the fact remains that you are one gender or another. It just confuses me as to what exactly the person thinks and how far the feelings go.
I actually had the privilege of sitting next to my friend’s little sister who was up for the weekend and came to class. She was only 15 years old and this was her first introduction to a college class. She was obviously quite surprised but afterwards talked about how cool it was to learn things “that actually mattered.” She said after attending Sam’s class she probably will be a lot less shocked when she first starts to see classmates come out and/or participate in other sexual activities. It was a really eye-opening experience for me and I appreciate Sam’s honesty in teaching his class.
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In this world a lot changes at once. A lot of people don’t have an open mind within our society. However, numerous things would change if everyone’s mind was open. I believe that it would even go to the extent that children would not have the strict roles in society, and would have the freedom to excel with the things they are good at.
Starting off, I children are often forced to one gender before they are born. For example, when the parents get a sonogram to find out if the child is a boy or girl. Once, they figure out what gender their child is, many people will buy presents according to what gender they are socialized to be. Then this is the start to the world inflicting gender onto the child from here on. If there was complete freedom then the children would have more general toys, clothes, and more boys and girls as friends. They would have more of an opportunity to not be judged to be a certain way, as well as a new definition of masculinity. Men would not be as pressured to be so masculine, and would be able to naturally be as they want to.
As for same sex marriage would be a drastic change at first, many people would object. The main issue that I have herd of socially would be that girls that were in a bind and needed the advantages that normal marriages have, they would just get married for the benefits. However, there is a possibility that a man and a woman could do that today. What would the difference be? Society would be a lot more relaxed and less judgment if it is even close to being natural. There would be a lot of happier people finally able to be free. I also feel that a lot of people would turn to be gay. Many people would not have to think they are not gay, get married and then realize that their wife/husband does not make them happy. Obviously if everyone were to decide to be gay then, there essentially would be no children coming out into this world. However, it would help out the world by there would be less children to be adopted and china would not have to only have limited amounts of children.
In general the world would be a very different place for the better. It would almost be considered a utopia for some people. Society would be a different experience then what people of this generation have done. Is it possible? Yes, to have the same sex marriages, but people are not going to agree with it as much as if it had always been in place. The ideas that I have shown were in most relation to the world if it had already been in order. There are many obstacles’ to overcome if we are going to change society this drastic. However, it is worth it to maintain the ultimate “freedom.”
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The weeks talk on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual was very heated. There were some very interesting ideas being thrown around and they weren’t ideas I had heard before. For instance, I have frequently heard the argument that homosexuality isn’t a choice, but a chemical imbalance in the brain. In class, Sam not only mentioned the lack of testosterone that some males deal with, but he added a new level to the argument.
Sam showed us statistics on homosexuality in animals. Some of these animals in nature have sex with exclusively same sex partners. This would indicate that it is not just humans that choose to be attracted to other humans of the same sex, but a naturally occurring phenomenon in the world. In addition, Sam mentioned the ambiguity of human sexuality. The fact that none of us are truly straight or fully gay, that we all lay somewhere on a continuum, seems to be a logical conclusion. In ancient cultures, sex with multiple partners, both male and female, was very acceptable. In fact, Greek Gods and Goddesses frequently found themselves playing bisexual roles. This would indicate to me that the current taboo of homosexuality has been brought about by modern religion. The intolerance of Christianity and Islam towards gay people most likely brought about a change in public opinion.
The fact that being adamantly against homosexuality often is caused by a high amount of bi-curiosity was the final bit of stunning new information. Sam discussed a study done on non homophobic, moderately homophobic, and severely homophobic people to test their own homosexual feelings. The study consisted of the three groups watching gay porn while hooked up to a machine that monitored erectile activity, which would test for interest in the pornographic videos. The results showed that the non homophobic people were the least intrigued by the videos and that the most homophobic people were the most turned on. This study proves that a great deal of homophobia comes from people that have some bi curiosity, a sign that people do in fact lay on a continuum of sexuality. This study actually peeked my interest and I wanted to do my own self observational test at home. However, I did not have the balls to watch to men have sex with one another so I abandoned the self test. This did however reveal some things about myself, maybe I am not comfortable with my own sexuality, or maybe I have been socialized into thinking that homosexuality is wrong, or maybe I was worried a roommate would walk in and see gay sex on my laptop and forever label me a homo. I’m sure there are worse things in the world than having to explain watching gay porn for a class, but I chose to take the easy path this time.
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I consider myself to be a very open person. I love to learn, and I retain interesting information very easily. Educating myself has always been enjoyable to me. In fact, I call myself a compulsive researcher. However, in all my years of striving to educate myself and learn from those around me, I have never felt so uncomfortable in one setting. I was absolutely appalled by the things that Sam was saying last class. Not because I’d never heard LGBT issues being discussed, but most likely because I had never expressed those issues myself or had a really completely open discussion about them. I’ve always for the most part kept my opinions to myself, while trying to be as open-minded as possible. What I mean by this is that I feel uncomfortable talking about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered rights. This could be because of my family’s cultural and religious background which does not condone homosexuality, and I find myself to be in a state of identity foreclosure when it comes to my family, in that I’ve made a sort of commitment to these beliefs without exploration (not in the sexual sense, but in a mental sense. I haven’t thought enough in detail about LGBTs to come up with any real beliefs, I only know what I feel). Slowly (very slowly), I’ve found myself forced into thinking a little bit more extensively about LGBT rights, but nothing to the point that Sam brought it to.
I was immediately surprised and a little nauseated, admittedly, that Sam said the things that he did about all of us being a little homosexual. The idea of that bounced around my head for a few days, and only brought negative feelings out of me. I was shocked and indignant, because I’m a firm believer that there are straight people, gay people, bisexual people, and transgendered people, and why would you want to drag us all into that blurry area of gray and make us one in sexuality when we so clearly differed? I didn’t (and still don’t) like the idea of someone straight having homoerotic feelings. It seems despicable. However, a part of me began to wonder if some part of that was true. And then that part of me forced myself to evaluate why I was feeling that way. Am I so quick to deny the fact that all people have homosexual feelings because I have an internal fear of being with and falling in love with somebody who is actually gay? I do recognize that feeling within me, and whenever it is touched upon, it is a relatively consuming fear, so I wonder if that has anything to do with my evaluation. And then there is the fact that I went through a bicurious phase and quickly squashed out the possibility of being bisexual after a short period of time. Thankfully, I am very confident in my sexuality and I have no question about being straight. I am very grateful for my sexual orientation because I have no doubt that my entire family would crumble were I a lesbian.
It was eye-opening to hear some of Sam’s points (like the one about the commandments… never realized to what extent I am a sinner- pretty sure I have hell fire waiting for me now), however, I was not pleased with what he said about homosexual sex. Actually, I was extremely annoyed and indignant when he said that we should all try gay sex at least once. And then when he was talking about how he was attracted to men, though he has a wife, and he shouldn’t had sex with one given the opportunity, I was astounded. I felt like that was so disrespectful to his wife. Perhaps that once again stems from my fear, but I felt my jaw hit the floor. I’m not a fan of the way he was condoning us just going out and having sex with someone of the same sex, because “that doesn’t make us gay.” My goodness, if not gay, we’d just be a ridiculously horny lot (with very clear and extreme homosexual tendencies). Yeah, I’m gonna go with no.
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Thursday’s class was by far the most eye-opening experience of my life. Growing up in a dominantly white Christian town, I never would have thought it acceptable to embrace gay people as simply equals like this country brags about. So many people talk about how religion says homosexuality is wrong. That’s what I believed for most of my life because I was brought up to think that my religion was right and should not be questioned. However, I am glad that this wasn’t my parents’ doing, they always told me to do what I believed, do what I wanted (obviously within boundaries). It was the culture that I grew up in. Everyone was white. Everyone was straight. Everyone was Christian. Now I come to Penn State where there’s still a clear majority of white, straight, Christian people but it is quite different for me. As Sam pointed out in class, it must be much more of shock for the minorities that come to this University. This is why it was such a shocker for me (and many others in class) to hear Sam says things like he did. The one that really got me was, “if my wife died I know I would most definitely be with a guy.” I was in complete shock when he said that. However, when I thought about it for a little I realized that Sam is so open, so into the humanitarian stage of race relations that this would be easy for him to do. For me, and most others in the world this would be hard. Obviously most other cultures in the world aren’t white Christians, but most do not accept homosexuality as right. If, like Sam said, everyone in the world were open-minded and not so enclosed by ethnocentrism, imagine what the world would be like. I think that issues like this need to be looked at through a different lens in today’s society. Things need to be thought through more and talked about more openly, like we’ve been talking about in this course since the very beginning. In regards to this issue, like Sam said, if you compare this “sin” of homosexuality to others sins in the Bible, everyone is sinning, from drunkenness to fornicating, to adultery, everyone is a sinner (this is not only true in Judaism and Christianity but most other religions as well). The point that really got me is when he made reference to animals and showed the same correlations of homosexuality in many species of animals as in humans. Animals have no choice. It is not a choice for them to be homosexual. It is instinct. Some animals are gay by instinct, which has to mean God meant for it to be that way. He then went on to make the point that people are most likely gay since childhood, which also makes a good argument that people are gay from birth. It is not a choice that homosexuals make.
