Queer : The Queer Nation Manifesto

A local pastor says he is willing to take the fight to the powerful international gay lobby even if it means he loses his life.

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.

The present essay aims to analyse and discuss how social actions related to gender and sexuality have given rise to social change. Particular attention will be given to how views and opinions on gender and sexuality have positively evolved throughout the years as a result of decades of social activism led by the members and allies of the LGBT community. In order to do so, the current paper will firstly provide a concise account of how gender and sexuality were seen in the former times, which will be then compared to more current perspectives. Secondly, the paper will present a brief overview of the history of the LGBT movement, and highlight its main milestones. Significant emphasis will be given to how these salient occurrences have significantly affected today’s perception and attitudes towards the LGBT community in the majority of the world countries. In conclusion, the current essay will introduce and explore the recent ongoing activism that has been occurring globally within the LGBT community.

Gen Silent is beautiful documentary that tells several stories about different members of the LGBTQ+ community as they deal with aging, through these stories they bring up different problems and topics that elders in the LGBTQ+ community as a whole faces. The filmmakers message seems to be pretty clear. They seem to be saying there are a growing number of aging LGBTQ+ community members and we need to start educating medical facilities, nursing homes, families, and the queer community on how these elders should be treated, the problems they face, and what people can do to help. Though the filmmakers only focus on six stories through these stories questions were posed and problems were seen that could affect the wider community, yet almost no quantitative data was used. Though the reason for less

The topic of sexual orientation is both sensitive and controversial. This is evident in events, such as the Pride Parade, and also in media, where authoritative figures preach against it and speak of its “sinful nature” (Emmanuele, Blanchard, Camperio-Ciani, & Bancroft, 2010). Sexual orientation exists in various forms, it differs in the way it is viewed by different cultures, and researchers propose different perspectives to explain the emergence of an individual 's sexual orientation. In the discourse of sexual orientation,

Everyone has their own take on controversial subjects faced in society, and no matter what age we live in, this particular subject seems to stay just as relevant in the generation before as it does today. The poem written by Richard Blanco titled â Queer Theory: According to My Grandmotherâ (2012), which

It is hard to challenge what is seemingly normalized in society. Especially when looking into the realm of gender and sexuality, the male and female gender accompanied by heterosexuality is often just accepted and deemed as a social norm. Social institutions such as marriage, health-care laws, and the economic system benefit those who act within the heteronormative behaviors and appropriate gender expression. The gender binary, though, is far from accurate when assuming personal identity. If someone follows the social script of the femininity, he or she is expected to be female and possess female anatomy. The same goes for men: if he or she expresses masculinity he or she is expected to be male with male anatomy. Anything outside of this expectation is deemed socially unacceptable and subject to backlash. With the strong ties Western society has to the gender binary and appropriate gender roles, it is impossible to picture anything else. The Fa’fafine in Samoa, however, present a great challenge to the norms instilled in society.

There are certainly various points in history that can be construed as trailblazing for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. One event in particular, however, sparked awareness and a call to action that previously could never have been conceptualized in the United States. This unforgettable incident, the Stonewall riots of 1969, altered the public’s view of the gay community and arguably jumpstarted the next revolution in an entirely new civil rights movement.

The following thesis will lay out the progression in the LGBTQIA movement along with the deficits that these individuals have encountered throughout history. An interdisciplinary perspective through historical,

American rhetoric about LGBT+ issues underwent major changes in the late 60s and early 70s. While for years homophile groups such as the Mattachine Society dominated queer rhetoric, in 1969 Carl Wittman’s “Gay Manifesto” redefined the LGBT+ rights movement’s voice and goals (380). Using shocking language, his authority as a gay man, and emotional appeals to his queer audience, Wittman and his “Gay Manifesto” utilized a confrontational, liberationist tone to communicate his views on sexual identity and heteronormative culture. While opponents may argue that Wittman’s profane language and emotional appeals weaken his argument and alienate the audience, his rhetorical choices prove perfect for engaging queer readers. Wittman’s “Gay Manifesto” spoke to queer people and offered a new perspective in LGBT+ rhetoric.

For every Black man that is born, each is gifted with the rigid expectations of being a hyper-masculine male. These expectations seemed to be passed down through generations from family members. The study "African American Gay Youth and Their Families: Redefining Masculinity, Coping with Racism and Homophobia.”, portrays some of the hardships of coming out within this specific community. A mother who was interviewed in this study said “You are told to be a man … and being a man does not mean you sleep with other men,” she said. “Being a man means you have a woman and you procreate and continue the family name.” And for queer black men especially, this expectation of needing a woman to be the validation for your manhood takes a toll on them and their ability to feel safe in coming out. In this essay I intend to outline the problematic expectations and stigmatization of the black queer male community and develop ways in which this problem can start to be overcome while dealing with different sections of intersectionality.

Thirdly, queers challenge the categories as well as binaries of sexual and gender by questioning the categories and binaries’ reasonability. Queer theorists concern about how and why the categories of gender and sexuality are shaped, thinking the main reason is to better control people so as to achieve political goals. As de Lauretis (1991) stated, the existing strategies of homosexual, which is created based on the existing categories of gender and sexuality, is to ensure the “ center” integrated. Moreover, they reject and question the usefulness of categories. According to

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

“We’re here, we’re queer, get over it.” In 1990, these words, shouted and displayed proudly on signs waved by the activist group, Queer Nation, were revolutionary. Never, not since the Stonewall Riots, had non-straight, non-cis people been so vocal about their existence and demanded acceptance – something that straight people take for granted on a daily basis. However, in the years since the Riots, LGBT activism has become much more mainstream, no longer whispered about behind closet doors or something to be wholly ashamed of. Gay marriage is legal in all 50 United States, something that has been fought for since the conception of the LGBT movement. In fact, gay couples are routinely being featured on popular television and other forms of media. Some might say that in 2016, the dreams of the rioters in Stonewall have been realized. Marriage rights and the spotlight on nighttime television; equality seems to truly be right on the horizon.

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.