Gay Oppression

“Gays are going to rot in hell! Gays need to all die.” In the past, these were all common teaching taught by the religious leaders of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The people learned that homosexuality was a violation of God’s will and relentlessly killed all the sinners. Gays, repeatedly persecuted in the past, and are still not accepted in religious communities today. They still face discrimination and have trouble fitting in and receiving equal treatment their religious and neighborly communities.

John D’Emilio’s “Capitalism and Gay Identity” contracts what life was like for gay men and lesbians throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1970s, gay men and lesbians were able to come out freely, and eventually started to get accepted by everyone in society. They were able to express themselves without any regards, and started to become the person they were destined to be. People within the gay community have always expressed tendencies of liking the same sex, but societal norms did not allow them to express themselves. However, during the 1980s, as more people decided to openly come out, it started to take a toll on their identity. Society then started to question the importance of people who were brave enough to come out to the world.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Queer community also referred to as LGBTQQ is no stranger to oppression. “In 1600-1800, colonists discovered buggery (sex between men or between women) among Native Americans. In 1869, Dr. Karoly Benkert coined the term “homosexuality” to describe same-sex acts. In 1870-1910, homosexuals

Over the past 150 years, there have been many groups who have sought the North American dream of "liberty and justice for all." Examples are:

Jones observe (2002: 15). In these ways, institutionalized heterosexuality is central to some of the key motivation(s) behind and design of public policy frameworks in the United States. By “institutionalized heterosexuality” I am referring to the set of ideas, institutions and relationships that make the heterosexual family the societal norm, while rendering homosexual/queer families “abnormal” or “deviant” (Ingraham 1999). My queer analysis of social welfare involves examining how sexuality and gender can be rethought and reorganized in economic and social policy frameworks, theories and practices. Throughout the article I examine how heterosexuality is assumed to be the natural basis for defining the family, and by extension, society, both explicitly (by excluding LGBT people from the analysis and by stigmatizing certain individuals as “non-family” or “anti-family”) and implicitly (by assuming that all people are heterosexual, that marriage is a given and exists only between a traditionally-defined man and woman, and that all people fit more or less into traditional gender roles; see Foucault 1978; Fraser and Gordon 1994; Ingraham 1999; Phelan 2001;

In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people

Homosexuality has been an issue for the public for an extremely long time dating back to even Ancient Rome and Greek. Especially with the birth of Christianity, the religious society has been persecuting anyone claiming homosexuality, forcing people to hide their own sexuality for centuries. It is important to understand and know the past of the homsexuality to understand the reason for their fight and the mentality of their opposition. Homosexuality has never been accepted into the norms of society and was even viewed as a mental disease by the American Psychiatric Association (Bowman). Not until a few decades ago has the movement for gay rights began to kick off. The event that really set off the movement was the Stonewall Riot of 1969. “New York’s gay community had grown weary of the police department targeting gay clubs, a majority of which had already been closed. The crowd on the street watched quietly as Stonewall’s employees were arrested, but when three drag queens and a lesbian were forced into the paddy wagon, the crowd began throwing bottles at the police” (“Stonewall”). This event is regarded as the foundation for the modern gay rights movement including the formation of many gay, lesbian, and bisexual civil rights organizations.

A reoccurring theme that has been evident throughout many systems of oppression is the necessity to define the group being oppressed as criminals. In the book Queer (In)Justice it is impossible to mistake the purposeful intent of church authorities, prosecutors, and other influential citizens who had an agenda. They were threatened by the progress being made by the gay community. Sodomy laws were falling and they began to worry about queers recruiting their youth to a “perverted” lifestyle. Most often the only crime that these LGBT people committed was being homosexual. This discrimination would be a little too evident so a feeble attempt was made to cover up hatred by producing these undeserved characteristics that queer people supposedly

I learned that gay oppression stems from capitalistic ideas and nature. When the industrial revolution came around in the early 19th century it brought with it the traditional ideals of family that we know today (Carlin, 2007). Capitalists didn’t like the ideal of homosexuality because it defeated the purpose of sex only being for reproduction (Carlin, 2007). They thought that gays were getting in the way of producing the next generation of workers (Carlin, 2007). They quickly deemed them unnatural in the eyes of the Christian church and society (Carlin, 2007). Gays were routinely harassed and physically assaulted by police (Carlin, 2007). Capitalists tried to justify this oppression by saying that homosexuality was blatantly abnormal and unacceptable

Imagine falling deeply in love with someone; having a happy long-term relationship with them. This person is the entire world to you, but although it is wanted by both partners, there can be no legal marriage. Because it is illegal to marry someone of the same gender. The United States of America were founded on the belief that everyone is equal and should be free to pursue happiness, yet there is oppression of a sexual minority that needs to end. Although there are many different people with many different reasons opposing same-sex marriage, such as religious or personal beliefs, it should not be illegal to marry someone of the same gender because not all people support it.

LGBT people have been oppressed and discriminated against for hundreds of years, and still are today. During the AIDS crisis, and average of 1 out of every 6 LGBT men were diagnosed with AIDS (“How”). But before I get too far ahead of myself, let us start from the beginning. Homosexuals have been oppressed for as far back as biblical times. Leviticus 20:13 states “‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.’”. Though there is speculation over whether this verse refers to pedophilia or not, it still was a cause for a massive amount of homophobia. (“History”). As a result of homophobia, AIDS research was heavily underfunded. AIDS was thought of as a sort of punishment for LGBT men’s “sinful acts”. Ryan White, a teen at the time, was expelled from school for having AIDS (“History”). AIDS patients were

Sexual orientationism is best described as discrimination or prejudice against homosexuals on the assumption that heterosexuality is the dominant, or normal, sexual orientation. Within society there are many barriers, assumptions, and stigmas placed upon the queer community, numerous of which steam from this heterosexist stance that has become the dominant ideology. This stance has historical significance in trauma, and oppression of those within the sexual minority, and how this can play on representation.

For some gay men and women, just being a homosexual in the late 20th century meant being a part of the movement- no political agenda necessary. Sexual politics, after all, have a visceral quality that isn’t easy to ignore, which D’Emilio and Freedman attest to when they recognize that “gayness itself symbolized an

After noticing my efforts to spread awareness about sexual assaults, my school principle provided me with an opportunity to speak about it in the school assembly. Unfortunately, I was unable to deliver an influential speech because public speaking made me nervous. That day, I realized that public speaking was my weakness. Followed by ruminating on my weakness, I decided to overcome it by attending public speaking classes. After a year of practice accompanied by hard work, I successfully delivered a speech in front of the next graduating class. It gave me immense satisfaction because I was able to educate students so that they don’t become victims of sexual assaults. Thus, I think it is important to improve a weakness because it leads to self-development,

Adrienne Rich also speak compulsory heterosexuality in her work, Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. Compulsory heterosexuality as discussed by Rich is how we view heterosexuality as a part of institution of capitalism that maintains power through the ideas of heterosexuality being acceptable to society and how we do not allow for differences in the binary system. As Rich states, “the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness” (Rich, 135). Meaning that we understand how heterosexuality is maintained by our capitalism system just as we understand oppression of classism, racism, and gender differences. Heterosexuality becomes institutionalized by maintaining through the normalization of forcing us to believe in the capitalism