Definition Essay: Gender, Urban Culture And Homosexuality

Few people today know the true meaning of the word gay. Even fewer use it in its original context. To be gay was once a common and positive expression. When describing one’s mood, it meant that they were feeling lively and carefree. Gay could even be used to describe something that was “brightly colored” or “showy” (Merriam Webster, “Gay”). No one thought twice about it when people said they were “feeling gay” or “the sunset was gay.” However, this word is rarely used in that context in today’s society. Instead, it has taken on a completely different meaning and connotation. While gay had become something of a euphemism for prostitutes and their clients throughout the 19th century, it was ever changing. This change was gradual and began in the 1920s and 1930s. By this time, a “gay man” was no longer just a man that was promiscuous with women, but also one who was

In “The Myth of Homosexuality” by Christine Downing, there is the discussion of homosexuality and its meaning over the years. Downing begins the article by stating how a myth has classified women-on-women and men-on-men relationships to fall under the same term of homosexuality, but there is much deeper understanding to it than that. The classification under one word has caused a lot of shaping concerning how they are viewed or how they view themselves. In order to look past the surface of what defines the myth, Downing states that we must start with the culture’s myth and it’s origin.

Gays/lesbians are people who prefer same sex relationships. During the time period or even before then, gays weren’t widely accepted. A lot of people didn’t accept gays therefore men had to hide their insecurities every time in fear that they’d be ostracized. Because of the baby boomers, support of gays right increased throughout the years as their biggest reason was because they now know someone who is gay or lesbian, closely followed by a belief that they have become more open to the idea or because they have gotten older.

Homosexuality is defined or characterized as attraction towards the same gender either male or female. It came from the Greek language, where “homo” means the same or similar, hence referring to the attraction between two beings of the same sex. Homosexuality is also referred as a clinical term. Most male homosexuals generally prefer to be called "gay men" and most homosexual women generally prefer to be called "lesbians." Homosexuality is one of the three main categories of sexual orientation, alongside bisexual and heterosexual. The longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality is an example of normal and positive variation in human sexual

LGBT acceptance has varied greatly over time in every culture in the world. For example, while it is commonly accepted that homosexual relations were common in Ancient Greece and Rome, the same cannot be said for the Middle Ages’ Holy Roman Empire. In American culture throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, sodomy was the phrase used to describe all “deviant” sexual acts. A homosexual lifestyle was unthinkable, mainly due to the high rate of Christians who devoutly believed in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. However people such as Walt Whitman, Charlotte Cushman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, among others all achieved greatness in literature, the arts, and other fields, while also maintaining a secretive LGBT identity (Norton, 2004). To say that the proven biological inclinations of LGBT people is a “new” occurrence that exists solely due to societal acceptance simply contradicts historical evidence.

What is homosexuality? Homosexuality is the sexual or romantic attraction between persons of the same gender. Nobody knows when the homosexuality started, but it is been there since a long years ago. Homosexual people are been having hard days through the years, because religions. Every year are more states around the world that are giving the same right to the homosexuals, and giving them opportunities to normal life. Discrimination against homosexual are one of the principal problems around the world, there are more problems about gay bullying, homophobia and discrimination. June 12, 2016 is named the worst massacre in the United States, because around 50 persons were killed in the club of Orlando, Florida. Homosexuality is the attraction

Identifying as LGBT in the 1800s tagged a person as a deviant individual. In 1870, homosexuals quickly became the target of medical, psychiatric, and legal intervention; during World War II, hundreds of thousands of homosexual people

“Coming out” is a means of identifying one’s sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. At its most basic, “coming out of the closet,” means being honest with those around you—friends, family, colleagues, and so forth—about your sexual orientation, about whom you are. It also means acknowledging one’s sexual orientation to self. Such disclosure is an ongoing, lifelong process rather than a one-time event. New personal, social, and professional situations require gay men and lesbians to make decisions about the degree to which they can be open about their sexual orientation (Morrow, 1996).

