Homosexuality And Deviance Essay

Many people struggle with their deviant identities on a daily basis. Some people make choices to be deviant and others are born in a role that makes being deviant a requirement. For example some people are born with disabilities, some are born into an ethnic minority, and some are born homosexuals. They all have to deal with the role they have been dealt and learn how to interact with people in specific ways because of that role. About six percent of men have to deal with the role of being homosexual and about four percent of women do (textbook 293). I interviewed a male friend of mine who is homosexual. We started talking about how he is very open about his sexuality here in college, but is not at home. He said his father would probably stop …show more content…
This means people do not know a person is homosexual just by meeting them so unless the deviancy is exposed the homosexual person will not be labeled or stigmatized (Boundaries 77). Once a person is labeled as deviant it not only changes how society views them, but it also changes how they view themselves (textbook 40-41). Stigmatization is closely related to labeling theory, but it comes from Goffman who explains stigma as an attribute that causes society to have a lower perception of a person (Boundaries 76). To avoid the consequences of being labeled and stigmatized my friend was able to hide his homosexuality from certain people. He did this by avoiding talking about certain topics that one would associate with being gay. When he is around me or other friends that know he is gay he will talk about clothes, shampoo, and even go through male celebrities’ Instagram accounts and talk about which ones are hot. He never talks about these things when he is with his father. For example when we are at the football games we will talk about which players we think are attractive, but there was one game when his father was in town. During this game not only did he not talk about the players being attractive, but we also had to avoid some people that would probably not be able to filter their conversations to keep the fact that my friend is homosexual away from his father. My friend’s tactics of keeping the fact that he is …show more content…
The fact that he was hesitant to come out to one of his Catholic friends is an example of this. The bible has taught many people to label homosexuals as sinners and so many religious people label homosexuals as deviant people who are going against the word of God. My friend also talked about seeing people in older generations who were not necessarily religious, but still conservative label homosexuals as deviant and unnatural. He thinks a lot of that comes from their generations having less exposure to homosexuals in media and not having very many events in their lifetime that forced them to think about homosexuality. He thinks that people in older generation simply cannot relate to him and other homosexuals so they rely on their stereotypes. This would make sense because “the gay rights movement began in the late 1940s with the discovery among many individual gays and lesbians that they were not alone,” (Textbook 308). This would mean some people in older generation would not have had nearly as much exposure to the gay movement as people in younger generations so they may have stronger negative stereotypes. Some of the stereotypes he said people had of homosexuals is that they are flamboyant, that they are sexually attracted to every male, or even take it as a challenge to try and turn straight men into homosexuals. He also said that people do not expect him to be good