Sexual Orientation Identity And Its Influence On Student Development

Picture an African American High School student who is struggling with their sexuality identity. He is experiencing anxieties from high-achieving parents, which both attended Historically Black Colleges and Universities. His father was the star player on the football team and served in the military. His mother is a partner in a prestigious law firm. In addition, his older brother won the Heisman trophy, and his sister just landed a job working at the Whitehouse. Needless to say his parents, has high expectations for their children. He is currently a B average student, and is working hard to bring his grades up. Also, the transition from middle school to high school has added additional stress to this student’s life. We can conclude this

My understanding of sexual orientation identity is that although there are many developments of sexual identities, there is only one that people see it as normal. Which is the development of heterosexual identity. Also, because of that all the other sexual development of orientation identities, such as lesbianism, gay and bisexuals development of sexual orientation identity are being focused more than heterosexual orientation identity. This is very interesting because the author compares the development of sexual orientation identity and the racial identity development.

Schools “create and reinforce patterns of social class, racial and sexual identification among students which allow them to relate “properly” to their eventual standing in the hierarchy of authority and status in the production process” (Bowles & Gintis 11). I will discuss my experience in fourth grade because it was the first time I was overtly tracked and effected the rest of my education. For some background, I reviewed the demographics of my elementary school and found it very telling of where I am today compared to peers.

The development of gay identity emerged from men and women not being comfortable with the lives they were living. Traditional heterosexual roles caused both men and women to become unsatisfied with the way they were supposed to act. In a sense, they expressed heterosexual roles so that they won’t receive any backlash from the community they were a part of. The sexuality of someone was socially constructed, and that caused many people to have a difficult time coming out about which sex they prefer over the other. In Jeffrey Week’s “Sexuality in History”, Week discussed how sexuality is socially constructed as it gives aid in the development of one’s identity. Sexuality is something that people are able to express by the people they have something in common with. However, it is socially constructed since people labeled everything. “Indeed, I would go so far to say that sexuality only exists through its social forms and social organization” (Weeks 6). Sexuality was not based on the person, but how people will view their nonconformity in society.

The Seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan (2006) once said that “Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.” However, despite this and all of the actions done by the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) groups, gender discrimination is still visible in our country especially in the sectors of employment, education and society. It is evident in the recent years that the number of LGBTs in these sectors has been increasing and

A research article in the Journal of Sex Research that is titled Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Youths’ Perspectives of Inclusive School-Based Sexuality Education is expected to have bias shown throughout the paper to the reader. The title of the research article explains that it is written based off the study group’s perspective. The main purpose as outlined in the first paragraph of the introduction is “this exploratory study is to begin to develop a framework of what it means for sexuality education to be inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth, from the perspective of the youth themselves” (Gowen & Winges-Yanez, 2014 p. 788). Gowen and Winges- Yanez strives to

After reading this chapter, I now have a better understanding of sexual orientation. My views on sexual have definitely deepened because I learned that it’s not only genes that influence it. I now understand that culture can have a strong influence as the book states, “survey results show, cultures vary widely in their social norms for acceptable partners” (Myers & DeWall, 121). To expand on that point, I feel that individuals who are bisexual, gay or lesbian are often looked down in society because they are expected to behave or act a certain way within certain cultures. Therefore, they often feel that they don’t fit in or are afraid to identify who they feel they are. The reason I believe these feelings are often ignored is because most people

Sexual orientation and Gender identity are independent characteristics. Sexual orientation is about who a person is attracted to and want to have a relationship with. Gender identity is how a person perceives him or herself when it comes to having a particular gender which might not or might correspond with their sex at birth I believe that there is a lot of confusion between the two being that many put both of these concepts together when in all actuality they happen at different times of a person’s life. Another reason could be because people seem to sometimes get many different impressions of people who are expressing themselves for example if a woman likes to wear men’s clothes instead of women’s clothes people automatically believe she

