homophobia

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Recently, in health class, we watched the film, "What if I'm Gay?" Needless to say, I was thinking that there must be a better video than this. Later, when completing the worksheet that accompanies the video, they asked how it feels for students questioning their sexuality to be called dykes, fairies, or queers.

My first thought was: "They think those names are so gay!"

While this material had good intentions, it failed in its delivery to teens. We don't use the words dyke, or fairy. In fact, the only real place I've heard those words would be the media trying to portray teenagers. Today, the term "gay" in itself is an insult, and far more prevalent than stupid words like "fairy." In fact, all of our health videos are made in the 70's and 80's, and I recently found out why.

So I’ve been 100% and completely out with who I am for the past year. By that I mean, I’m not scared to dress the way I want to dress, to have hair that isn’t normal for a woman (I have a Mohawk at the moment) and to just not be scared to hold a girls hand in public.

That being said, I’ve never honestly faced any scrutiny or harassment for any of that.

Sometimes I get some stares for the way my hair is, most the time I just get people who want to take photos of me to which I oblige, because hey its giving some tourist a story to tell about their trip to Seattle.

Recently however, I’ve noticed a change in where I live. We have a gay part of town, more of it’s just a place where anyone can go and not worry about being harassed. It’s a great place. It’s the place I hang out the most. But recently things have been changing. We’ve had multiple gay bashings. One where the guy was literally dragged from a car down the street and just other beatings for no reason other then someone’s sexual orientation.

I went to this protest on May 1st as many of you know that was the day their was protest nation wide for immigration rights. So I of course attended the local protest where I saw one of those guys with a sign in big letters saying “Abortionist, murderers, church gossipers and HOMOSEXUALS will go to hell, repent for your sins now” I laughed at first, I mean people like that are just ignorant and the fact that homosexuals had to be in huge letters just made me more amused.
I decided to sit near this man so I could listen to the people debate him and just hear what he was saying to them, Well sitting didn’t last long and finally my debating side got the best of me and a buddy and I joined in on the debate. It was going well for the first 30 minutes, I told him to mind his own uterus and then I laughed and said oh wait you don’t have one so I guess that means you just need to keep your mouth shut. (I was being very nice cant you tell?)

... you're not paying attention.

[So I had planned to head over to the computer lab after class and type up a blog about the Linguistics lecture I attended Friday on the differences in speech between males and females, which contained more sexism than one can possibly fit into 90 minutes. But then I realized that I'd forgotten the handout with the quotes I intended to use at home. So while I was contemplating going back after class to get them, the class started and I was presented with an alternative topic for my blog - rather than sexism, today's special will be homophobia. Clearly, there is no shortage of aggravating lectures.]