Three Marches

This week started with our class presenting our projects that we have been working on for the past 3 weeks. The first group that presented did their project on showing the movie 'It's Elementary' on campus in the Ostrander Auditorium. They explained the purpose and goal that they wanted to achieve which seemed like a very good idea. They tried to get as many professors and teachers to attend that they could in the short amount of notice they were able to give. They had a fair amount of people show up at the beginning of the movie but by the end of the showing only 8 people were still left. This group wanted to get the reaction out of all the students and teachers that attended and to see what they thought of the film. From the responses we heard during their presentation it sounded pretty interesting and the feedback was pretty diverse and people stood on both sides of the issue.

The next group to present did their project on going to different restaurants and retailers to ask them a couple questions about their employee benefits and if they would hang a rainbow colored triangle in their window. A lot of the responses, from the managers or supervisors, seemed to be pretty safe responses, meaning that they didn't respond in a mean way and explain that they do not support gay rights but at the same time it doesn't mean they fully embrace it either. They just seemed to express that they accept it.

In one of our readings this week, the article Three Marches, Many Lessons was one of the most interesting articles I read this semester. It described the three biggest marches in Washington D.C. to support LGBT rights. The three marches that were described were the marches in 1979, 1987, 1993. Following the Stonewall riots in 1969 many advances occurred for the LGBT community such as the first openly gay person was on national television, and the first open gay male, Harvey Milk, was elected to office. Following Harvey Milk's assassination in 1978 sparked sadness in thousands of people’s lives. In response to this assassination the 1979 march was assembled and it became the 'first national mass action for queer liberation (page 442).' I really thought it was funny how they described this march, 'if Stonewall marked the beginning of the modern gay movement, the first national queer march in 1979 was it's coming out party (page 442).' The article goes on to explain that now marches are valued by how many people participate in the march but the more accurate way to determine a successful march is by the effect it had and the events following the march.

The second march that occurred in 1987 was in response to the AIDS epidemic. When the disease was first in the media some people that were religiously against gays, believed this was a punishment. Approximately six hundred people attended this rally from all across the country to view the AIDS Quilt.

The platform for the third march that occurred in April 1993 didn't differ that much from the 1987 march. This third march had seven different demands. One of the first things was demanding was a LGBT civil rights bill. Another very important thing they were demanding for was for more research on AIDS and more funding for the education of it. This seems like this shouldn't even be a demand because it's an illness that is killing so many people, and just because people don't agree with how these people chose to live out their lives and who they fall in love with does not mean that they should be denied the right to be treated for this disease and not have it taken seriously.

The article concludes with saying when and if there will be another march. There was a proposed idea to have a march in 2000 that didn't end up happening because the idea was not embraced well and organizations had other ideas and plans they were trying to coordinate.

Week 13

I really did enjoy the activities, readings, and classes this week. The main theme we covered in class this week was all the different homosexual television shows, movies, and when we had our speaker come in last week we discussed some homosexual theatre and plays. The reason why I thought this week was so interesting is because a lot of the shows that we discussed are shows that I am thoroughly interested in and have watched in the past. It helps a lot when we use examples of things that I can relate to. For Tuesday's class we had to bring a one page paper of us describing the character, plot, and setting of a television show that involved a gay character. Some of the TV shows that we discussed were Will and Grace, Desperate Housewives, Grays Anatomy and many more popular daytime television shows. We discussed all the homosexual characters in each of these shows and how they were all viewed and how in pretty much every single television show there was a stereotypical gay person. We had an interesting discussion about the fact that societies views most homosexual people the same way they are portrayed in these shows. Jack, on Will and Grace is probably the most stereotypical gay male. Jack's character is a feminine, outgoing, flamboyant gay male who most of the Will and Grace viewers absolutely adore. Since his character is so popular most of society expects that when they meet a gay male that person will be mirrored to Jack's character or at least have some of the same personality traits.

In Thursday's class we viewed some different American movies that included homosexual characters and an Indian film that included a lesbian couple. We were able to see a lot of different examples with the American films that there was usually a butch woman in most of the lesbian couples. In the Indian film we saw two very feminine looking women lying in the water caressing each other.

In one of our assignments we had an article to read titled Articulating "Indianess (page 60)" it discusses the movie Fire that we watched a clip from on Thursday's class. In this section it discusses how 'right -wing groups that have been protesting this movie claim that lesbianism does not exist.' This startles me because I can't imagine how someone can truthfully believe that there are no lesbians in their country just because they don't accept that type of lifestyle or behavior. In another section of this reading it illustrates between Radha and Sita's character how they may not be lesbians because of they have husbands. They try to justify this by explaining how may females in their culture show a lot of affection for each other without anything going on between them.