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Last week I decided to reply to post about the gay marriage because I just listened to Sam’s lecture that day. But since it is such an interesting topic, and Sam posted that youtube blog, I figure I will write about it again. After listening to this lecture and attending all of his classes, Sam has already changed my life, especially with my perception of race, religion, and sex. He is right about gay marriage. And now I think I have finally come to the conclusion that I am for it. Because like Sam said, how does it affect me? It doesn’t. I will hopefully someday be happily married to a nice woman. What do I care if guys want to marry other guys? It does not change my life, and certainly does not change a lot of people’s lives if gays want to marry each other. That is why I feel like they should be able to do what they want. This country is supposed to be the land of the free, and I think that should be part of their freedom. Now that I am in college I see more people coming out, because I think this is the time when people start identifying themselves. I am really not used to interacting with gays because I never really knew any growing up. Now that I am in college, some of the girls I hang out with have gay friends. And they are around once in awhile when we hang out. When I first noticed it I was a little surprised because I am never around gay guys. But after learning the things in this class I really have changed my outlook on the situation. And now I try to actually be friendly and talk to them. Also, my close friend from home always hung out with a gay kid. And I always used to wonder why he was friends with him, and even wonder if my friend was gay. But I just really realized that my friend and his friend have always been friends and he recently came out. And I think that’s really cool that he is still friends with him. That what I think it takes sometimes; to experience a friend coming out. That makes it a lot easier to become open minded about this stuff. I actually respect my friend even more for staying friends with the kid, even though he came out. I feel like I experienced this on a lower level. I’ve said it before but, Sam has said many interesting things in class and I agree with I think everything he has said, just because he makes things make sense. Anyway, I have a lot of respect for him. And towards the end of class he said he considers himself bisexual and if his wife were to die he would be interested in a man. Well, first of all that takes a lot of balls to say that in front of 725 college students. And secondly, after he said all that, it did not change my perception of him at all.
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The class that we had last Thursday on LGBT issues was one of the most interesting classes we’ve had so far. I’m really glad that everything was said openly and I actually learned a lot. This issue really hits home with me. Although I am not gay and don’t have any gay friends, my dad works for the Service Legal Defense Network (SLDN) which is a non-profit organization that is working to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law banning people in the armed forces from being openly gay. I was raised to not judge people based on their sexuality, race or gender but I was never really taught anything about the gay community until my dad started working for SLDN. He would come home with all kinds of stories and used to always joke about being one of the only straight people in the office. The people in his office would invite him out for a drink after work but he said he would always decline because he didn’t want to feel like the only straight person going out to a gay bar with the people he works with. I agree that this might be a little awkward but one day I told him that he should just try it and see what it’s like. I told him I wished that I had the opportunity to be put into the gay community even if it was just for a day just so I could see what it’s like. Luckily, last year at Penn State I was able to accomplish this. There was a boy living in my building on the floor above me who was gay. A girl that I was friends with on my floor invited me to go out with them one night. I had no idea what I was getting myself into nor did I know that her friend was gay. We walked into this party and the first thing I saw were 2 boys dancing with each other on the dance floor. I thought to myself “hmm ok that’s a little strange to be doing that so openly at a party” but I kept walking. Then, I realized that everyone in the party was gay or lesbian and I had no problem with that. The only thing that was a little awkward was the girls coming up to me trying to talk to me thinking that I was also a lesbian. It was actually a really interesting experience to be able to be in their world for a night.
I really don’t understand how people can be so against gay rights including gay marriage or gays being allowed to adopt or gays in the military. Like Sam said, if it’s not directly affecting us, then why should we care? Why try to stop people who are just like us from living their lives. America is supposed to be a place where you are free to make your own choices and live life as you want. If America is so free, then why is the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy still in place and why can’t gay people get married if they want to? I really don’t understand that sometimes. I also don’t understand it when people say that gay people chose to be gay. Who would choose to be gay and be faced with a life full of hardships and hatred? I am completely for all gay rights and hope that one day the U.S. will be able to become the free place that it claims it is.
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This past Thursday’s LGBT class was my favorite class of the semester so far. I feel like race is talked about so much more than sexuality but at the same time, both people are being discriminated against. LGBT people face just as many hardships as people of color. This brings me back to what a girl said in class one day. She mentioned that it might actually be harder to be gay than it is to be black. When she said this, you immediately saw all the black hands go up in disagreement. Maybe it’s because I’m white, but I agree with her statement. If you’re black then that’s just the way it is. Everyone accepts that it was the way you were born and there’s nothing you can do to change it. On the other hand, if you’re LGBT, you must constantly justify why you are the way you are. Some people are ignorant to the fact that you were born LGBT and it wasn’t a choice. I liked how Sam mentioned that it’s not a choice. He brought up a valid point; why would anyone chose to be gay, knowing the difficulties they must face?
I liked the point that Sam mentioned about why does it matter who gays marry? Like seriously, if two guys want to get married, then let them. Their marriage has nothing to do with me and won’t affect my life in any way so they should have the same rights as any straight couple. The results to the question that Sam asked, about what we thought about gay marriage was somewhat what I expected. I think gay marriage is being more and more accepted by each generation. When our parents were younger it wasn’t acceptable to be gay and often people didn’t come out as gay until later in their life. Today, LGBT people are more accepted. If this pattern continues, eventually it won’t even be an issue.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me but I really like this topic and it’s something I feel strongly about. I think what most people should have gotten out of this class is that sexuality is not a choice. And people don’t decide to have a sex change just on a whim. I feel like for the most part, I knew most of the stuff Sam talked about but it was nice to see him open other people’s eyes to LGBT issues. Walking out of class that day, I overheard two people talking and the one guy said he really learned a lot from this lecture. I think this struck people as more interesting just because LGBT issues aren’t really talked about. And as always, it’s fun to listen to Sam’s real life stories rather than just being lectured.
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My first response came in exclamation points all over my paper in class. When he pulled up the passages from the Bible and the Koran. My jaw dropped. I was thrilled, actually. To be honest, I thought he was going to completely ignore the religious thoughts on the subject or brush them away as crazy lunatics who have no right to say anything to anyone. He did neither. Strangely enough, I thought it was something the religious community needed to be reminded of: consistency. If they (and by that I mean “we”) are going to put our necks out there in this really intense and messy issue, and hold to a stand point that will alienate people we truly love and care about, then there isn’t room to get it wrong. There has to be consistency and that means that there is no hierarchy of sin. It is all the same. All the brokenness in this world gets the same stamp of condemnation at the end of the day. That is actually the most hopeful thing that one could hear. I was also really impressed with his response to Gary, the Willard Preacher. That was probably the most respectful treatment I have heard toward him from any corner, religious or otherwise. It gave me a way to see him with respect.
One thing I’m convinced of: it does affect me. It all affects me. My strings are tied to other people and we are all part of this mess together. I’m supposed to care. The LGBT community is supposed to care. This is serious stuff and it shouldn’t be a problem to have issues and disagree. Why can’t we disagree? Is that an infringement on someone’s freedom to tell them that they shouldn’t care? Only if freedom means that we can do whatever we want.
Questions I’m mulling over: What is freedom? Is it the ability to do whatever we want? To have some things private and some things not private? Where is that line? Who draws it? Why does it differ between topics like credit reports and online purchases against sex and sexuality? What defines a person’s sexuality? Is that something worth staking one’s identity on?
Perhaps that is way too much to bite off in one response post. But they are things I’m considering, especially the question of freedom. It is weird when I know that I consider myself a political conservative and yet I distrust government with all my heart and big corporations even more…. and I think there are places where a society should make a declaration about a moral action that is affecting everyone. I’m not sure the government has a right to say one way or the other… and yet we’ve told them they have to because of taxes and insurance and all this rot we have in our world. I don’t know. I really don’t know.
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For this week’s journal, I’ve decided to reply to Sam’s short YouTube video on LGBT issues. LGBT issues are something I feel very strongly about and anytime I discuss them, I make sure my point of view is known. I hate the intolerance that plagues our society even though our society claims to be so open and accepting. If we took a long, hard look at ourselves, we would see how much hypocrisy is all around us. People who know how painful it is to be discriminated against find it okay to discriminate against other people. Whether they are racial minorities or religious minorities, they find some way to justify their hate and discrimination. Everyone always finds a way to justify their discrimination because no one wants to face the fact that they are a hateful person. The fact of the matter is that hate is hate no matter which way you spin it.
It also bothers me greatly when people who are very religious tell homosexual people that they are evil. Religions are supposed to be all about love and acceptance and definitely not about hate. I don’t know of any religion that spreads the message that we shouldn’t treat people equally. As a Catholic, I know it doesn’t make sense when other Catholics say that hate gay people. Our religion teaches us that it’s okay to be homosexual, but it’s not okay to have homosexual sex. If gay people are not having sex they aren’t really bad people but devout Catholics seem to forget that rule. If you are going to claim to be a strong follower of your religion, you should at least know the rules. I can understand why some religions don’t want to accept marriages between two gay people but they shouldn’t have any problem with people being married by law. A legal marriage won’t disrespect a religion in any way so religious leaders should have no problem with it.
