Archive for February 27, 2007

Tongues United

{ February 27, 2007 @ 6:17 am } · { Film Diary }
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            The intersections between Race and Sexual Orientation are plentiful as seen in the movie, Tongues United. Not only has the black man struggled with his race in society trying to earn a name for himself when he did not do anything to be discriminated on, but for him to be gay too goes against all social norm. It is like double the reason for that one man to be discriminated against. As one of the men in the movie pointed out, “Silence is the deadliest weapon,” and these men were trying to end the silence by coming out as gay. Personally I thought that the movie had a good meaning behind it, however I do not think that we watched enough of the movie to get a good enough grasp on everything that happened. I understand that the black gay male was discriminated by everyone, everywhere. They were made fun of by not only the whites for being “smarter gay men” but also by the other blacks. The other blacks believed they gave all minorities a bad name due to the fact that not only were they disliked for being a different race but to be gay also.

            Lastly I do not think that the small segment that we watched gave me enough information to try and write on. Maybe its because I did not understand some of the parts we watched. Especially the “Snap!ology” issue.  I have no idea what a snap diva is and I am even half gay…

Sexual Orientation

{ February 27, 2007 @ 2:45 am } · { Reading/ In Class Response }
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Sexual orientation, along with race, is a subject that is hard to discuss without stepping on multiple peoples toes. Heterosexuality is the social norm in today’s society, but as our country continues to say that they accept people for who they are. Then how come when someone says they are homosexual they get discriminated more so than someone of a different race. I, of all people, have experience with sexual orientation discrimination. As I have mentioned before in my previous blogs, I come from a very conservative and republican based town. They believe in tradition and following what is “normal” in society. When someone dares to be different, the whole town will know about it by the end of the week. It’s the down fall of living in a small town such as mine. You can tell someone a secret one week, and a few days later the whole high school knows what you did. So when someone decides to go against the social norm, for example, as being homosexual or bisexual, the people in my town look down upon it. I should know… My senior year in high school I came out to my friends as being bisexual. By the end of the week I was having my property defaced such as my locker. When I would walk down the halls people would yell obscene words or phrases to me. Eventually a few weeks later things calmed down and I was old news within the high school, people still knew, it just was not a “current issue.”

            My high school however has changed a lot since I have graduated, this year a group of students started a Gay Straight Alliance. And it continues to grow each day, I only hope that the members do not get half the discrimination that I did. I still have not come out to my parents or family yet, and I do not plan to any time soon. My mother and step father have already spoke to me about their “ideals and morals” when my best friend came out to her family. Possibly one day, when they are not paying my college tuition I will tell them who I really am.

            What was the point of me elaborating on and on about the narrow mindedness of my small town. My point is this, conservatives, republicans, liberals, and democrats are all proud of out country’s history. Yes, we did have some rough times through the Civil Rights Movement, but that struggle has somewhat been overcome. This civil rights movement was part of out history, and the
US started to accept people of different races. If we can accept people of different races, who look different and have different backgrounds, why can’t we accept people of different sexual orientation who might also look different and have a different background?