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Anti Heterosexuality And Its Effects On Society

Decent Essays

Those who remain “in the closet” are hiding their internalized feelings from their friends, family, and colleagues, in order to avoid confronting this socially stigmatized part of their life, along with their own potential denial and self-hatred. Because of the stigmas attached to the LGBTQ community, one often feels that they have to hide this part of their life in order to maintain social and work relations, with pressure to conform to the heterosexually dominated culture. This causes internalized confusion because non-heterosexuals are told from society they are abnormal, and thus this can cause a frightening reality and lead to “internalized oppression” that is the “acceptance of negative social attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes directed towards a devalued or marginalized group” (186). There is an assumed need to silence those who stray from this dominant culture because of fear that they are inherently and psychologically impaired, which causes the illusion that those from the LGBTQ community are very limited. Non-heterosexuality was even identified as a mental illness in the DSM before 1973, referred to as an “interference,” and “distress,” which only further increases negative ideas about it (188). These ideas, as well as heteronormative legislation, lead to violence against those of the LGBTQ community in overt and covert forms by intentional and unintentional heterosexists. This is because of the idea that heterosexualism is the norm and standard, and the belief

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