Whether people are religious or not, I don’t think anyone should have a problem with homosexuality. I know it’s different, but we need to start accepting that everyone isn’t the same. Our society has a history of treating people badly when they aren’t the same as everyone else. After hundreds of years, we should have learned our lesson by now. Gay people have to face discrimination for a choice that isn’t even theirs to make. I’m glad we are making strides towards equality but we aren’t making them fast enough. Gay people aren’t hurting anyone with their lifestyle so I don’t see why there is a problem in the first place. What two people decide to do with their lives is their decision. They aren’t committing any crimes so they shouldn’t be punished for what they do and who they love.
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I want to start off by saying I loved Thursdays lecture on sexual orientation. To me it was one of the best so far. There were some very touchy barriers hit in class that effect many people. The first thing that I can think of is gay marriage. I grew up in the Mormon Church were to be gay was one of the worst things possible. To me your sexual orientation was never something that was a big issue. I’m straight. I have always been straight. It is not something that I chose, it is who I am. That is the same way that I look at being gay. I also look at things in a scientific point of view. I look at the facts and make a decision based off of the information gathered. I think that gays should be given the right to be married if they would like to be. If there s a church that acknowledges gays as being able to be married, then they should be married. Who cares? Are people afraid that gays are going to move into their suburban areas and change everyone gay? Are they afraid that they might actually benefit from being married? I’m not sure what the American population is scared of losing by letting gays get married. Even if they get the benefits that the government acknowledges their union they really aren’t taking anything away from anyone else. I look at the facts and the facts are that gays are people just like you and me, and they should be treated the same as you and me no matter their sexual orientation.
The next item I found interesting was the topic of how men who are homophobic are the ones who get turned on by gay porn. I have never cared whether people are gay or straight, if you are a good person then I like you. I have even been asked out three times by three different gay guys and it has never changed my mind about the situation. In fact I was kind of flattered that a gay guy found me attractive on more than one occasion. I know guys that will not go places because they know homosexuals might be there. That’s absurd. He never even had a bad experience; he’s just terrified of them. Maybe he is one of those guys who gets turned on by gay porn. To me not going somewhere because of someone else who you don’t know might possibly be there. I have friends who are gay and my first thought is “okay, are you still my friend you have always been?” The answer every time has been the same, they are the same person they always have been. Plus most of the time I knew before they ever told me that they were probably gay. My view of that person does not change. The fact is they are the same person as before, they just don’t find the same person that I do attractive or maybe they do. I have to admit, I really felt the same way that Sam did when he said that he has thought about guys. I have checked out guys, but I know that I’m not gay and that I would probably be with a guy. I am comfortable with who I am. Like Sam said, it’s the people who are trying to hide something that are really the ones who fear it.
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The LGBT class on Thursday was probably the most interesting and enlightening class of the entire semester for me. I really enjoyed hearing what different people had to say about the subject. I appreciate Sam’s openness and willingness to say controversial and unconventional things, just so that we could get some perspective and to think more outside our own ethnocentrism. What really stuck out to me was when Sam mentioned the sins that are stated in the Bible. It really got me thinking that if all these things are considered sins then how is every single person in the world not going to or currently residing in Hell. That just really sparked my interest. When Sam said how, in the Bible, all of these sins are equal, I was baffled. I know this might be my ethnocentrism coming through, but I cannot see how being a homosexual and murdering someone is the same thing. I understand that different cultures believe different things and so do different people, but this concept is just crazy to me. To put two completely and unequal things on the same level is not right in my head. One of these things is an action that one chooses to do, and one is a characteristic that cannot be changed. They are just so different I can’t believe people think this even though I think of myself as an open minded person.
The class was so interesting that it carried onto my discussion group today. I think the stuff Sam said about freedom in this video was very accurate and I completely agree. In my discussion group today I realized that I value freedom a lot more than I ever expected. I started to think about how I would feel if my freedoms that I am privileged to have were suddenly taken away, and I cannot even comprehend it. I would be the most miserable person in the world. I originally said that I would not be willing to die for freedom, but when I really thought about it, I would definitely be willing to die for my freedom. If I were forced to change my way of life and the way I conduct every part of it, I would not be happy and therefore not be able to carry on with my life.
There are some people in my group who are from different cultures, and to them the United States has too much freedom. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this concept, but I see how different cultures feel comfortable with what they know and how they were brought up. They are perfectly comfortable with not having as much freedom as possible or as much as the United States. It is totally different for them because they are comfortable, and at the same time I would be horribly miserable if I had the same amount of freedom that other countries have.
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I really enjoyed the class on Thursday. I thought it was extremely intense. I personally consider myself that I do not care about the gender differences. For the first time in my life, I was forced to think about the gender roles very seriously. I didn’t think the topic wouldn’t be that interesting because I do not care about people having relationships with same sex. I mean there aren’t any reasons me to care and criticize about those homosexual people. It would be extremely pathetic of me to do that.
From my high school, people tended to understand about homosexual people. I am not sure if school being catholic mattered, but everyone seemed to face the reality so that they recognize the homosexual people are not different. I remember me using the word ‘faggot’ in front of a gay person in my senior year of high school. I would have never known that he was a gay until one of my friends told me who was sitting right next to me when I was saying that word. I was absolutely shocked by the fact that he was a gay and I used that word right in front of his face. What would’ve he thought about that? I gave like the worst scar on his heart. He probably never meant to be a gay when he was born. It was just in side of his mind to be a gay and I completely have any solid rights to make fun of him that way even though I didn’t mean to. After that incident I had, I am extremely careful of using those kinds of words and even by just looking at people using those, I feel very careful of people around me. I guess that incident was very reasonable because I wouldn’t have these kinds of thoughts if I kept myself that way still.
I was very glad that Sam tried to portray LGBT as something approachable easily and common because this issue certainly is not easy to talk about. Every single people on the earth deserve to have all the same rights to live happily. It should not be prejudiced even though the statement that Sam made about his sexual status as bisexual. But being adaptable to those kinds of statements. I agree with the theory that the most homophobic men are actually gay and taught to suppress their homosexuality because of what they think is deemed appropriate for society or maybe they were taught as a child that they are only supposed to be attracted to the opposite sex. I hope our society becomes more acceptable to gay and lesbian marriages because they absolutely deserve those kinds of things. I thought the class was very interesting and it was the most fascinating class so far.
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The class last Thursday was absolutely amazing in my eyes. This was by far the “best class of the semester.” I think this made a lot of students open their minds and think about this topic that so many ignore. I have a few gay friends and it angers me that they do not have the same rights I do, as a straight person. Oddly enough, like Sam said, the United States claims to be “free.” People are supposed to be able to think and act as they please. But how can everyone be free if they cannot love people they want to love without facing discrimination? Or marry people they want to spend the rest of their lives with? If we were all “equal” and “free” sexual orientation should not matter.
My best friend’s parents completely stopped talking to him when he moved in with his boyfriend after graduation. WHO CARES! I understand that it is their only son, who just happens to be gay, but they should not stop loving him because he loves a man. It does not affect them in any way except they will never have a daughter-in-law. Not speaking to him is not going to change the fact that he is gay. He is never going to change. This is like my mom not talking to me because I love a man. Why am I accepted and he cannot be?
It also makes me mad that people cannot accept those in the LGBT community. Someone’s sexual orientation does not affect anyone else. It is not like these people who preach against it have to witness these people in the bedroom. People are people. Sam mentioned in class that if his wife were to pass away before him, he would be with a dude. Rock on! The fact that he could stand up in front of 700 plus students and openly say that is awesome. If this would ever happen, he would still be the same person. Nothing will change except his personal life, which is truly no one’s business.
I support gay marriage 100 percent. If a man and women love each other, they get married. Gay people do not have this privilege and I think it is unfair. People need to get over the fact that the LGBT community is a reality and it is not going away. Acceptance would be key in letting these people share the same rights as straight people do in the United States. If everyone could take some time to get to know someone in the LGBT community, I think it would open their eyes. These people are really cool people and they are the same as straight people, they just have different attractions. Who cares? Not me.
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There were many good points that Sam brought up in lecture about the LGBT and in his blog. The most striking comment to me is when Sam asked how it affects me. Why would the allowance of marriage in the gay community have any impact on my life? There is no affect on me (being that I am not a part of the gay community). The one thing that has blurred societies vision of this simplistic idea is ethnocentrism and the need for all to believe in the same morals as you. It seems to be all about adapting to the social norms. Well recently this social norm has begun to shift to a “don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t tell” type of opinion or even the beginnings of allowance in some areas. I believe that society is becoming more globalized and open to change. The thought of interracial or intercultural marriages would cause outrage a mere 20 years ago. Now this is generally accepted in most societies. The next frontier seems to be that of same sex relationships. Eventually, I believe that same sex relationships will follow that same path as interracial relationships. There will always be opponents of the idea, but society will generally accept it.
Growing up for me, I had it engrained in my head that gay equals bad especially with the increased use of the saying “that is gay”. Stay away from gays. Gays are not like me. You play sports. They do dance and theatre. These are the schemas that are created when I hear about a gay man. This is utter ignorance on my part, but I did not know better. It was completely out of my control. This is why classes like Soc119 are so valuable. If this class was given to freshmen in high school, it would limit the hatred that is commonly found in that age group.