It is the first step to exposing their sexual identity, which could also be hard to tell others and to admit to themselves as well. There are some people who are still confuse of the sexual identity, by others exposing themselves, they would be able to try to gain an understanding what homosexual is about and preference that they prefer. Giving those people who are confuse a glimpse of what homosexual is trying to fulfill and accomplish. The strategy is somewhat helpful to those who wants to expose their sexual identity, but it doesn't change the fact that heterosexual are more accepted than homosexual. Coming out can be problematic depending on the environment, because not everybody is able to accept homosexuality. Society still wants to follow traditional, heterosexual, and gender role norms. Homosexual will face many criticism, discrimination and inequality, but they are somewhat similar to minorities who are also facing similar situation as homosexual. In my opinion, if you are able to come out from the closet, then you should have the confidence to prove to others that we should judge others by their sexuality but to accept other as human

"It was the sexologists… who were to define same-sex love, to give it a name. The term homosexuality was actually used for the first time in 1869 by Karl Maria Kertbeny, a German-Hungarian campaigner for the abolition of Prussia's laws that criminalized sexual relations between men. Homosexuality was not the only term that the late nineteenth century found to describe sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The term inversion was even more widely used. And in 1870, the German physician Karl Westphal invented the phrase "contrary sexual feeling," in detailing the history of a young lesbian. These expressions all had a

The sexual orientation identity development is a theoretical model that conceptualized the resolution of internal conflict related to the formation of individual sexual identity. For sexual minority people, it is commonly known as the coming-out process (Bilodeau & Renn 2005). There have been many different models elaborated to explain such process. All of them share similar stages: awareness, crisis, and acceptance (Loiacano 1989). When individuals become aware of their queer feelings and attraction, they try to block these homosexual feelings by constantly denying and minimizing them. This mechanism of defense leaves negative sequelae in their overall psychosocial well-being (Bilodeau & Renn 2005). Individuals tend to pass by a

“All men are created equal, No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words,” Harvey Milk. A homosexual, as defined by the dictionary, is someone of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex. Homosexuality is ethical, and I will provide rational arguments for, and irrational arguments against the topic. A few objections are as follows: It is forbidden in the Bible and frowned upon by God; It is unnatural; Men and women are needed to reproduce; There are no known examples in nature; and the most common argument that concerns homosexuality is whether it is a choice or human biology.

Homosexual culture has become increasingly more accepted over the past century. The United States has just begun to legalize gay marriage in many states however some areas of the U.S still do not accept homosexual culture. Many cultures around the world still do not accept homosexual culture. Some cultures accept homosexuality, some see the practice as a sin, some create laws forbidding same sex relationships and marriage, and some punish homosexuality with the death penalty. Homosexual culture is referred to as LGBTQI culture and is shared by any person who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning or intersex. LGBTQI was used to replace the term gay, when used in reference to the LGBTQI community. This

Homosexuality is defined as a predominant sexual attraction to persons of the same gender. For example, men being sexually attracted to other men and women being sexually attracted to other women (Exodus Global Alliance, 2017). Heterosexuality however, is the opposite of homosexuality. A heterosexual person has a sexual attraction to a person of the opposite sex, as opposed to an individual of the same sex. In Western society, heterosexuality has been constructed to be viewed as the norm, this however was not always the case. Sociologist Michel Foucault coined the term ‘homosexuality’ arguing that homosexuality was not discovered but produced. “Homosexuality appeared as one of the forms of sexuality when it was transposed from the practice of sodomy onto a kind of interior androgyny, a hermaphrodism of the soul.” Following on from the invention of the term known as homosexuality, medical doctors invented a counter-position, heterosexuality. Although same-sex relationships existed prior to the invention of this terminology, it encouraged people to identify themselves and others differently (Angel Daniel Matos, 2013). As a result, the judgment of gender and

In modern day Africa homosexuality is illegal for gay men in 29 countries and for lesbians in 20 countries making homophobia a widespread epidemic. This legal status of homosexuals in