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.