In my high school, there were a few eccentric students that were classified as gay even if they were not openly gay. Most of these classifications were correct as it has turned out. But I can recall that a major breakthrough in my thoughts of gays was when I was watching the Real World. A participant was gay on the show, but not like all the gays I knew. This gay was athletic, masculine, and partied with women. Could this guy really be gay? Yes. I am shocking myself by saying that the Real World has benefited society. It shows that gays are sometimes inconspicuous and that when you do not know, it does not affect anyone. If you can live with a person when you did not know they were gay, why would you not be able to live with that person if you did know? This prejudice does not make sense!
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I would like to comment on the LGBT class last Thursday. Honestly, this was definitely the best class of the semester so far. I think that most of us, like Sam said, have not had a class that really addressed sexuality and really sex in general. I think that classes like this help people to really become more open to LGBT ideas.
Personally, I have no problems with the LGBT community, and I think that most people have a gay friend which makes everyone more open to these ideas. I think that transgender/ transsexual people are the harder part of the community to accept because although they have always existed, just now in recent years has it started to become mainstream. There’s shows dealing with Trans people and I think that most people before didn’t really understand. If a boy thought they were really a girl then most people would say, you are probably just gay. But now I think that’s all changing because people are being educated on Trans.
Like Sam was saying, it is pretty disgusting that for as free of a country we claim to be and for believing that all men are created equal, we really do not live up to what we claim to be. I also think Sam had a great point when he said that people do not choose to be that way. People would not voluntarily put themselves into situations to be ridiculed. A few classes ago Sam mentioned something I had never thought of before. I can walk down the street holding hands with a boy, I can kiss a boy in public, I can go on a date with a boy with it seeming like date and that is perfectly acceptable in our society. Gays and lesbians could do all of those things but then they’d have to deal with the comments from people, the stares, the mean words. It’s really not fair. I understand that men and women ‘fit’ together in a way but God doesn’t make mistakes, people are homosexual because God made them that way.
I know that Thursday’s class was all about being open to different things and I am open to learning, understanding, and accepting the things we talked about but not so much acting on it. Sam said that women are more likely to engage in same sex sexual activity but the class kind of made me like guys even more. I don’t mind gay people and I’m not saying I do not accept them but for me, not going to happen. Just as there’s some people who are completely homosexual out there I am sure that there are people who are completely heterosexual. For some reason during class I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I really like being straight- that might sound weird or ignorant but it’s not.
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LGBT is an issue that, with time, has become more and more accepted. It starts little by little, but throughout the 90s decade it became an important aspect of life. People began to recognize it, and learn what it even means to be gay or lesbian. The media has allowed this topic to become popular by portraying gay characters on T.V. shows, movies, etc. These characters may be stereotyped to how a gay person may act, but it is opening the door for our society.
After watching and re-watching every episode from Sex and The City series, Stanford is the character who stood out to me, not because he is gay, but because of how the whole cast acts and reacts to his lifestyle. After sitting in this class, he is what came to mind. He is obviously gay; he wears the flamboyant outfits, he has the feminine voice and extreme “girly” side to him. He hangs out with both Carrie and Charlotte to help them with their relationship issues, and he discusses his. It is when he is discussing his that it just seems natural. No one on the show makes it a big deal that he goes to gay bars, that he has boyfriends, or has sex with other men. He talks about it like it is just normal, which it is. He is set up on blind dates, has bad and good dates, and has bad and good nights of sex, just like all of the women who are heterosexual. Stanford is just being normal. By watching this show it is showing to our society that being homosexual is not out of the ordinary. It does not affect the lives of either Carrie or Charlotte, nor anyone else living in New York City. It is his way of life and his entire story line just blends into the others. It does not stand out in a way that one would not want to watch it, or offensive. It is just love. Love in a different way than some people can accept, but it is all love. He is experiencing the same struggle that all four other women are because they are all single people living in the large city of Manhattan. Stanford being gay does not hurt the show, it just adds a new aspect. An aspect that our society needs to see and experience. His lifestyle adds flavor and spice.
An other medium that has portrayed gays in a normal and natural way are Will and Grace. This show was extremely popular while it was running. Today, reruns are still shown and loved by our society. In addition, Broke back Mountain was a movie, which won many awards. The story line involved two gay men, yet it was a great film. It could be controversial to some people, but why? These men are free to behave as they please. They are not harming anyone; they are just being themselves. It is their way of life. Homosexual is a way of life. Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell are both talk show hosts who came out of the closest. Ellen, especially, freely talks about her homosexuality and makes it public. Her and her girlfriend are happy, and do not seem to be affected by negative press. Ellen is great at what she does. She is funny and an excellent entertainer. Our society still loves her, and has not ruined her career based on her sexual preference. Why should it? Why should it even be a topic of conversation when it does not affect our lives? We still watch these shows and movies regardless of the characters sexual preference. It is love. Love is universal and should not matter whether its two males, two females or a male and a female.
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As far as Sam’s class went, it was great. I was uncomfortable for a lot of the presentation, but that is what I liked about it. It kept me listening and interested. I also was made to hear many LGBT issues that I had never accounted for. I was slightly a homophobe before but I think I am over it now because of the perspectives that I saw throughout the presentation.
One of the issues that were presented was whether gays and lesbians should be able to get the benefits of being married if they sought to be. I had never really put much thought into it previously, but after the class I sided with the option, “thought gays and lesbians should get the same benefits, but not be considered married.” And my reasoning for if it is, that the definition of marriage is between and man and woman. I believe gays can love and I think something should be done so that they can receive some kind of union and benefits that equal that of marriage, but I do not think it is marriage and it should be called something else. This is not true for every religion but I associate marriage with religion and if a particular religion allows gays to get married then in that religion can do that, but it is not common. The government could allow gays to get married tomorrow and I wouldn’t loose one minute of sleep, because it doesn’t affect me. I guess my real problem is governments issuing marriage certificates in general. Call me old fashion, but most people get married by a church not a government. No one should have to have the government say whether their marriage is legal. To me that is a violation of church and state. As far as receiving benefits of marriage I think the government should issue certificates of union benefitting gays and straights and then let the church fight over who can get married. In reality churches are like a private organization and they, for the most part, get to make the rules. I’m sure this has already been thought of, but if gays wanted to get married they could find or start a church that would marry them or also they could have a church that recognizes their union under a different term.
I think this would completely solve the issue of whether gays can get married. It would completely separate the government and marriage, although legally the union will be seen as no different. It will satisfy many people’s religious problem with gay marriage by putting the option of marriage in the hands of the people instead of the government and also allow benefits for all couples across the board.
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The topic of LGBT rights is so interesting to me. Partly because one of my good friends has two moms now after her mom came out as a lesbian about 5 or 6 years ago. The other part is the because of the discussion I had with my parents about LGBT rights after my whole town had found out the news about this friend of mine. Let me first start off by saying I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business; so being in sixth grade and finding out such news (when most kids really don’t know what it means to be gay at that age anyway) wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary. Anyway, I remember going up to my parents and obviously spreading the gossip and my mom had told me she knew from the day she met my friends mom that the woman was a lesbian. I guess it may have been the short hair, the manly look about her-the stereotypical look of what it means to be gay. The things I immediately wondered were; did her mom always know? Was it something she dealt with for years and years? Did she just decide one day that she was gay and that was that? My friend’s mom had divorced her husband and in the process happened to meet a woman who was a great “friend” of hers. As soon as they started spending time together it became almost inevitable that people started to question it, including her children. Eventually the two came out as a couple and the news was the talk of my small town for a good few weeks and that was that. Being a little older, I now know that this wasn’t a choice. Maybe she in fact did love her husband, but had to suppress her feelings because of the way she grew up or her family. Going back to the talk with my parents, I remember how they told me that when they were younger growing up in the 60s, my dad grew up in the same town on long island that I did, and my mom in Little Neck which is right by Queens, NY that people never just came out as gay. It was just something people didn’t do at that time- it was wrong, it was weird, it was gross. Now it is something that happens all the time. My mom proceeded to explain to me that the decision my friend’s mom made to be gay wasn’t a decision. It was the way she most likely felt for a long time, since she was young and had to hide those feelings to live what people thought was a “normal” life. What I like most about the country we live in is how people are becoming more and more open to topics like gay marriage and relations. The fact of the matter is, everyone has some sort of secret or something that is a little different then anyone else- whether it is a feeling or a physical attribute. Imagine if society shunned people for their individual differences like we’ve done in the past and people still do today for LGBT rights?
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I think sex in general is a topic that is still taboo for Americans to talk about. As Sam’s TA pointed out, the class got much more uncomfortable when we started talking about sex and LGBT topics. I have never had a sex talk with my parents beyond a mention of using protection and I’ve never wanted to. Our reluctance to talk about sex is demonstrated by the controversy over sex education, too. Talking to teens and children about sex in or out of school seems to be a continuing controversy regarding what to say and for what age group. In my opinion our sex education is not working too well when the U.S. has one of the worst teen pregnancy rates. I think we have trouble accepting that we are sexual beings from birth. But I think as we get more comfortable with homosexuality and bisexuality, maybe we’ll get more comfortable talking about sex and all types of sex. As Sam said, as a society we are moving towards acceptance of LGBT.
