A Girl Like Me : The Gwen Araujo Story

The movement of the gay and lesbian population in the United States is one that has been in progress since the early 1900s, and is still facing overwhelming controversy and backlash today. The push for gay liberation in a country founded on Christian morals and beliefs has subsequently led to struggles over equality of marriage, adoption, jobs, and healthcare. One side of the controversy argues that every individual deserves the same rights, while the opposing mindset argues that being homosexual puts you into a group of people that is different, and will therefore be treated as such.

The LGBT community has been silently suffering through generations. But in this generation, they are finally showing the world their voice. There have been many instances where young adults were denied their right to be who they are and now they are speaking out about the mistreatment. Even though the united states have begun to be more open about the LGBT community here is still more change it come. These changes can be explained through many sociological perspectives including: functionalist, conflict, symbolic interactionism and interactionism. Along with these perspective religion, norms and deviance all impact these individuals who are striving to be open about who they really are inside and out.

“Although sharply divided, public attitudes toward gays and lesbians are rapidly changing to reflect greater acceptance, with younger generations leading the way” (NORC University of Chicago, 2010, p. 1). This push for international acceptance of the LGBT people could not come any sooner. Lesbians, gays, bisexuals as well as transgender individuals from around the world have almost all experienced some sort of discrimination in their lives. This is why there is such a gap between heterosexual and LGBT people. There are hundreds, if not more, reasons for why some people will not accept LGBT individuals and couples, whether it is religion, family values or simply the fact that some people find LGBT people unnatural. This is why the common sufferings

Many people from the United States hold the belief that being gay is something that has always been considered to be okay. They believe that it is just a given. Despite people’s current beliefs on the subject, for a very long time, it was something that was widely believed to be taboo. In the past, people were imprisoned due to their sexuality. Regardless, throughout the decades, people have pushed for the widespread acceptance of people who are part of the LGBT community. Today, homophobia still exists in some parts of the United States, but we have come a long way since the early 1900s.

In today's society many religions and many people don't see eye to eye with the LGBTQ community. They see this community as something less significant than others, viewed as something unnatural, and even something different from this world we live in. This community suffers from being threatened for their lives, being scared of being their true self. In what power should people have to make these decision on what people should like; none, because people should be allowed to love whatever gender they please with. People in this community shouldn't have to a live in fear of being judged by others, tormented, or even humiliated because others don't agree with what gender they like. They are just like every human that loves, but many don't see that because of maybe the way they were raised was to only believe in same sex marriage or people just don't like the idea of a sex liking the same sex. People don't see that society is more open than it was back in the days. This community suffers from being othered and are being viewed as monstering walking on the street. There's stereotypes being made about people in this community, there's religions that disown family that are in this community, and people don't see these types of event could lead to self harm, addiction, and could mess a person mind, just because they don't agree with what gender they please with.

In America, there are many voices that are being heard, but there are voices that are being louder than others. There are many ways that a culture can have themselves be heard and create the change that they are yearning to have. The United States of America has a whole variety of communities, which can impact the world. There are two specific co-cultures, teenagers and LGBTQ, that are stepping up to create the change that is needed in this country, to accept that is it okay to be different. The LGBTQ culture are the most accepting but misunderstood co-culture in America. Explaining specific characteristics of the gay community, like identifying prominent values, symbols and cultural norms, and comparing and contrasting the communicative behaviors of the gay culture with the teenager culture of today’s society will show how it has impacted their communication style, because everyone has the right to be who they are and not be afraid to express it, which is why being a teen or being a part of the LGBTQ culture shows a perspective that

1) Opposing Forces This film displayed two opposing forces which were represented as the transsexual community verses society. The weaker force in the film was displayed as the transsexual community while the stronger force was society. The goal of the weaker force was shown as a desire for equality within all culture and fair treatment of these individuals. This goal of the weaker force highlighted a weakness in the stronger force which was seen as fear.

