The Article, How Homophobia Hurts Everyone By Warren J. Blumenfeld

Numerous instances of oppression throughout history call into question its impact on society in the past and present. Governments like those of Joseph Stalin’s Communist regime or Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime illustrate the ways in which it was justified. First-hand accounts of the people victimized from oppression give form to its methodologies. Even today, it leaves its stain on the fabric of the modern world. Through sources such as “The Need for Progress” by Joseph Stalin and Elie Wiesel’s famous memoir Night, readers can gain a better understanding of the driving principles and effects of oppression. Past governments have used the threat of racial and religious minorities to justify their persecution. One method of oppression involved the

media had labeled it as a gay disease. Based upon the statistics compiled by the Center for

Homophobia present in the black community has decreased over the years. Black culture is becoming more tolerant and accepting of the LGBTQA community. Churches are becoming more tolerant towards the LGBTQA community. A few decades ago, homosexuality could not be talked about in public without being shamed, however many Black celebrities are making their sexuality public, inspiring the change of mentality in the younger generations. Some of these artist include Frank Ocean, Azealia Banks, and Jason Collins. Also, the portrayal of LGBTQA persons of color in the media is becoming less stereotypical, they were portrayed as flamboyant gossipy men with feminine tendencies, however now they are represented as people that you can identify with. For

Then there is the interpersonal level. This level is letting prejudice (personal bias) manifest into discrimination. Then the institutional level, which is “the government, businesses, and educational, religious, and professional organizations systematically discriminating on the basis of sexual identity” (Blumenfeld 381). Blumenfeld uses the fact that homosexuality was considered a disorder up until 1973, as an example of homophobia on the institutional level. Lastly, homophobia works on a cultural level through the “social norms or codes that … [are put in place] within a society to legitimize oppression” (Blumenfeld 382).

In my opinion, gays have been placed in a harmful environment caused by Christians. Reading these articles that were written from different perspectives about the same issues was great. There was an article written by Julie Rogers called, “Christians Must Repent for Devaluing L.G.B.T. People”, another article written by David P. Gurshee called, “Without Full Acceptance, Gays are Demeaned and Hurt”, and an article written by Rod Dreher called, “Waving a Blood-Soaked Rainbow Flag to Scapegoat Christians”. Each of these articles are written by people who have experienced different sides of the gay acceptance into church issue. My synthesis question is: Have Christians created a harmful environment for gays? I used to think that the church and

Homosexuality Annotated Bibliography Adriaens, Pieter R., and Andreas De Block. “The Evolution of a Social Construction: the Case of Male Homosexuality.” Scholarly Journals, vol. 49, ser. 4, University Press, 2006, pp. 570–585.

Life is hard. There are over seven-billion people in the world and each one of us are different; we vary through our physical appearances - our skin from the deepest ebony to the palest porcelain, our eyes can be akin to the chill in our bones or the darkest entropy behind our eyes. It isn’t all physical, of course. As people, we range in intelligence, religion (or lack thereof), even our sexual preferences - we are individuals. With so much variety, there is simply a basic need to have rights to express ourselves, to be ourselves without persecution. We require equal rights with fair treatment of everyone. Long battles have been fought from the beginning of human civilization, but we’re not done yet. In the supposed ‘Land of the Free’ where man, woman, and everything in between are supposed to stand united, marrying someone of the same sex is a very controversial topic among many due to institutionalized homophobia, something which had continually delayed the legalization… Until June of 2015.

There are a lot of things that are wrong in our world today. From crime running wild on the streets to there being homelessness wherever we turn. There are things that we can fix, but there are others that just cannot be. We are humans after all; we all have our flaws, we all have our secrets, we have our weaknesses. There are just some things that can never be fixed. Hatred and unrationalizable actions being a few of these things. Every once in a while there is a major crime that sweeps the nation. The reasons for this can vary from mass shootings, police shootouts, the pure shock or the crime or many other reasons. One of these crimes that swept the nation was the horrible act committed against Matthew Shepard.

The battle against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Defiance Syndrome (AIDS) has been devastating, underestimated, and complex. In America, this difficulty surrounding HIV/AIDS is due to the inability of the state to properly educate and protect its citizens from being exposed to this illness. Since the first detection of HIV and AIDS the government aided in the miseducation, stereotypes, and deaths of its citizens by not taking the proper protocols to protect its people. Originally, United States’ government allowed its citizens to believe that HIV and AIDS were strictly related to homosexual relationships. As a result of this misguidance, homophobia increased nationally; thus, shunning the gay community and making it

Homophobia has destructive effects within the Black LGBTQA community due an increase in discrimination. Young kids who identify as LBGTQA may find the people around them as unsupportive due to the homophobic environment they may be exposed to by their families, friends, and peers. They are often targets of vicious, violent attacks, which include emotional and physical abuse from their families or peers. Parents who resent their child that identifies as LGBTQA often resort to name-calling, physical violence, and abandonment to show their child the wrongs of homosexuality to convince them to change their sexual orientation. Some of the children that go through this repetitive abuse, find an escape by running away from their families, about 40%

Homophobia, and other issues which come with a homosexual population, have been increasing dramatically in the recent years as more movements are started for gay rights, such as legalization of gay marriage. Though the homosexual population is very small, less than 2% of the total population, homophobia and other issues create social injustice and divides within society. This issue has become such a large issue with in the United States because of the historically high population of Christians/Catholics dating back to the founding of America. The reason this high religious population conflicts with the homosexual community is because the Bible speaks of homosexuality as a sin.

Homophobia continues in our society, urban and rural, which is apparent in Michael Lassell's poem 'How to Watch Your Brother Die' and in Neil Miller's essay 'In Search of Gay America: Ogilvie, Minnesota.' What are homophobic people afraid of? Do they know? Knowledge and awareness of homosexuality is the best way to prevent homophobia. According to Religioustolerance.com 'Homophobia has a variety of meanings, including hatred of homosexuality, hatred of homosexuals, fear of gays and lesbians, and a desire or attempt to discriminate against homosexuals. The suffix 'phobia' is derived from the Greek word 'phobos'. In English, it means either fear or loathing? (1).

Every June thousands of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender people gather in different locations around the world to celebrate Gay Pride Month with dances, festivals, and marches. The categories of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender are fairly recent; the term "homosexual" used to refer to all individuals of a sexual orientation other than heterosexual. The tradition reached its thirty-fifth anniversary this year, and while the number of participants has skyrocketed since the first march, the rights for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender people have not altered significantly since 1970. For example, not only are same sex marriages not legally

Many homophobes can trace their fear of homosexuality to their defensiveness about their own homosexual tendencies. This theory is one that has been around for some time, since Freud's time actually. Freud believed that heterosexual men who fear homosexual men do so because they defend against their own feelings for men( Goleman 3). Though old, this theory is still the diagnosis of many present homophobes. Many men are frightened by the thought that they mat have a gay neighbor, and this fear is shared by the children.

Seeing the injustices that take place every day invigorates me to continue to fight for a world with less violence and more justice. It is witnessing the unjustified deaths of unarmed African American youth solely based on the complexion of their skin. It’s seeing DACA recipients and Dreamers have their rights denied and stripped away, having their lives and futures be used as playing tokens, in a wicked game. It’s seeing mi gente, my people, be called “rapists and criminals”. It’s the discrimination and the hatred that the LGBT community faces for being who they are. My dream is not to solve for world peace, but rather be part of the team that gives the voice back to those that were silenced unjustly. From police officers to activist groups,