Opening My Eyes

We had very interesting class periods this past week. On Tuesday we had a guest speaker, Lisa Koontz, who I thought was extremely interesting and nice. When she introduced herself she told us that she had never discussed the topic of her being a queer parent mother. She was able to open up to us about almost everything in her life. She started describing her and her partner and how they were together for seventeen years before they decided to have a child together. I was so intrigued by everything that she was saying because she had raised her daughter a little differently and she was so polite and open to discussing it all. One of the first things that I thought was really interesting was the fact that they decided to home school her. Their daughter is only four years old right now and hasn't been home schooled for a while but the intentions to home school her are so genuine. They really want her to have a good education and believe that if she were to go to a public school than she wouldn't learn as much and that schools focus a lot on behavior. Another thing I noticed is that Lisa said they dress her in 'boy clothing.' The reason for dressing her in these clothes is solely just so that she wont be constricted from doing anything physical or just being comfortable in her clothing. I thought they have good intentions for her daughter and I'm sure they will let her decide what she wants to wear when she grows up, weather it be dresses or cute dress pants and dress shirts. Another very interesting thing I noticed is that they do not have a TV at home. I know that some people would think this is really surprising, but I kind of agree with Lisa because my dad raised me by saying that TV isn't important and that you should be limited to only so much a week.

Thursdays class was also very informative. We had two articles to read this week and a section from our Look Both Ways book. We split into three groups, each discussing a different reading assignment. Then after discussing it in our small groups we discussed them all as a class. I thought this was very effective because I know me and some of my fellow classmates had some difficulties understanding parts of the articles. When discussing the articles as groups and as a class we were able to explain what we each understood about the article. Then once we had to go in front of the class to explain it to everyone it helped me understand it even more. It really helped me understand the material because my fellow classmates were the ones that were explaining it. We covered the main topics of each reading and what terms were the most important.

Resistance

The main theme for this article, Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (1980), is supposed to be resistance. It was a little difficult to understand some parts. The first couple of pages were quite interesting and mostly shocking when she goes on to explain (page 1) what compulsory heterosexuality is and how it was written in part to, ‘encourage heterosexual feminists to examine heterosexuality as a political institution which empowers women.' The New Rights messages stated that 'women are the emotional and sexual property of men' and 'the equality of women threaten the family, religion and state.' Reading this section was quite surprising to me because I didn't realize how women were looked so down upon. The fact that women were considered as a sexual property of men sounds extremely demeaning to me. I know that many people used to believe this and some still do. I in fact have a roommate that comes from an extremely conservative family and has almost the same basic thinking and for some reason believes men in relationships have more power and women are not worth as much.

Another part of this article that was interesting to me was when the author describes how lesbians face discrimination in hiring and harassment and violence in the streets. This fact makes me feel like we have so far to go yet. I can't imagine being discriminated against solely on my sexuality and not based upon my resume or intelligence. In the next couple of pages she depicts four different books that were written from different viewpoints and political beliefs but all authors were feminists. One of the books she examines was by Nancy Chodorow. She explains how men are 'emotionally secondary in women's lives' and 'men do not become as emotionally important to women as women do to me (page 16).' I don't know if I necessarily agree with this because I know of many relationships that the man means more to the women than the women means to the man. I do believe that once a woman has a child, they become the most important thing in her life.

Adolescent Views

Today in class we watched a movie titled It's Elementary, which was really interesting. If I was just flipping through the channels and happened to watch this program I definitely would have stopped and watched it. The movie is based on the tremendous issues there were, and definitely still are, for teachers to be able to discuss gay and lesbian issues to their students in elementary school. I honestly never really realized that this was such a big issue. I don't remember ever being taught about gay issues in middle school, and most definitely not in elementary school. After watching this movie, I really do think this is a big issue and it's very important for children in elementary school to at least learn these terms and get a basic understanding of what it is, instead of going on and believing that someone who is gay just means how they walk. When they are this young it is important to kids to at least have a basic knowledge of it and know how it, so that they can know the effects they are making on someone when they call another student a faggot or gay. I completely agree with how the girl that grew up and went to college and played soccer put it. She stated that there shouldn't be any harm in just informing children about the basics of it and letting the children make their own decisions based on their knowledge.

I wanted to make a comment on a part of reading from Look Both Ways by Jennifer Baumgardner in the 'But is it Sex' section. On page 153 the author comments on "high-school-aged girls whose same-sex public smooches and fooling around is written off as a performance for boys." She goes on to explain how this shows that a lot of high school sexuality isn't totally authentic and they are acting in a way that they think adults do. I thought this was interesting because this is a very true fact that happens among many high schools. Many girls make out with other girls simply for the attention factor. When a girl decides to make out with another this action should not be dismissed as simply needing attention. It needs to be noticed that that act could be a stage in their life where they are trying to figure out who they are.