One thing that got me thinking differently is Sam pointing out that maybe most of us are in fact bisexual. We could go one way or the other. We could call ourselves gay, but fall for the opposite sex at some point. Or prove we can go the other way in experimenting and enjoying it, like the the story he told of two female roommates who had sex one time. Are we really all just like Tila Tequila? Anyone can be a lover in a relationship? It would really open up a person’s dating pool, I can say that. I think if people let themselves feel what they want to feel instead of what society tells them to feel, there would be a lot more bisexuality in society. If you were raised in society to like one sex, maybe you would not even consider the other sex until the possibility was revealed and allowed. Nowadays, I think society is moving toward accepting all kinds of sexual orientations, and one day kids will see the options early on. Future generations won’t be clueless about their homosexuality or bisexuality or won’t have to suppress it until they are older and feel comfortable coming out. They would be able to figure it out early in their lives or be able to openly be with one sex or the other as they explore their sexuality. Do we always need to define our sexual orientation? Can the terms of homosexuality and heterosexuality just disappear? I think we will still need them because some people are mostly straight or gay and straight or gay their whole lives with a dominant preference for the opposite sex or same sex. But, still, maybe we are all just a little bit bisexual.
Sam says he would get with a man if his wife wasn’t around anymore. I only half believe this though, and I suspect it as simply making a controversial statement to make people think. It wouldn’t be THAT easy to change over..would it?
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One of the most valuable lessons I have learned from Sam’s class is the importance of hearing and at least trying to understand people’s points of view on any given subject. After this class though, I can’t help but feel even more angry toward people who have issues surrounding the LGBT community and even more confused as to why these issues even arise.
Many people who claim to have problems with the LGBT community base their beliefs off the fact that their religion tells them that they should not believe in or allow homosexuality and therefore they do not. Maybe this is why I have such a hard time understanding religion. I mean, it seems to me that first and foremost someone’s God would want them to lead a good and full life. Isn’t a big part of living a good and full life caring about people and loving people for who they are. I know that people are serious about their religion, but I cannot sit here and believe in a God that only “loves” certain people.
The other thing that confuses me about people who have issues with LGBT’s is how they find it any different than having a problem with someone based off their skin color. Not so long ago in this country, people were discriminated against for being black and were not viewed as equal and for this reason were not allowed to get married in several places. Today, however, denying someone equal rights based on the color of their skin is a major taboo and illegal. Yet, these same people who can sit here and say that it was horrible what happened to african americans in the United States are some of the same people who want to deny these SAME rights to other people. But I guess to them, just because its not based on skin color its ok.
Now here is the biggest thing that bothers me about this situation. People will sit around and complain, and protest, and not pass laws legalizing gay marriage because they don’t believe its right. How can you have such a strong opinion on something that has such little affect on you. What does it matter if someone is getting married to someone else of the same sex? Do you have to sit there and watch them get married, or have sex, or interact on a daily basis? No. So what makes it okay, then, to deny granting them the right to be committed and happy to a person they love? I just don’t see how anyone could argue anything different, love is love and the law should never be allowed to get in the way of it.
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I really like it when we talk about controversial topics in class. You can look around the room and notice how people react every time that professor Richards says something that is out of the “normal”. There are so many view points and controversies when it comes to the topic of LGBT. There is a big ambiguity regarding being gay. People often wonder if it is a choice or something that happens naturally. In one of my discussion group a girl brought up a good topic. If being gay was a choice then after the struggle these individuals go through wouldn’t they want to not go through that and have the choice of being heterosexual? I think that homosexuality is not a choice but something that happens naturally. I personally don’t understand why people make such a big deal. These individuals who are homosexual are normal human beings who only want their rights heard. One of the biggest problem that others highlight is that is against god and that things would get confusing but really these individuals are not hurting no one. I think they deserve their right and not be discriminated because of their sexual orientation. Sometimes society is so rude. People don’t give them a change or even get to know them. Seriously I think that their sexual preference is no one’s business and is not like they are hurting anyone.
What I find unbelievable at times is the ignorance of certain people. There are those who think that homosexuality is a sickness or a disease. I remember back in my hometown people were so ignorant that they thought that being gay was a disease. And if you showed any sign you were taken to the doctor. No matter if the doctor said that it wasn’t a disease, people still had the idea that it was a sickness. Some people look down upon homosexuality as a shame. Actually I think that these individuals are brave enough to go against everything they have been taught by society and what is considered to be “normal”. I actually admire them because instead of just following the crowd and being the same they decided to truly do what they want to do and be different. I don’t think that anyone should be persecuted or feel shame for being a homosexual. I think life is so beautiful when you accept others as they are, without judgment, or preconceived ideas. I think that in the future people will eventually have to recognize that there is nothing wrong with being a homosexual. Society is going to eventually going to accept that there is nothing wrong. I don’t think this is going to happen overnight, but like every struggle over a long period of time.
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No matter what age I’m at, I still find that talk of sex seems to elicit the same nervous laughter that I heard when my fifth grade teacher first mentioned the act in class in what already appears so long ago. And judging by the response of most of the class on Thursday, things certainly haven’t changed. Maybe it is simply because we still aren’t at an old enough age to maturely talk about the subject. I can’t really guess as to what percentage of the campus is sexual active or not but on the other hand, perhaps I’m missing the issue all together. It is possible that the issue will always be whispered about as long as sex remains a controversial issue in our society today. I’m not implying that a radically liberated world (i.e. Brave New World) would be anything conceivable or even worthwhile, but something as natural and commonplace as sex should definitely be more openly discussed in an intellectual dialogue. Sex is everywhere. In film and literature you would be hard-pressed to find any serious piece of work worth looking into that doesn’t involve at least the mention of sex. Yet, whenever sex is referenced it automatically becomes a somewhat unmentionable and commonly awkward conversation. What I am suggesting here is if the topic of sex was more publicly accepted, then maybe issues such as gay marriage and LGBT issues would also be easier to negotiate. If it became easier to talk to a child about sex without skirting around certain issues perhaps the next generation will be more knowledgeable of the wide spectrum of sexual orientations and its derivatives. I find that the people most opposed to gay marriage and LGBT individuals are often the most ignorant on these subjects. How can you be against something that you have never been acquainted with in the first place? I found the best message to come out of this particular class is that people will be more accepting of things once they experience them. I was rather intolerant of homosexuals until a buddy of mine that I had known all through high school admitted to his parents that he was gay. Even after this, I imagined a completely separate person from the one I had known my whole life. Of course, when I met up with him the next time I was able to regain my senses and understand that it was plain ignorance of homosexuality that forced that original impression of my friend into my consciousness. This is not to say that everyone against homosexuality and gay marriage is ignorant. Some people simply hold values, especially religious values, which force them to be opposed to those lifestyles. Being religious myself, I can’t argue against the power of religious conviction, but don’t blindly accept the beliefs that were doubtlessly imposed on you without testing out the waters for yourself.
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Last Thursday’s class was definitely not expected. I have a quiz in my next class after Soc 119 every Thursday so I try to look over my notes while listening to Sam. Let’s just say that on Thursday, I couldn’t help but listen to Sam. I literally could not even try to study. First of all lets be real, I think the entire class was shocked when Sam said that if his wife were to pass away before him, he would undoubtedly be with a man. “Because I am attracted to men,” I think were his words. I kind of had a better understanding of the class after Thursday. Beginning of the year I thought the class was ok but I actually look forward to going to my discussion groups now. Sam asks in the video if any of what we talked about actually effects me. Well, in reality it doesn’t. I’m a straight female and I don’t plan to ever change but it’s very uncommon nowadays for gay and lesbian relationships. I’m not saying I agree with them and I sure wouldn’t want my children to be exposed to any of it. But it really doesn’t affect me. I do not know what its like to be lesbian or gay so there is not much I can say because I am sure that if I were to know what it felt like to be those things, my opinion would change. But I think that everyone in the world should have an equal chance to be happy. And if you’re a guy and want to marry a guy, go ahead! As for the children (if there are children involved), I think that they are more likely to experience not-so-normal lives because of what they are raised by. Children copy their parents all of the time and I just don’t believe that it is a good example. I want people to be happy and I understand that they cannot change who they are or who they are attracted to. But I also think believe in God making Adam and Eve for a reason. I watched a video that was on the Tyra Banks show about a month ago. Tyra interviewed a boy that had actually had an exorcism performed on him to get the “homosexual demon” out of him. Is there such thing as a homosexual demon? As Tyra interviewed the young boy, he said that he did not want to be gay. He said he grew up being attracted to men and couldn’t help it but wished that he was normal. He talked about cross-dressing when he was younger. There is an actual video of the exorcism. The boy is lying on the ground of the church convulsing while the preacher is yelling and casting out the spirit. His body looks unreal the way it is moving. The boy continues to convulse and starts to vomit. It’s absolutely ridiculous. He said that he doesn’t remember it. He said that when it started his body went numb and he fell to the floor and does not remember anything after that. After the exorcism was performed, he said he was no longer attracted to men. He did not sound 100% confident in his statement but he did declare that it worked. So is it really considered a demon or curse if you are homosexual? It’s a whole entire different way of looking at it. I do not think we will ever know.
