Gays: A Fictional Narrative

In the 1920s, Sigmund Freud established what he called the “pleasure principle”- the idea that all human action is based on sexual drive and the principle of humans pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. He elaborated on this pleasure principle later, suggesting that humanity is also governed by a “death drive.” This so-called death drive is Freud’s belief that inside all of us lies a force that is violent, aggressive, and destructive- even sometimes being directed towards one’s self. Through these principles, he suggests that we want to die and destroy as much as we want to live and to love. Thus is his theory on the dual nature of man, making life and death two sides of one coin inside of us. His influence is seen in both 1984 and Brave New World through considerable emphasis on sexuality, the desire to escape pain, and the destructive force of man, although these influences and ideas are displayed on opposite spectrums and in vastly different ways.

I remember on my first day of preschool, my mom told me, “Abby, don’t tell your teachers about your family.” Sitting in my car seat, at the age of 4, I was starting to become overwhelmed with confusion. This confusion bubbled up inside me for years. I had so many questions that I wanted to ask my moms, but I did not have the courage or the strength to ask. Then I grew up. My perspective on the world changed, and I realized that my parents were seen as a calamity to society. That was my perspective though. I wondered what my mom’s was. How did she grow up in a world that only saw her as a flaw in the system? So I asked. Beth Shaffer’s perspective on her past, the present, and the future is an astonishing story.

In Stephanie Fairyington's essay, “The Gay Option”, the author expresses regret about the framing she used to explain her sexuality when coming out as a homosexual to her mother. She told her mother that her homosexuality was a result of biology and not choice. As a result, Fairyington's mother began to refer to her sexually as a birth defect. This in not the outcome Fairyington desired. She explains that her intent was to gain acceptance from her mother not pity. That experience lead her to conclude that the best course of action for the LGBT community should be for them to turn away from using biology to explain their sexuality but to look instead to an argument of choice. Fairyington explains that an argument of choice will force the rest

The word “gay” has gone through drastic changes. Traditionally, it was a positive term that meant to be “happily excited” or “jolly” (Merriam Webster, “Gay”). It was used regularly to express one’s feelings about life. Today, it has a far different meaning. Now people use the word gay to label homosexuals, those with feminine qualities, or those who do something thought to be outside of the norm for their gender. “Being gay” went from expressing someone’s happiness to describing his sexual preference. The definition of gay has changed so much that its original meaning has become archaic and lost to the times.

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.

My friends were cracking up because they knew these females loved to talk but we were always about action. We all knew what was going to take place after school without even saying it. It was now time for us to split up and go to our next class. We would see each other later in the day at lunch so this wasn’t a big deal. As I head down the hallway and make my way to the second floor I hear a loud Yo! coming from the opposite end of the hallway. By this time I was thinking the hallway was empty because I was a minute late for class just because I took the long way there. I turned around to see who was making the noise. It was one of the boys that wasn’t even supposed to be on our floor. He was a junior and I was a freshman so we were always separated by floors. I kept walking because my name wasn’t yo so he couldn’t have been talking to me. He ran up behind me and grabbed me by my waist. I resisted and turned to him and said; “Why are you touching me Tank?” He stared at me and started laughing. I looked at him and said; “What’s funny?’’ He said in his deep raspy voice , “You acting like I can’t touch you.” I said to him “You can’t I don’t know you like that for you to be touching on me and grabbing me.” I turned away from him and continued on my way to class. Half way down the hallway I see a group of boys who looked like they didn’t belong. As I got

The article don’t be so Gay: Challenging homophobic language by Erika L. Kirby is Professor of Communication Studies; she has been at Creighton since 1998. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in organizational communication, and she studies the everyday intersections of working and personal life, emphasizing how differing social identities (especially gender) assimilate into and collide with organizational structures. The following piece was originally published in 2008. The author’s main purpose is to educate the reader on the power of certain words. The author’s tone is truly concerned with how common homophobic slurs are use. The overall topic is to demonstrate what little thought we put in to our words.