Opening Our Hearts

I was greatly appreciative of Thursday's class where we had a panel of five people opening up, to a classroom of about thirty people, and telling us personal stories of what happened to them when they came out to the closest people around them. I was glad to hear that the majority of the panel didn't have bad stories of their coming out experience. The story that shocked me the most was the story that the last lady shared about sending her ex husband an email, and finding out that not only did he not reply back to her with the cruel message, but he also decided to email it to people that she was extremely close with also, and before she got a chance to speak to them and let them hear it from her. It was very hard for me to try to hold back my reaction in the classroom when I heard this part. I couldn't believe that he would say something so extremely rude to the woman that had his children. She mentioned the fact that there communication between each other was very poor, but he crossed the line when he decided to forward the email to people that she was close to and even a women that she didn't even know. It is stories such as this one, that I'm sure is why many people are afraid to tell people that mean so much to them.



I just started reading "Look Both Ways" by Jennifer Baumgardner and instantly got drawn into the book. One of the main reasons why I think I enjoy this book so much is because I can relate to it in many different aspects. I really enjoy her writing style as well. She references a lot of my favorite TV shows such as Friends, One Tree Hill, and relates her and a past girlfriend to the characters Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley which I enjoyed watching a lot as well.

Jennifer Baumgardner does a nice job describing her past relationships with Anastasia, Steven, and Amy. The first thing that drew me into this book was the way that she described her affection towards Anastasia and how her feelings toward her were completely different to all of her previous boyfriends. She was completely attracted to her but she seemed to always feel like she was in competition with her, whether it be between their looks or their writing. I also really enjoyed the part when she was in the relationship with Steven and he would think he was "pussy-whipped," her sister would reply, "no, you are pussy-equipped, (meaning ready for a relationship)," (pg.32). The more I read this book the more I learn that their sexuality doesn't have to be indefinite. The author doesn't have to be completely straight or only attracted to women. She had deep and meaningful relationships with both genders. I really do look forward to reading more of this book.

The Organization of Resistance

In our reading A Desired Past by Leila Rupp (pg.134) in the "This is The Army" section it described how the war and the army heavily affected peoples lives that were gay. In one instance, a mother found love letters that were written to her daughter from a women sergeant and the mother threatened to tell the Corps that they were 'full of homosexuals and sex maniacs' and trying to use those words as a weapon and making her daughter feel bad about who she was. The army was also difficult for gay males because when joining the army or when already enrolled in the army and asked if they liked males some would have to lie to get in or some would tell the truth and had to face to consequences. Another interesting part of this section was (pg.136) when the Corps apparently tried to take advantage of this situation and place the butch and manly women in male oriented jobs such as motor transport, and tried to place the 'sissy' men in more feminine positions such as nurses.

In the section "Into The Streets" (page 159-160) Leila Rupp gives two motivational quotes that I thought were very powerful. The first quote was,"were just like you, so treat us that way," and the other quote, "we're here, we're queer, get used to it." The reason why I thought these quotes were so inspirational is because just by saying those words it feels like you are so much more powerful, and the issue at hand seems so worthless and people are making such a huge issue about something that they have absolutely no control over. The LGBT community, plus everyone that supports them, is too large a group to just diminish and think they will all go away.

The Struggle for Equality

In class on Tuesday and Thursday we watched a movie titled Before Stonewall. It talked about the history of the LGBT community and all the struggles they had to overcome through the 1950’s and 1960’s. In one section of the movie it described how in the 1959 race for Mayor for San Francisco, the one candidate criticized the current mayor for letting the town turn in to a ‘Gay Safe Haven.’ This really bothered me because a political figure was publically criticizing the gay community and trying to get people to support him. Granted this was many years ago, when people weren’t that educated about it since it was kept so quiet from the public. Although, I don’t understand how people can instantly get such a negative perspective about this topic when they don’t even know what these people have to go through to just be accepted and not have to hide from the rest of the world or even just their family.

Another section of the movie that was interesting to me was when a gay woman said, “Nothing is wrong with being gay. Getting caught is where you pay the price.” The reason why I thought this was interesting is because even if someone accepted the fact that someone is gay, it doesn’t matter because back then if you were to get caught you could be seriously reprimanded. I think it is extremely unfair that the gay and bisexual community had to suppress this part of them and try so hard for other people not to know because they could have gotten into a lot of trouble with the police officials and also possibly be rejected by the rest of their community.