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The past two classes discussing LGBT issues has brought up a lot of key issues surrounding our Country at current time. I was both uncomfortable feeling accused of not accepting Gays and at the same time realizing that I didn’t completely accepted them because I have never had the same experiences as them. It wasn’t until high school that I met my friend came out to us that he was gay; but that didn’t change our relationship at all. In fact, I think I became closer with him after the fact because he did end up loosing some of his guy friends over it and had more girl friends. There is nothing that I would ever do to deny his happiness; and although I cannot completely understand him, I still care about him as a person. I do not look to him as a “gay” person, but rather see him as a person with a fun-loving person who would rather I went out bike riding or played some intense Ultimate Frisbee with him than sit around and gossip. He’s a lot like my other guy friends, except that he dresses nicer. Or friendship is easy because we both know we can joke around without the sexual tension that some girls and guys have wondering of the other one likes them or not. And one great thing about him, is that he is one of the most excited of my friends when I head back home, since he doesn’t go to college with me. Up until a few years ago, I did not understand anything about being gay, but he really opened up my eyes to understanding. His relationships with guys are very similar with my relationships to guys; if I do need advice, he is more than wiling to help and can even be more helpful than some of my girls, because he can somewhat tell how straight guys think, since had “been” one for a while.
You nay not understand where I am going with this, but I really wish Sam had focused less on the actual “sex” portion of the LGBT issue and more on the understand of someone that is different than you. A lot of what Sam said put too much shock on people, and although this really promoted the eye awakening for about 700 people, it also detracted from a sincere message. And this is that sincere message: gays and lesbians are people too, and they deserve to have equal rights as us.
That being said, I do have to admit a struggle I am still having . I was raised based on Christian-Catholic ideas and morals. For my whole life, until Junior year when I began to get really close to my gay friend, I always thought Gay marriage was wrong—or at least I was taught that. Now, I ma not going to say that I have now switched sides against my religion, but I have come to a central ground on the matter. I think that marriage is a religious sacrament, so if the any Religious institution denied a gay couple the right to get married, they would be legally allowed to do so. The couple could go to any other institution to make their “union” which is what I would term it. I would hope to give my friend the happiness he deserved by being “unionized” with his partner. He can call it married if he wants, and I would support that. But I would say that a Religious institution does not have to call it a marriage, they can call it a union. The issue on this whole matter is that you have to RESPECT EVERYONE involved…that means you have to respect both the gay couple AND the church. If you can’t respect BOTH SIDES and allow each side to disagree, then you are defeating the purpose of ACCEPTING EVERYONE.
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In today’s society, everybody’s talking about sex. From a peck on the lips to the “real deal”, if a person is in the right environment, the topic of sex is pretty much open for discussion, without too much cringing or resistance. People in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community can talk about sex openly, too. Kind of. However, those of the LGBT community are forced to place themselves in the appropriate open enough forum in order to state their case, to inform other people both inside and outside of their community. Why do I believe this is? Because heterosexual sex is what we know. It is what we were raised to expect and to obtain ourselves. And homosexual or any other type of LGBT is unknown to many. People are afraid of the unknown. It is just a fact of life.
I believe that education and exposition to the LGBT community is the way to make people more accepting, for example, what we have been talking about in Soc119 this week. People are completely ignorant for many, many reasons…whether they are just very conservative, they have been ignorantly raised to dislike people that are unlike themselves…they use the whole “if everybody was gay, there would be no procreation” bogus excuse, etc. People like this are often left to their own devices, however, then the LGBT community is still defeated. Society must educate people so that they understand that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is not a “choice”. They are not making a statement, they are just living life the way they believe they were born to do so, just how many of us do this as a straight person, and we are respected for our decision to instinctively do that.
One way that I believe education and acceptance could be achieved is for gay public figures to be activists in the LGBT community and use their popularity and public forums to educate society that they are no different than them (more successful, if anything!). People such as Ellen DeGeneres and other respected celebrities who happen to be gay should use their prestige, power, and popularity to advertise the normality of homosexuality. A sad fact in the celebrity world is all the debates that go on about whether gay public figures should come out, or remain in the closet. This is incredibly reflecting on our society. If we openly say that we cannot support a successful, powerful public figure who is gay, it is clear that we have even bigger issues with the commonfolk that come out.
I, for one, know that if somebody close to my heart confided in me or came out as gay, my thoughts or feelings about them as a person, a thinker, a friend, a sister or whatever else wouldn’t be altered in a least. If a person is straight, their sexual preference does not define them at all. If a person is gay, they are constantly labeled and the label seems to define their life and most aspects of it. This is certainly not acceptable.
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I personally have no problem with the sexual orientations of others. I personally do not care about the sexual decisions other people make in their lives. That has absolutely no relevance in my life. It does not affect my choices or the person I decide to get involved with. Who am I to judge what goes on in someone else’s bedroom and/or who another person is in love with? It is, personally, not my place to show the slightest bit of disgust or express any aggressive disagreement towards a same sex person or couple, even if I did hate the idea of it. But why do people feel the need to bud into other strangers’ lives? The answer is clear, but STUPID. Society is so wrapped up in what they think is “right”, what is socially acceptable, and what constitutes as an American modern family, that society has forgotten how to think holistically for themselves. There are no rules and regulations to life. There are no set standards on how to live accordingly. How can we possibly have rules, regulations, or set standards when every single person on this planet has their own story, their own well being, or…how about this one…their own brain? I understand how the idea of gay relations can go against religious ideas, and that’s fine. If someone truly does not agree with other sexual orientations then heterosexual whether due to their religion or otherwise, then that is that and you’re set in your way, BUT to cross the line and believe that you have the right to deny those people their comfort ability and rights…that’s just wrong. The world has to stop thinking that the people living on earth must all be the same. Everyone has their differences in every way possible. Why can’t we ever embrace that? Why can’t we step out the hole of conformity and look at others like human beings inside of, I don’t know, robots? Everyone feels and everyone loves. Who you love should not be of anyone else’s business. It saddens me to know that gay couples can’t even be with their partners legally or even in public, for that matter, most times. Society will always have its differences, but maybe we will learn how to respect those different from us in the years to come. I think we are warming up and accepting LGBT couples now more than we did, though, which is a great thing. When we learn how to show compassion and love even to our stranger or enemy, then we will learn how to live because you will be able to look at the world in a different light…and that’s a blessing in disguise. Word of advice: Live your life and leave the ignorance behind.
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I am glad that “God was in the room” towards the beginning of the LGBT lecture because I believe that it forced some people to rethink his/her prioritizing of sins. I see it all the time, and honestly it is why I’m usually not a big fan of people who claim to be religious. Some of the most religious people I know that are truly religious do not go around cursing people for their sins, but instead try to help people through a difficult situation. If you are a casual church goer and condemn one sin, but partake in numerous others, what does that say about your views on God and religion. It is disrespectful to God and religion. Just because a sin in partaken in more than others does not make it any less wrong in God’s eyes.
I am also glad that “God was taken out of the room” later into the lecture because many people I know that do not support gay rights fall on the argument that it is considered a sin by God. Once god is taken away, the argument often cannot be supported or at least not very well. It opened a door many people have not considered those points, which is what I enjoyed about the lecture. However, it was only a start. It is good that people are thinking about these issues and equality needed, but in class on the following Tuesday there was a recognizable stir amongst the students when Sam put up an image of a gay couple kissing after being married. It is unlikely there would have been the same commotion if the image was of a heterosexual couple kissing after the ceremony.
I think the commotion showed that people are okay with the subject at a distance, but when it come up close and personal there is still quite a bit of uncomfortableness in the matter. Why should it be uncomfortable though? You aren’t the person being kissed or kissing someone of the same sex so it shouldn’t matter. You aren’t in the relationship so it should not make a difference. It is two people that care about one another and are comfortable in their own skin. I wish I could be that open about my differences.
On a different note, I think it is hard for people to understand the LGBT community because people really don’t even talk about heterosexual sex. It is not something people are very open about. Sure we watch porn and hear about sex every day, but when do we ever talk about it on a personal level? It is still one of those subjects people get immature about and don’t know what to say about it. How many people talk to their spouse or partner openly about sex and what he/she likes? I don’t think it happens too often. Like Sam said in class after the LGBT lecture, he explored sex because he was not surrounded by it as our generation tends to imitate something we don’t know much about. It is about imitating rather than learning and understanding. When people can openly and maturely discuss sex in general, LGBT issues will slowly fade away because there will be a better understanding about sexuality in general.