Gay men and women in the 1940s learned very early on in life just how detrimental it was to keep their homosexual identities a secret. It was not as simple as playing a fun, innocent game of secret identity, but rather a tactic employed to avoid the violence, the discrimination, and the many other ways that heterosexual Americans attacked homosexual Americans. Hiding their true selves was the only way for gay people to ensure their safety in at least one manner during the 1940s. In The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s, Ricardo Brown implicated the secretive nature of gay men in the 1940s as imperative to their survival. Brown continually acknowledged the challenges accompanying the concealment of their true identities and divulged some of the various complications that arose both within and outside of the gay community, contributing to the need for their secrecy.

I am proud to admit that I am part of the 8 to 10 percent of the US Population that identifies as a gay male. When it comes to addressing the many needs of the GLBTQ community, there are so many important current issues that I could write about, and it's difficult to pick just one. My population has been discriminated against, denied equal rights, healthcare and jobs, we have been bullied, jailed, killed, and have faced the negative stigma that society has created for being who we are. When I hear people that say being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender is a choice I’m reminded of the discrimination that people go through and think why would anyone choose this lifestyle. I didn’t choose this lifestyle but was merely born this way as

After the 19th century European history, we merge into American history. There was close to no studies done up until Post World War II. There was some encouraging growth for gay life that was very much apparent in Greenwich and Harlem in the 1920’s and this is also when the community adopted the pink and black triangle. The war allowed for gay men and lesbian women to insert themselves into the war efforts without being constantly chastised. There were efforts to work towards gaining more acknowledgement of this community. One of whom that led for this justice in the 1950’s was Senator Joseph McCarthy with his investigation of homosexuals in government positions. His investigation is what led up to the first politically inclined demand for

Heterosexism is a term used to describe people who discriminate against gays and lesbians. Throughout history, an intimate relationship between members of the opposite sex was considered the norm, and breaking this norm would make a person deviant. From birth, children are taught certain characteristics on how boys and girls are suppose to behave. Children learn these things from their parents, the schools they attend, and society that they live in. The characteristics that they learn shapes them into what they become when they’re adults. According to Barrie Thorne, “the sociological significance of children’s play is that boys and girls are helping to socialize one another into primary adult gender roles, girls being more concerned with

Nussbaum also believes that the stereotypical portrayal of homosexuals and the homophobia towards homosexuals is created by a disgust and that disgust is is what makes minority groups look inferior to majority groups. Nussbaum believes that “projective disgust plays no proper role in arguing for legal regulation, because of the emotion’s irrationality and its connection to stigma and hierarchy…Disgust, however, often prevents us from looking for those good reasons, creating the misleading impression that the policy has already been well defended. Turning it to legitimize polices” (Nussbaum, 20). Due to the “politics of disgust,” Nussbaum believes that homosexual couples should be given suspect classification unlike the Lawrence v. Texas

Throughout high school, Gay Straight Alliance acted as a bedrock of support, and last year I eagerly began my journey as President. However, challenges arose at every opportunity. In early 2017, a homophobic student began obsessively tearing GSA flyers off of school walls. This, combined with his potent school shooting threat, caused his juvenile arrest, but for me, a dilemma remained: how could I handle vehement disagreement of my fundamental right to exist?

The generation that we live in today are so quick to make judgements about each other, that we forget how to have normal interactions without being fake or talking poorly about someone. Solely, based on a judgement that we make without even getting to know the person. In the first 3 seconds of an interaction with someone we decide whether we’ll want to talk to someone, or even become friends with them. Which is extensively shown in the picture I have selected with Tim Tebow and his views on religion. As well in the Jason Collins nationally publicized gay outcoming in 2013. These are just two prime examples of how judgmental we have become as a national. We judge each other entirely on our personal views, beliefs, and morality we each express

In the above image, nine men dressed in identical striped shirts seem to march or walk in a line. Beside them a men in uniform gives the back to the photographer. The expression on the men’s faces says much about what they might be thinking in this specific situation. They seem sad, scared, cold, and hungry. On their striped shirts, there is a white triangular badge and below it a white rectangular badge with four digits numbers. The image is in black and white. The title of the image says, “Gay prisoners at Sachsenhausen, 1938.”