In several cases, the desire to kill the queer self also occurs when it seems impossible to move forward without fully accepting and presenting oneself as queer. When this idea is seen on television it is presented in both the interpersonal and introspective forms. For example, the characters that attempt suicide, such as the eight queer women characters between 2001 and 2016, are illustrating the introspective act of assassinating the queer self by killing themselves. In contrast the interpersonal aspect derives from the idea of identity as zero-sum and therefore the queer characters who do not cover present a threat to the stability and validity of gay characters on screen. This paper will specifically investigate how the interpersonal side of "assassinating the queer selves" plays out on screen as a way to reinforce the importance of

Sexual orientation is “the clear, persistent desire of a person for affiliation with one sex rather than the other”, otherwise known as sexual preference. (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com) Prejudice against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transsexuals (otherwise known as LGBT people) remain widespread in American society. LGBT people have always been a target for discrimination. Like other forms of prejudice, this discrimination is based on a hostile attitude toward a specific group and in this case minority. The current strides in the controversy of the legalization of the same sex marriage is a prime example of this discrimination. Sexual orientation prejudice

Whether mainstream society likes to admit it or not, gays and lesbians have their own sub-culture. It is a sub-culture that has existed since the beginning of time but has only recently been recognized as a reality. Homosexuals have a place in the histories of every culture throughout the world.

G.B.F. is a movie that explores the life of a gay high school student but fails drastically to create a narrative based on the real lives of LGBT persons and the result is riddled with inaccuracies, stereotypes, and a lack of diversity. G.B.F. is about Tanner, a closeted high school teenager who lives in a town with no openly gay people. However, with the vote for prom queen coming up, the three contenders, Fawcett, ‘Shley, and Caprice all want a Gay Best Friend to give them that edge over their competition. They set out on a manhunt to find their own “real life gay” and “accidentally” out Tanner to the whole school. Now, North Gate High has its first openly gay student.

Within the last decade society has become more open to ideology and lifestyles that years ago were tabo. This is largely due to the fact that the millennial generation may be one of the most laid back and accepting generations of all time. One major lifestyle that was rarely expected was homosexuality within the last decade this issue is no longer in the closet. Most people feel comfortable being open about their lifestyle choice and even show it off. Shortly after the acceptance of gays by society a new issue presented itself and this is transgender people. The community as whole fights for their rights together and it is referred to as LGBTQ. LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, transgender, bisexual, and queer. The LGBTQ community has made great progress in the last decade they have become more open about their community and have gained rights that they should have always had. Even though the community has made progress they still have a long way way to go especially within the workplace.

Ellen Degeneres said, “to me, about being comfortable in your own skin. It's about knowing and accepting who you are.” This quote has been iconic and has been helping many people today. Although the quote is about homosexuality, others may take the quote differently. Many people who are not straight are struggling to accept themselves; struggling to be who they are and what they want to be. There are people who are afraid to be themselves in fear of disappointing loved ones and in fear of being attacked by the world. There’s definitely a large number of people who think of LGBT people as different even though everyone is different in their own special ways. The only similarity we all have is that we are all human and that we all have feelings.

There are individuals that live in fear of showing their true identity to the world because they simply fear that society won’t accept them for having a different sexual orientation. Society advocates that individuals should be able to be proud of who they are, but yet they judge homosexuals for being different. People are taught not to judge others based on their race or religion, so why do they still discriminate against homosexuals? The homosexual subculture is not accepted by society, looked down upon, and misjudged; however, they are human beings and deserve to be treated equally.

Gender and sexual orientation is a topic that has been and still today is not talked about in such a way it should be because of how society has chosen to structure and control it. Social stratification is a system in which groups of people are divided up into layers according to their relative privileges (power, property, and prestige). It’s a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges (Vela-McConnell 2016). People, who deviate from the norm of the “accepted” gender and sexual orientation that society has placed upon us, are stratified below the norm of a dominating binary gender and sexual orientation. People who are queer face the struggle of mistreatment and an unaccepting society that has been socialized to see and act on gender and sexual orientation to being a dualistic system.