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It really caught me off guard when Sam said that were all a little homosexual or that we all had it in us. I’m not exactly sure what all he said but it was something along those lines. I kind of agree with him that like there is a spectrum and people are all somewhere in the middle. I think he said something like you aren’t just straight or gay. Maybe that is true. I like to think of myself as straight and I don’t really think I’d ever be interested in another female or anything like that. So maybe some people are just straighter than others. This is such a controversial thing and no one is ever going to think the same thing. We talked about this in class today a little. I am not against being gay. I have taken classes in the past that I think I know for a fact personally that it’s not a choice. Therefore I don’t condemn it at all. Love the sinner; turn the other cheek to the sin. I can completely understand why some is gay and I really don’t think that they can change it about themselves at all. Like we talked about today though, I do not agree with gay marriage. I think the unions are fine. If I know what I think I know about a union, it’s just rights granted to you and your partner for your partnership. Marriage is completely different. Marriage is, the legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of a man and woman to live as husband and wife. I got that from dictionary.com. But anyway. It makes zero sense for someone of the same sex to get “married” if they get a union it is the same damn thing minus having the religious part. And someone in the class today said that well they should still be able to get married. Why, do they even know what “marriage” is? It really pisses me off. It is a scared sacrament not be toyed around with. And yes people get divorced, well that’s their own decision and they can deal with the consequences, but for a priest to unite a same sex couple under God is blasphemy. That’s just my opinion. To someone that as no religion whatsoever I can see how this would be ok. No one is ever going to agree on this topic so we should all just meet in the middle and go from there.
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Prior to the LGBT class I was very elusive regarding the issue. I took a very, “well I’m not gay, I’m not around gay things, so I don’t think about it or care about it” stance. But some of the things Professor Richards said during class kind of lit a spark in my brain and got my thoughts stirring regarding the issue. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only person in class who experienced the same thing.
Sam did a very good job of keeping people guessing, but at the same time he made us all think critically. For example, I have never asked a gay person why they are gay. I always just judged them first. I was quick to look down upon them and judge them for something that after lecture I truly believe is out of their control. Prior to lecture, I believed that it was a choice that they made that I just didn’t understand or believe in but now, since Sam has asked us to look at why we are straight, I understand that it isn’t a decision, but just how a person is. I didn’t choose to be attracted to women, it is just the way I am. Now that I understand that and have taken a step back, I understand a gay person doesn’t choose to be attracted to someone of the same sex, they just are.
At the same time, I still feel that being gay is a choice to some extent. This is because of the middle ground, on the fence portion of sexuality. Like I admitted above, it isn’t a person’s choice to how they are wired, but they do have choices of how they act upon it. I am straight man, but I have bro-crushes, and there are men who I genuinely think are attractive, for example David Beckham and the wolf from the new Twilight movie. I just choose not to act upon those attractions. The same goes for lesbians and gays. There are gay men who find women attractive, but choose not act upon those attractions because they are more partial to other men. On the other hand, there are gay men and women who fear the stigmas associated with being homosexual and choose to suppress their attraction to the same sex.
Regardless, my eyes were opened by the LGBT lecture and now have a greater understanding and appreciation for homosexuals. I never had an issue with homosexuality, but I also thought it was merely a choice and didn’t take the time to ask a gay person why they are gay. If someone is homosexual I hope they find happiness, and next time a gay guy comes up to me on the street and compliments my ass, I’ll thank him because like Sam said, what harm is a compliment, and when was the last time a girl gave me one?
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LGBT rights have always been an issue with the government and how people are supposed to feel about it. In the past years, with all the issues revolving around gay marriage my generation has been exposed to a lot of different ideas and have all developed our own views on issues of this nature. I came from a very diverse high school and LGBT kids were by far the most discriminated group of students. I never participated in this discrimination but, I found myself just steering clear of LGBT groups and just never wanted to get involved with any of it because of how horrible some of the kids treated LGBT students. It was not until one of my friends came out of the closet where I learned that there was nothing wrong with being gay and that most gay people do not to choose to be this way. When Sam brought about the studies that have been done on animals that choose to have same sex intercourse even when they are around animals of the opposite sex it goes to show you that animals are born this way and do not choose to be gay. If some animals are born gay then humans are born in this same way. I think that once a person gets the thought of people choosing to be gay out of their head one becomes very accepting of gay people. Plus gay people have no affect on my life it really doesn’t matter what they are doing out in the world in relation to my life. If LGBT people don’t bother me why should I have a problem with them? Who are we to tell two gay people in love that they cannot get married? The example that Sam gave in class with the comic strip of some of the reasons two straight people get married was eye opening to acceptance to gay marriage. Straight people get married for some horrible irrational reasons. To tell two people of the same sex that there is something wrong with getting married is wrong. Love is a natural emotion we as humans feel. Why does it matter if they are of the same sex?
I believe that more people are becoming accepting of gays and gay rights. It is now legal to have a same sex marriage in various states and I can predict more states will come around. I have seen much more acceptance of gay students here at State College. It seems people are beginning to see gays in a different and better way. The lectures in class really opened my eyes to new ways for looking at gay rights and LGBT people in general. More people need to see statistics and proof that people do not choose to be gay and that gay marriage is perfectly acceptable. At times gay marriage can even be more acceptable than straight marriage. The world is coming around and the lecture about LGBT issues made me look at these issues in a different and better light.
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The class in which we discussed Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issues was a very humorous yet informative class. I feel that because I am not around LGBT people often that I do not truly understand the struggles and the issues that they have to deal with on a day to day basis. In some ways you could say that I am partly in the pre awakening stage when it comes to interacting with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. Although, I am aware and can determine the differences between straight and gay people, I am not truly informed about all the issues related to LGBT. I believe that the main reason for this ignorance is my lack of exposure to those types of people. Part of that lack of exposure is my fault for not really wanting to be around that crowd. Nothing against LGBT people, but I feel more comfortable around people that are similar to myself. I guess that makes me a bad student in this class but who cares. I am a big fan of having a routine and being a creature of habit.
I was, like many people I believe, a little thrown off guard when Sam said that if his wife died he would definitely want to be with a dude. As a straight person I felt a little bit uncomfortable for a second or two, but I quickly resumed my Sudoku puzzle. I know that many of the stories Sam tells are completely true and he has done a lot of stuff in his life but I feel that he embellishes some on certain things he says. For example, when he says that he doesn’t look at or isn’t attracted to any other women other than his wife, but he will see guys and checks them out. Personally I think that is a lie and he was trying to get a reaction from the class in order to make the class seem more interesting. At the beginning of the semester he said that he will not try to change any ones beliefs and that he just wants to get us to think more open minded. I have noticed that when talking about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issues he is much more passionate and really shows his bias. On issues relating to African Americans or whites he was very impartial and clearly presented both sides. Nothing against Sam, but I found it interesting that I could see his bias on the topic of LGBT. As a sociology professor he is supposed to be impartial and he almost always is. I think that there is nothing wrong with expressing ones opinion when one feels strongly about something. That is the whole point of believing a certain way.
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I personally care if someone is gay or not gay. It still creeps me out, and I do not know if I can get over it. Like I do not understand how having sex with someone of the same sex is natural. I know that other animals do it, but the vast majority do not, and neither do people. This is why I do not think they should be married. Marriage to me has always been between a man and a woman, and it has been throughout the history of mankind. They can have all the legal benefits of marriage, but do not call it marriage because it is not marriage. Calling gay couples marriage is a disgrace to the name of marriage. This is coming from a kid with divorce parents who hate each other and cannot be in the same room without a terrible argument breaking out. The definition of marriage according to dictionary.com states, “he social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.“ This therefore proves my personal defination of marriage. The marriage definition that Sam put up in class was very biased to his viewpoint and had no valid source backing it up.
What I do not like however are the extreme gay bashers. These people are also morons and need to find something better to do with their life. If there is something that pisses me off, it is extreme fundamentalists of any religion who take it to seriously. Example being Protestants that have posters quoting the Bible outside chanting at anti-gay rallies. These people, as Sam stated, are hypocrites, as they have never committed a sin. It is a certainty that some of these people had sex before marriage, which technically is a sin on its own.
About gay people being in the military, I do not know what to think about this because I personally have never been in any United States military situation, so I am not a good source to comment on this. I have heard arguments from both sides on the situation. My opinion about it is they should be let in as long as their not flamers, and also if someone makes a move on a soldier, they should be discharged. Also gay sex should not be taking place.
Transsexuals to me are not really people because I have no idea what to classify them as. They are just way to weird for me to comprehend. Like what are they. Trannies are not male nor female, it is like they are their own class of people. Which bathroom do they use? They are not equipped with anything.
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I’m writing journal in response to Sam’s video blog entry on LGBT issues on November 6th. In the video Sam talks about why it is so difficult for the LGBT community to be accepted in this world, especially in the United States which is supposed to symbolize “freedom”. I think a lot of it has to do with the way that people are brought up in our society. A lot of movies that you see tend to be discriminatory towards the LGBT community. In return, our youth are taught to believe that these people are different than everyone else and shouldn’t be accepted in our society. This wasn’t an issue for me since I found out an early age that my sister was a lesbian. This changed my entire perspective on the LGBT community and I’m definitely more accepting to meeting gay people now. I believe that when most people think of LGBT’s they think of flamboyantly gay people and thus are somewhat tentative towards speaking to them. I understand why this occurs, but I believe a majority of LGBT’s don’t act in this manner. My roommate had one of his gay friend’s come to Penn State last year and I would never have guessed that he was gay if he hadn’t told me beforehand. I’m sure that I’ve met a ton of gay people in my life that I didn’t know were gay. Every Christmas my sister has a party at our house and invites a lot of her friends that are gay. All of them are extremely friendly and I get along with all of them. When we go out to the bar you can just sense other people talking about them under their breath. This made me extremely irritated and I wish I could try and make all of them understand and stop being so ignorant. For some reason people think that making fun of LGBT’s makes them feel better about being straight. Of course most of these people are uneducated and dwelling in the low-life of society. I grew up with a ton of people with these sorts of ethics and it’s nearly impossible to change their opinions. It’s tough to predict what will happen in the future, I really can’t see things getting much better. There will always be people that will be ignorant and hatred towards the LGBT community. Most of this will be because of their parent’s opinions and prejudices that will rub off on them. I hope someday there will be some sort of significant change in the way that the LGBT community is perceived and a majority of people accept them. I don’t really count on seeing that happen in my lifetime.