There are several theorists that have presented models on sexual identity development. Many of the models have stages of sexual identity development suggesting that certain characteristics are present during a specific period. However, Anthony D’Augelli presents a model that suggests processes rather than stages. These processes take place over the span of one’s life and not necessarily in any specific order or fashion. D’Augelli’s (1994a) life span model of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) identity development takes into account “the complex factors that influence the development of people in context over historical time” (Evans et al, 2010). According to D’Augelli’s (1994)

Throughout this course we have explored many themes in the books that we have read. While many themes have been looked at and discussed, the main thing that I learned is that they rarely come by themselves. Most of the works that we have studied included many themes interwoven together to give the novels a real world feel—because in the real world, issues of gender, race, sexuality, poverty, etc rarely are isolated.In Shani Mootoo’s Novel Valmiki’s Daughter we looked at themes of race, sexuality/ LGBT issues, and national cultures to name a few. The intersectionality of these themes is what makes her novel rich with depth and value, and is what I will analyze in this paper.

There are five different theories of sexual orientation that are examined and discussed in this chapter. I think it is important to consider each theory and understand why they were created. The first being the structural-functionalist perspective focuses on having safe heterosexual relationships without cheating to ensure safe child rearing and a regular family dynamic for the child to grow up in (300). The second being the conflict perspective focuses on the power difference between the ‘straight’ individuals and all the members of the LGBT community. The ‘straight’ individuals are seen as more powerful because they are the norm meaning that are the dominant group. The LGBT community is the community with the least amount of power, especially in 1973 when being gay was considered a mental illness or mental disorder (301). The third being the symbolic interactionist perspective which focuses

This essay will be examining the relationship between sexuality and identity in the book, Fun Home (2006) by Alison Bechdel. Bechdel’s memoir Fun Home explores the way gender and sexual identity play important roles in the world. It frames the discovery that Bechdel when she was a young girl realised she was a lesbian, whilst at the same time finding out that her father is also homosexual and had been sexually active with males throughout his marriage to her mother, destroying their relationship. Through the use of visual comic pictures and writing, the books central themes challenge cultural norms of sexual and gender identity. It questions how associated a daughters open lesbian identity is with her fathers closeted gay one. Bechdel 's sexual discovery throughout the book, is always linked to her father Bruces sexual identity and it is possible to say that it had an effect on her own sexuality. She provides the reader with a sample of the identity struggle both her and her father suffered with to illustrate the experience they both had. The images within the text give only a small amount of information, where as the text is the most important element. This essay will explore whether sexuality and identity can be seperated, or whether your sexuality frames who you are with reference to Watson (2008), Freud (1920) and Fantasia (2011), whilst giving an analytical view at the text Fun home.

Identity is vital to every person. Every individual has his or her own identity as well as his own values. It is these values that help describe the individual’s identity. The various aspects that make an individual’s identity is the gender, physical ability, race and sexual orientation. This dispels out the confusion that exist between sexual orientation and identity of an individual. Sexual orientation is a branch of a person’s identity.

Sexual orientation, term used to describe patterns of attraction, aids in the discovery of an individual’s sense of self and social identity. Sexual orientation, also understood as more than sexual behaviors, includes emotional preference as well as an intensity of a spiritual connection with another person. Those who fall on the continuum closer to being attracted to those of the opposite sex, which accounts for the majority, are commonly known as straight or heterosexual. Before answering, “Is it a choice,” an individual must first understand the trial and tribulations of the LGBTQ community. According to the American Psychiatric Association, until 1974 homosexuality was a mental illness. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female or something else. Educators note, “While the inclusion of transgendered issues in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual movement is controversial to some, gender and sexual orientation intersect in inseparable ways,” (Fraynd 1). The growing awareness of sexual orientation and gender identity sparked from the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015 and the implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms. The main arguments attempt to govern whether sexual orientation and gender identity are determined from nature or nurture. These two viewpoints have a common

The way in which a person recognises themselves sexually, of the gender in which they are attracted to is known as their sexual orientation. A person can identify themselves as being one of many orientations. The most known and recognised of these are homosexual; lesbian and gay, bisexual; being sexually attracted to both sexes and transgender; which means that a person has a sense of self-identity of themselves and their gender which differs with the gender in which they were born. These sexual orientations are grouped and known as the LGBT community.