The gay rights movement has a bright future ahead of itself, and that would not be possible without one specific group; queer youth. The younger member of the community are the next generation and will continue the fight wherever the current generation may leave it. However, some young LGBT+ members aren’t even waiting for the next generation. Jazz Jennings is a fourteen year old transgender girl from Florida who has made it clear that she wants her voice to be heard. Jennings, at the age of four, became one of the earliest documented cases of a child with a gender identity disorder, which became the first step in her transition from her assigned birth gender to her current gender identity. Jennings story became widely known after she appeared
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Acceptance, at first, will come in the form of legalizing gay marriage in all fifty state, and then also creating laws to protect transgender individuals, but that’s not enough. The thing that matters most, but most people seem to forget, is that the people within the LGBT+ community are just people who want to go about their lives, and not have to worry about things that are just given to others. Integration and acceptance is key. To make being queer normal is a huge goal. People assume that being straight is the preset sexuality, but there a millions of people who are queer in one way or another, and it’s time that their voices are heard. In an essay by Barbara DiBernard, she describes being out as a lesbian while in the teaching profession. She describes witnessing gay and lesbian students in her class, and how being gay herself affected how she taught and saw her students. “Other students...‘just didn't understand homosexuality.’ Some, though, were outwardly hostile. In 1990, one student wrote in an anonymous end-of-semester evaluation... ‘I do not think it is appropriate for anyone to read about lesbians and their habits. ... As far as [the teacher's] choice of materials and her own personal convictions, I am violently opposed...’” (DiBernard 126 - 127). Although this incident occurred over twenty-five years ago, the sociological repercussions of it still exist today. That anonymous student may have children now, and would have likely passed down these same ideologies. For there to be progress, there needs to be a break in the vicious cycle of continuous teaching of this malcontented behavior. For this to happen, there need to be people like DiBernard, who wished not to impose her lifestyle upon her students, but to educate them about it, to make them understand it’s not as weird
Acceptance, at first, will come in the form of legalizing gay marriage in all fifty state, and then also creating laws to protect transgender individuals, but that’s not enough. The thing that matters most, but most people seem to forget, is that the people within the LGBT+ community are just people who want to go about their lives, and not have to worry about things that are just given to others. Integration and acceptance is key. To make being queer normal is a huge goal. People assume that being straight is the preset sexuality, but there a millions of people who are queer in one way or another, and it’s time that their voices are heard. In an essay by Barbara DiBernard, she describes being out as a lesbian while in the teaching profession. She describes witnessing gay and lesbian students in her class, and how being gay herself affected how she taught and saw her students. “Other students...‘just didn't understand homosexuality.’ Some, though, were outwardly hostile. In 1990, one student wrote in an anonymous end-of-semester evaluation... ‘I do not think it is appropriate for anyone to read about lesbians and their habits. ... As far as [the teacher's] choice of materials and her own personal convictions, I am violently opposed...’” (DiBernard 126 - 127). Although this incident occurred over twenty-five years ago, the sociological repercussions of it still exist today. That anonymous student may have children now, and would have likely passed down these same ideologies. For there to be progress, there needs to be a break in the vicious cycle of continuous teaching of this malcontented behavior. For this to happen, there need to be people like DiBernard, who wished not to impose her lifestyle upon her students, but to educate them about it, to make them understand it’s not as weird