Sexuality

Just today an article came out in my schools newspaper (mphoofprint.com) about the acceptance of homosexuality. Many teachers and students (including myself) are mentioned and have quotations about their views in the article. Many teenagers in this generation have to abjure there sexual orientation just to acquire acceptance from their society; even after many years of civil rights and equality battles society still cannot face the fact that everyone is different. Homosexuals are an anathema to a lot of people who don't truly understand the concept. Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality. America has freedom of speech and expression and history of wars just for the sole purpose of having equality yet when someone comes out of the closet then nothing but antipathy is shown towards them. Yes, we as Americans have the right to decry the choices of people but not in as such harsh and demeaning ways as we do towards homosexuals. Gays all over the US are being discriminated against and bullied by those who are non accepting of them. It is hard to change the views of people, we can get them to say they don't hate gays and they can pretend to accept them, but underneath that facade is still the hate. Discrimination and bullying persists in the country, especially in the school systems. As I said in the Myers Park High School Hoofprint, "It's subtle. People act like they don't have a problem with it, but inside, everyone judges everyone. If they don't say something out loud in school, then they'll always end up saying something in a message or on Facebook. Someone always has a problem, it doesn't matter how much you talk to them about it, you can't change the way someone thinks about a certain group until they've actually been one of those people and experienced their culture." Which is something we need to do as a society, become more integrated with every other culture that we are around everyday. I, myself, am bisexual; it is hard to deal with the constant hate from everyone on a daily basis, but we need to get people emerged in our culture and help them understand that it is not wrong and that we're still people. From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people. People have been told for thousands of years, from religion, culture, media, etc. that homosexuality is wrong. I don't know why, but I think people feel threatened by homosexuality. The problem isn't about gay people, the problem is about the attitude towards gay people. People think that all gays are Hannibal Lecters. But gay people are sons and daughters, politicians and doctors, American heroes and sons and daughters of American heroes. It is time that we as Americans come together united on the same front to protect and accept everyone like we have been fighting for our entire lives. It's time to truly live by what we have fought for in the fight for equality

- G.