5/10/2019 Gay/Gender Rights Reflection - Google Docs

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Nathalie Brand

Mrs. McGovern

Independent Study

January 4, 2019

Gay/Gender Rights Reflection

When dealing with gender, many issues can be brought up and faced. People have the

tendency to discriminate against people who are different; people who are not male or of

different races (not white). People also get discriminated against if they have different sexual

orientations or preferences, standing out against the societal norms. It creates great amounts of

negativity, rather than love and support which is exactly what people who are gay or lesbian or

transgender need. Many disagree with these people rather than accept them, and will do whatever

they can in order to stop these people from feeling and being themselves; their true selves.

As people started to come out more and be more comfortable with themselves, they

received a lot of negative backlash. “After a decade in which gay men and a smaller number of

lesbians had become highly visible in clubs, streets, newspapers, novels, and films, a powerful

backlash to the Prohibition-era ‘pansy-crazed’ developed” (Chauncey 331). Many were anti-gay

and did everything in their power to try and knock them down. Large amounts of laws and

legislation were passed in order to prohibit LGBTQ people and the community. People are trying

whatever they can to stop the growth and coming out of LGBTQ people. Wherever there might

be a party or club or event going on, police would be stationed at each door to make sure curfew

was not broken and to regulate the flow of people in and out of these clubs. Drag balls were

created for these people to express and be themselves; but again, police were used to crack down

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on and shut down these “drag balls”. But after some time, the police were able to back down and

allow more of these events to happen. Society is trying to confine people who identify as

LGBTQ, cut off their voices and eliminate their opinions from society. They cannot be their true

selves AND be a functioning and contributing member of society. They cannot have both, only

either or. In addition to all of this fuss being created, more annoyance with gay men in specific is

brought up when discussing the standards men are held to. When looking at society in a feminist

view, people would all agree that women are held to very high standards; and they are. But many

tend to forget that men are also held to standards that can be traumatizing as well. Like being the

buff guy or constantly flocked by women. If two men enter a club “without a female in tow, they

are subject to even greater scrutiny and intimidation” (Chauncey 332). Without a slew of

females, men can be looked at as weak or ‘gay’; which many tend to use the term ‘gay’ as an

insult because they disagree with it or do not like people who identify as such. If you were gay or

apart of the LGBTQ community, or were heterosexual but not manly enough, society had tried to

put a stop to people who act as so; they try to silence them, confine them, or get rid of them all

together in order to make the world better and more “normal”. These kinds of people were feared

and held to standards that are unimaginable and difficult to achieve. People discriminated and

excluded the LGBTQ from the public sphere. Life just become much more difficult for people

who have come out and were finally becoming comfortable with who they are.

Being different is not a crime, but to many who fear change or difference, it is an

unimaginable thing that people can be different and still be normal and civil to one another.

People are discriminated against if they have different sexual orientations or preferences,

standing out against the societal norms. Being one’s true self is far less important than someone

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else’s opinions on life or other minute issue in the world. Negativity is spread rather than love

and support. Acceptance is not something all people have the ability to receive.

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