After reading the articles on Sexual Orientation I learned many different concepts, ideas, and outlooks on sexual orientation.

I became familiar with the International Bill of Gender Rights, which is designed to protect the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans-gendered. I never knew this Bill even existed before but exists to protect individual liberty and free expression. I also learned a lot about bisexuals from the article Biophobia by Marcia Deihl and Robyn Ochs. I never realized how hard it is for bisexuals being targeted from both the homosexuals and heterosexual groups. They do not know where they fit in the spectrum of sexuality from purely gay to purely straight. Marcias story of how she was not given the lesbian discount because she was bisexual, but not fully lesbian really had me thinking. She spent ten years of her life participating in gay marches and six years playing in a feminist band, which performed lesbian material, and yet she didnt qualify for the lesbian discount. I guess I just never realized how hard it is for bisexuals to place themselves in this society. Another thing I learned was in The Transgender Spectrum by Lisa Lees, that after she got a sex change that she didnt actually feel a change. She felt she changed sex, but not gender. She says, I have always known that I was a woman, and compared the sex change to losing weight. One last thing I learned from these articles was in Becoming an Ally by Jamie Washington and Nancy Evans. That when heterosexual persons first learn that their lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender friends are truly mistreated on the basis of sexual or gender identity, they often feel anger toward heterosexuals and guilt toward themselves for being members of the same group. Ive never considered this or thought about it that way, but it does seem to be right. Now that I do have an understanding of discrimination

and violence among oppressed groups like LGBTs, I do feel guilty for what us; being the dominant group, does towards the members of the oppressed group. Watching this violence towards gays makes me angry towards members of the subordinate group. I found these articles to be very similar to those of the course readings, class discussions and videos on Sexual Orientation. They all talked about how difficult and frustrating life can be for everyone, including heterosexuals when our society oppresses gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans-gendered. Specific examples include how in the article The Men with the Pink Triangles by Richard Plant says that in 1969 in the aftermath of Hitlers concentration camps and murders, beatings, and castration of gays paragraph 175A and most of 175 were abolished. Those who wore the yellow star, or red triangle were granted some sort of restitution, while the gays imprisoned or tortured were not. They considered those killings of the men with pink triangles legally justified. Likely in the article Murder Will out- But Its Still Open Season on Gays by Donna Minkowitz, this sense that murder or the beating of a gay is justified is shown in many cases. An example is in the 1983 case where two college students were only sentenced to four hundred hours of community service for being found guilty of nearly killing a gay man by taking a knife to his testicles on the grounds that they had acted in response to a sexual proposition from the victim. Again in a 1988 case, even the judge asks the prosecutor, Thats a crime now, to beat up a homosexual? in the murder of a man from Broward County, Florida. In many court cases anti-gay murders are overlooked and acquitted. Another similarity between articles is in the assigned reading Why Dont Gay People Just Keep Quiet? Listening to the Voices of the Oppressed by William Burns,

and the optional article Internalized Homophobia among Gay Men, Lesbians, and Bisexuals by Gregory Herek. In the article by Burns, students such as Susan, Eli, Ron and Dan are being oppressed from their education and rights. Susan could never express her feelings openly to her lover, Eli lived in a life of deception, Dans friend couldnt report hate crimes to authoritys in fear of not being taken seriously and being exposed to others, and Ron missed out in being educated in the history and culture of those like himself. Ron said to stay silent is to never ask about yourself. These life stories are examples of how staying quiet can slowly ruin ones lives, and that those who speak out are brave, and exposing themselves to risk. In the similar article, by Herek, it shows that those who have not yet come out are isolated from the LGB community and may experience greater psychological distress. It also mentions that to hide ones sexual orientation can create a painful discrepancy between public and private identities and that they are living a lie. Another similarity is between the movie MTV True Life: Im Coming Out and Memoirs of a Gay Fraternity Brother by Joshua Meiner is that you are harassed and prosecuted if found out to be gay. In the movie, when some of the students finally gained the confidence to come out to their familys, they were not accepted by all members. One boys family went as far as to give him a week to move out but never let him come back into their lives. Just like members of Joshuas fraternity: Sigma Phi Epsilon; in Meiners article. Before he came out they were all friends and got along fine, but once he was found out they turned on him. They feared that the chapter would be labeled as the gay house and they might loose potential new members to other houses. So they deactivated him and made his life miserable with slurs and harassment.

A similarity between the video Assault on gay America and the article Internalized Homophobia Among Gay Men, Lesbians and Bisexuals by Herek is that there is this fear that heterosexual men will be seen as gay if they dont act tough. Billy Jack is murdered because he is gay. 24-year-old Eric Mullins and 21-year-old Charles Butler beat Billy Jack to death because they claimed that Billy was coming on to them. They were scared of being seen as gay and acted out in fear. In Hereks article it mentions how many heterosexuals monitor and restrict their own behavior to avoid being labeled as gay. This is because of the stigma attached to homosexuality and its effect on heterosexual men. The last similarity I found was shown between Rosie ODonnells video Cruise for Gay Families and Jamie Washingtons article Becoming an Ally. Rosie ODonnell shows how being an ally and organizing this cruise for gays and their families can really have its benefits. Just like in the article, she was able to open others eyes and show that these families on this cruise ship are loving and humans too. She shows that when youre an ally, just like the article says; you open yourself up to the possibility of closer relationships with an additional percentage of the world.