In 1965 it was a big year for people picketing trying to defend gay rights. In an interview on camera, a man of high power of a company that was being picketed in front of was asked some questions. The man replied, “We are being picketed by homosexuals,” then there was a pause and in the crowd arouse laughter. He went on to say, “We specifically do not hire homosexuals within the company.” I am so thankful that I live in a different time and don’t have to listen to such ignorant people make such awful comments. High public officials are not as comfortable with making such comments anymore. The reason why they probably wouldn’t be as open about their thoughts is because the PR could be very harmful to the company.
Another quote from this movie that really disturbed me was when Richard Nixon was quoted to say that being gay, “It is tragic illness.” How anyone could honestly believe that being gay or bisexual is ‘an illness’ is beyond me. There has not been one day in my life where I ever once debated in my head if it was a choice they had to make, and maybe one morning they wake up and just decide ‘hey, from now on I want to have to fight for all of my rights and for people to judge me just because of this small aspect of my life.”

After the movie we discussed about Butch and Lesbian Identity as a class. We first had to jot down some ideas of what we thought butch was and how a butch person would dress. I didn’t have many ideas really other than a women trying to be more masculine. After sharing our thoughts amongst the class we learned some new terms and what they meant, such as; femme, passing, stone butch, dyke, bulldagger/bulldyke, top, and bottom.

Desired Past

In the book A Desired Past we are introduced to Aunt Leila and her partner Diantha. The author of the book was never really told straight up that her aunt was really in love with this woman or if Leila considered herself a lesbian. This part of the book made me really think how hard it must have been back then to have to hide such a strong feeling you have against someone and what a huge inconvenience it really can be. Some people really do like to show public display of affection or be able to talk to friends or family about their significant other. Years ago I'm sure that wasn't even an option to go out in public and hug and kiss your partner that is of the same sex. I also thought it was interesting when she mentioned about the 'burning of letters.' In my understanding of this section, same sex lovers used loved letters as a main means of communicating their feelings to each other without other people finding out about it. It must have been very hard to have to burn something that had such sentimental value just because you were scared that someone would stumble upon them.

One of my main reasons I took this course is to get a better understanding of the labels and try to distinguish which words are not correct to say or rude and which terms are better to use. In this book I think the author does a nice job in trying to describe if her aunt considered herself as a label of a 'lesbian' because she was a conservative lady.

I was pretty shocked when I read about the section how Sambia boys can only grow into adulthood when they swallow the semen of older men. Not only was this act not deviant but it was expected and it didn't mean anything about that persons 'sexuality.'

As I kept reading I found out that the author preferred to use the term 'same-sex-sexuality' instead of such terms as 'gay' or 'lesbian' or even 'homosexual.' I decided that I prefer this term as well. I suppose it depends upon the community and environment in which you grew up around to decide which term sounds offensive and which doesn't. I believe that in most communities that the term gay is used more often to describe a bad situation or a negative perspective on something. Due to this I don’t like the term really because I don’t know if the person I am saying it to would believe me that I am meaning to use the word in a respective way.

I learned a new word which I had never heard before, "berdaches" which are biological males who dressed an lived as women. I was also interested to learn that berdaches were an emblem that symbolizes child abuse and the violent domination of women. I would never even guess that was what that word meant.

Male Feminism

I thought the article we had to read about male feminism was very informative. When I first started reading it, I was kind of confused because I had never heard of that term before and I didn't really know there were many male feminists. As I read on I got more interested and understood the different areas and aspects of feminism. I think it is very crucial that we have male feminists because that shows that other people care and understand what women had to and still have to go through till this day. When the author went in to explain how many different advantages men have over women when it comes to careers and just their lifestyles, it was kind of a realization. Some of the examples they listed were simple things like how men can go on walks by themselves at night without feeling in danger, not worried about being asked if they plan on having children at their jobs, and the most interesting one is that men' reputation does not diminish with every person they sleep with. I don't believe it is right for women to have to put her career on hold for years and years to stay home and take care of the children and the house all by herself. Women put a lot of time and effort into their careers and men should bear just as much responsibility and be willing to stay home and take care of the child instead if necessary. I also have never understood how it is that men can sleep with countless women and not only does it not hurt their reputation but in most cases it actually helps it. I hope that someday we can overcome that stereotype and understand that if a women sleeps with a lot of men, it doesn't make her any worse of a person that if a man were to sleep with a lot of women. Another part of the article that sparked some interest was the section that described that he, the author, was a Black Gay Male and how that was a triple negation. Then I considered the fact how much a minority black males are and to make him even more of a minority he is a black gay male.

First Impressions

It was not difficult for me to chose to take this class. I knew I was interested in it and wanted to learn more. I also took it for personal reasons and to find out more about myself. The one setback I had when deciding to take this class was what everyones reaction would be to me taking this course. The first people I told were my roomates, which luckily were extremely supportive. Most of my friends were understanding. I have yet to tell my parents. I dont think the reason why I haven't told them yet is because they will be mad or disapointed, its the fact that I dont know how they will react and think of me differently. Already in the first day of this class I already felt so welcomed and accepted. I am also very interested to hear everyone else's views and thoughts through out this class.