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I feel that people tend to forget that humans are social creatures. Us humans long for interaction of any kind by any gender where it be from our same or opposite sex. I start off by saying this because the things that Sam said (although they may have seemed a little far fetch at the time) followed this same ideology. I identify myself as a straight male, I am attracted to females an always have been but I can understand the concepts that Sam was trying to explain to our class. For example it seemed that the underlining message to Sam’s lecture was that sexuality as a hole can be seen as a continuous spectrum and not just the three labels homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual. An example of this that kind of stuck out to me and I found odd at first was the prisoners’ aspect. Male prisoners go to jail an often exhibit homosexual activities because they have no females around, but upon being released from prison they don’t identify with being homosexual and continue on as a heterosexual male. I feel this happens because, with the theory that sexual orientation is a continuous spectrum, when presented with the obstacle of not having that human interaction (i.e. sexual contact, compassion, .ect) some people are prone to changing there position on the spectrum to became more adapted to their surroundings. This of course is only the male example, which I feel it takes extreme circumstances (like being completely isolated from our prefer partner either same or opposite sex) for this to happen because we are not as compassionate and secure with our sexuality as females are. Females on the other hand seem to be more in tune with this and I base this off that fact that females seem to have more intimate friendships with other females that have somewhat of a romantic feel. Also the study Sam presented that showed females get turned on by all types or pornography is another reason that I came to this conclusion. Most females can make out with another female because they like the interaction and feeling of it without being classified as gay and not ultimately change their overall preference. I feel that this is because they are more compassionate and have a better grasp on what sexuality really is. This could because of biological differences between males and females but I lean more towards it being a cultural/imprinted difference. To make it simple basically as a male u are breed to be tough and hard like a protector (i.e. boys don’t cry) where as females are breed to be more caring and compassionate (i.e. most females are taught it is ok to exhibit emotions and express them).
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The reason why Sam’s class is so interesting and important is the main idea behind each and every one of his lectures, and that is to not have a narrow minded view on issues. The key is to open yourself so that, even if you do not change your mind, you can at least see other people’s views and angles on issues. There were about three classes that I thought were especially eye opening, and one of them was definitely the LGBT class. Even before I started to really think about LGBT issues, I was never against homosexuality and always felt like they should be given equal rights. I am from Massachusetts so I am familiar with the gay marriage debate and live in a place that is predominately open minded about homosexuality. Surely if I grew up in the south or something I would most likely have been exposed to very different ideas about homosexuality. Although I never had a problem with someone’s sexuality, I admittedly never really thought too much about what it was to be LGBT. As a straight, white male I rarely ever see what it is like to be a minority or live in a society with people who aren’t all pretty much the same as you. That said, Sam’s class really opened my eyes not really about tolerance of gay people but rather the discrimination and extreme injustices that they face.
One of my favorite points of the entire lecture was the portion about selective sins. It’s the idea that religious people often select the sins that they are least likely to commit and then dub them the “worst sins”. In most cases even lashing out at people who commit them. This is one thing that I have never really thought about but find to be absolutely true. Although people may drink, have premarital sex, and even commit sodomy (by its definition) they are so quick to say homosexuality is wrong because the bible says it’s a sin. Really? I am so sick of people justifying things like this with the bible. I mean if we were going by the Bible at all times we could justify slavery and even sentence a prostitute to death by stoning. Are people serious? The hypocrisy here is incredible. Sure, I will not argue that the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin, but you know what else the Bible preaches? Even more than straight sexuality, the Bible preaches tolerance and love for all people. Love thy neighbor. Isn’t “love” arguably the most important idea in the Bible. God loves all men. Jesus died for us because he loves everyone, sinners and all. Now what I have a problem with is Christians who can’t stop saying the word “hate”. Like for example, the people who preach outside the hub. They seem to hate everyone but themselves. They preach from the Bible, but seems like they are missing the point. Anyway, what was so interesting about that point was that it really uncovers the hypocrisy of people who justify being homophobic with the bible.
I believe that homosexuality is not a choice and that people who happen to be homosexual deserve equal rights as any group in the United States. I really loved the part in the video where Sam points out that we like to believe that the United States is the “freest country in the world” yet we have the Government and other people going “into people’s bedrooms” and trying to control who they are attracted to. It is quite honestly an outrage and a gross injustice.
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We had an interesting discussion in our small group meeting class this morning about this subject of LGBT. We talked about a variety of different topics and an interesting question asked was how we would react if we had children in the future and they turned out to be gay. Some people said that they would be completely fine with it but I feel as though some of them were just saying that just to give a socially correct answer. A few people as well as I said that we would be uncomfortable about it and they asked if I would try to change our children’s sexual preference to heterosexual. This is a tough question to answer because as one person brought up in the discussion, sometimes it is hard to tell what you would do in certain situations until you are actually in that situation. For me, I would be upset about it and talk to them about it. I would not try to force them into changing their sexual preference because the result of that would be that they would grow up unhappy and it would make things turn out worse in the future because of this.
This leads into another topic that was brought up about LGBT in our discussion. The question was asked if we think that everyone’s sexual preference is something that is a choice or is it something we are just born with and we do not have any control over it. The decision was unanimous that sexual preference is something that you are born with; it is not a choice. However, now that I really think about it there is a situation that questions that it is not a choice. My friend whom I met my freshman year in college is a lesbian and she is open about it. She is a really cool person: down to earth, funny, easy to get along with. I would always joke around with her asking if she was sure that she didn’t like guys, because she is attractive. She then told me that she used to be straight but she had some bad relationships with guys in the past and it made her change her sexual preference to liking other females as a result of it. So in this situation, I feel as though her sexual preference was made by choice because she liked males growing up.
Another subject that came up was gay marriage and if we were against it or not. For me, I wouldn’t say that I am for it or I condone it but if that is what certain people decide to do, who am I to judge them?; it does not affect me in any way.
Something else that came up was seeing gays and lesbians kiss in public, whether we see it in person or in the media. For me, as well as many other straight men, I feel uncomfortable seeing two men kiss though I am more comfortable seeing two women kiss. I feel this way because in some instances it is a turn on for heterosexual men. If the females are attractive and they are kissing it is like getting turned on by seeing it in a porno. Celeb-reality star Brook Hogan had an episode on her reality show where she started having feelings for a female and went out on several dates with her. After one of their dates, they kissed each other goodbye and I was surprised. It wasn’t that I felt really uncomfortable seeing that, it was more of shocking type thing because I wasn’t expecting it, whereas if I saw two men kiss on the show I would feel uncomfortable. There’s no real explanation that I can give that explains why this is so, it is just the situation I explained earlier of many straight men being turn on by seeing two females kiss because they are attracted to them.
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I believe that being gay is a choice. It is something that I am not approving of. However, it is something that I have learned to accept and embrace. I have friends who are gay and I don’t judge them or treat them any different from all of my straight friends. I do not approve of them because of my beliefs; however, part of my belief system is not to hold judgments against anyone. I do not have the right to judge and therefore will not. I have learned to embrace it because I have discovered this fact and Sam have also mentioned in class the other day. It is concerning sins and how all of us are sinners in so many different ways. I also believe that all sins are the same, both big and small. Although I believe that being gay is a choice and am not supporting its existence, I do feel like it is unfair for the government to strip gay couples of their right to unite. As a fair intuition that is basing its belief systems on freedom, it should not pick and chose what sins to punish and what sins not to punish. Please don’t take me wrong. I do believe in the laws that try to punish crimes, what I am talking about is about all of the fighting in the Middle East. Getting back to my point, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t support same sex marriages but I will not be in other people’s businesses when it comes to their personal lives. I feel like if a people chose a different lifestyle compared to the norm but does not bring harm to others, I don’t really have the right to tell them what they can and cannot do. I think ultimately, the questions lie on the debate of them should or should not be able to raise a kid in such a household? I feel like there is a plan for everyone and I cannot be the one who make the decision base on my opinion. I think that they should have the right to raise children because I do believe that the child will not have any affects from his/her parents being gay. I know that all of have make mistakes and will continue to as long as we live. I also know that no one on this earth have the right to judge us and take away the things that have given to us. To be against gay marriages is not only hypocritical but also unrighteous.
To add a comment to all of the studies that Sam have mention in the class. I have doubts about them just because they are so psychological and there are really no references or scientific background to back up any of the statements that same have made. There are many factors that are involve in an experiment that can determine the outcome. The researchers could be bias and get the outcomes they wanted. With all this being said. All of the statistics in class seems interesting but definitely too vague to take into real consideration.
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