The documentary Valentine Road details the heartbreaking story of a young teenager who was ostracized, ridiculed, and ultimately killed, simply because he expressed his true gender identity. Lawrence “Larry” King was a 15-year-old biological male who presented as a female—and was not afraid to wear makeup and feminine clothing. Larry was adopted into a family that physically abused and neglected him; despite his negative and painful childhood, Larry was still capable of positivity and possessing an optimistic perspective of the world around him. Larry was unashamed of his gender fluidity, and his fellow classmates simply could not conceive, or understand this concept. Many students believed that Larry was “shoving [his gender identity] in everyone’s…
In the movie Bullied by Bill Brummel the theme is expressed by showing how people feel about Jamie being gay. The people in his school did not accept his sexuality. They believed it is wrong to be gay, therefore he was treated differently than others. They judged him, bullied him, and teased him about it. Even the administrators didn't accept his sexuality, they would tell his parent that he should’ve expected that people will treat him this way if he was going to be gay openly.…
Over a decade after coming out of the closet and proudly identifying homosexual, Mark Sellers, a dear friend that I have come to know over the past year allowed me to sit down at his home in Stillwater and interview him on his personal perspective on sexual discrimination in schools. Mr. Sellers, 29 years old, after graduating from Oklahoma State University, with a degree in Theatre Arts, he has worked in the film industry in Oklahoma and is aspiring to be an actor in Los Angeles, California. I met Mark through a high school friend at the local bar The Stonewall, which I have since found out that The Stonewall is known to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender friendly, well more so than other bars around Stillwater, Oklahoma. Mark has known he was a homosexual since middle school; middle school is a time of extreme mental, psychological, and physical change for every child growing…
The LGBTQIA+ community faces many challenges in today’s society. One major challenge that the community must conquer is being outed as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual, or other aspects of the community. However, is this a challenge that the community really has to conquer? Richard D. Mohr, writer of The Case of Outing, explores this topic and why members of the LGBTQIA+ community should out other members of the community. To give context to this subject, there are two concepts that need to be defined.…
Bullying targeted towards the youth in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) community is a serious problem that is often overlooked. There is discrimination and bullying toward LGBT youth found in all sorts of settings including the home, work, and school. Many LGBT teens experience abuse at home and even being kicked out of their house. Finding a job is sometimes harder as their sexual orientation is unwelcomed by employers and fellow colleagues. LGBT youth also endure harassment and bullying at school facilities.…
On November 7th, I attended The Cesar Chavez Inequities and Social Justice in Education, Teacher Education, and Mental Health Conference’s Microaggressions against LGBT that was presented by Jessica Bloom and panelists, Ashley Damo, April Taylor-Salery, Kevin McCaskill, and Ruby Blanco at Fresno State. Jessica started the presentation with the statement that many individuals lack the awareness of the LGBT plus community. Afterwards, the panelists began to discuss about their experiences with micoraggressions. April is a mother of a 5-year-old transgender son. April faced microagression when a few family members told her, “It’s okay if he [April’s son] comes over, but we don’t agree with the choice.”…
8 Review: Chapter 8 in Explorations in Privilege, Oppression, and Diversity shares the story of Allison Cashwell and how being friends with a lesbian women has affected her. She shared the fear that she held after Ordinance 22, a bill that prohibit others to discriminate others based on their sexual orientation. The bill was not passed, and therefore Cashwell’s friends lived their lived in fear. Reflection: No one should have to live their life in fear of what might happen to them because their sexual orientation is homosexual.…
Throughout the 1900’s there was a lot of things built up against the United States, from WWII to the civil rights movements there was plenty for the citizens and the government to deal with. One important part of this time that people forget is the attacks and discrimination of different homosexual groups within this time. Thus it is believed that the U.S. should have gotten involved in stopping any persecution of homosexual individuals or groups in the 1900’s because, if they had done something then there might not be any of the difficulties and misunderstanding that there is today. One prime example of this was during WWII. Today when the topic of this horrible period is brought up the first thought is that of the thousands of Jews taken,…
Non-binary genders are genders that do not fall under male (boy) or female (girl). Someone’s gender may not be the same as their sex because gender and sex are not the same thing. A few examples of non-binary genders are agender (having no gender), bigender (having the feeling of switching between two genders) and gender-fluid (having the feeling of switching through many genders). Even the definition of the word gender neither says it has to be boy or girl, nor does it say it has to be your sex. “Definition of GENDER [2b] the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex” (Webster).…
Even till this day, the LGBTQ community are still fighting for their rights. In American Government and Politics Today, it states, “To a great extent, lesbian and gay groups have succeeded in changing public opinion – and state and local laws that pertain to their status and rights. Nevertheless, they continue to struggle against age-old biases against homosexuality, often rooted in deeply held religious beliefs…” As a result, the LGBTQ community has since been a group marginalized for who they are in which contradicts what the nations core values…
It is a popular belief that schools segregated by gender would improve the overall intelligence of the two gender binaries, however there is not enough evidence to support this [accusation]. In The Gender Gap at School David Brooks argues that gender segregated schools would cause a substantial improvement among male students’ success in receiving education. He claims that boys enjoy lower intellectual books than girls due to difference in how the brain works. This idea is supported by a survey between 400 women and 500 men, where the men preferred to read the books like Catcher in the Rye and Slaughterhouse-Five, women read Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. Brooks says that boys have trouble processing negative emotions compared to girls,…
How is it that problems such as bullying and suicide are so prominent in a world considered to be the most advanced it has ever been? Among today’s youth, suicide is an important and rising concern. In communities around the United States of America, this problem especially affects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. Bullying against such individuals is still a relevant issue despite efforts for equal rights. Support systems are an important part of stopping these reoccurring tragedies.…
How would you feel to get personally attacked or harassed just because of who you are and your preferences? Many people in the world have gotten verbally or physically attacked because of this same reason. There has been discrimination and hate crimes towards people of the LGBTQ in America for many years now, and it still happens today. Even though there’s some people who go against these people, there are still some who want equality for all. Discrimination on members of the LGBTQ has been active for a long time but some people do whatever to get equality for everybody.…
In other words, students who reported being bullied showed lower academic achievements than their non-bullied peers. Duncan (1999) indicated that victims of bullying are affected physically, academically and socially. These limitations hinder a student's ability to interact and communicate with other students. Academic problems lead to difficulties such as poor self-esteem, frustration and other barriers to developing social skills. Thus, bullying creates barrier to learning with negative consequences on…
Marcus Bachmann, a therapist who runs a Christian counseling place, claimed that homosexuality could be cured. Bachmann stated that homosexuality is both a choice and a threat (Goldberg, 2011). A method called the conversion therapy is a way of curing homosexuality. A conversion therapy aimed to re-assign the sexual orientation of its patient. During 1950s and 1960s, a conversion therapy is done by pressuring its patient to masturbate to a picture of those of the opposite sex whilst they will be electrically shocked when they are shown a picture of those with the same sex.…