The
Origins of Homosexuality
Gay
Men vs Lesbians
By:
Bre-Ann Werner
From
as far back as I can remember I was always taught in my younger years of school
that Homosexuality was wrong.
Expression of love, relationships, or marriage amongst two people of the same
sex was known to be absolutely
unacceptable throughout my childhood. I grew up listening to one derogatory
term and discriminative saying after another. But why? Why is this unacceptable?
As years went on and I saw life through my own lens, I learned to develop my
own opinion, which was that Homosexuality was 100% acceptable in my eyes. Love
is love, whether you fall in love with someone that falls under the “same sex”
as you, it does not matter in my opinion. In American society, Homosexuality is
becoming widely accepted, but there will always be those people who fight
against gay pride and find a way to discriminate. With all of the progression
that America has made over the years with the acceptance of homosexuality in
public, why is one gender more accepted than the other?
Dating
back to the origins of homosexuality during the late 1800’s, public
administrators took notice of a significant amount of people who were slowly
deviating from the traditional “perfect family.” A lot of people were no longer
basing their early life off of family, marriage, and reproduction, but more
around fun and sexual pleasure[1]. It wasn’t until about the first half of the 20th
century where people migrated to cities to find work and a better life. In this
time people of America were moving to three of the largest cities in the US;
New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco where they found their freedom of
expression[2]. At
the same time when freedom of expression was vastly growing in these areas, the
coming of homosexuality was now on the rise[3]. As
homosexuality started to publicly be introduced to the American society, their
chances of acceptance were quickly disappearing. Expression of freedom amongst
homosexuals was thought of to be wrong in the religious eye, and families were
no longer supporting their children who had feelings for someone of their same
sex. The disapproval of homosexuals was not only within family life or in the
local church, it quickly moved into the military and work force as well. Post
WWII, thousands upon thousands of gay, lesbian, and even bisexual men and women
were discharged from the armed services, and dumped into port services. Local
police and businesses were brutalizing the homosexuals, along with ostracizing
them in public and leaving them jobless[4].
In
hope of solving this problem, Harry Hay and Chuck Rowland founded the
Mattachine Society in 1950 with another founder Dale Jennings in mind; a
homosexual that was arrested for “illegal activity,”[5]. The
Mattachine Society was created for social and moral support for all homosexuals
that have been put down by society. They organized meetings and publications,
reaching out to thousands of people that have been hurt[6]. As
time went on, it was like the coming of homosexuality got stuck in its time
zone. People were still discriminating, gay bashing, and losing family over
personal life choices. Fortunately, things started to slowly progress as the
years went on, there is still and always will be some sort of discrimination
amongst homosexuals as there are in our current society.
Taking
a look at America today, homosexuality is becoming more and more accepted by
the day; gays, bi’s, and lesbians are now openly affectionate in public. Whereas
before they couldn’t even walk near each other on the street. As good as this
all sounds, discrimination still exists amongst us. Surveys and questionnaires
amongst people all over the United States have proven that people tend to enjoy
watching two women engage in a passionate relationship rather than watching two
males[7].
Has anyone ever wondered why there is such a difference between the two? In our
society we see all kinds of “lesbianism” whether it is passionate or just an
act for money. For instance, millions of people in American enjoy watching two
women engage in lustful behaviors with one another on pornographic videos, but
if two males were to do that it would be “disturbing.” But why? Just like
everything else in society, the different between lesbians and gay men is just
sexist. People find reasons why one thing is acceptable and have no reasons to
back up why the other is not. We see women engage in sexual behaviors on the
street all the time and we just ignore it. Do we accept lesbianism more than we
do gay men because we have just normalized it? Studies show that people would rather
see two lesbians making out than see two gay men holding hands[8]. The
American Society has normalized the look of lesbianism through things like pornographic
videos, or two young teen girls making out because their drunk; making it the
only “plausible” reason why one sex being homosexual is more acceptable than
the other. But has anyone ever looked deeper into what people are looking at
for entertainment and considering normal? What people watch on TV or on pornographic
videos have no love or passion behind them, it is all about the money and the
lifestyle. The true beauty and love behind two homosexual women should not be
based off of what we find more attractive to look at. No matter what we do in
society, discrimination against anything; race, culture, religion, boys, girls,
gays, lesbians, or bi’s will always be
there. Hopefully over time, things will fade and people will learn to accept
themselves and not ruin the lives of others because of their own insecurities.
I am a strong supporter and believer of Gay Pride and I support anyone who is
living the life they were born to live.
[1] Ford,
Milt. "Allies & Advocates." A Brief History of Homosexuality in
America. http://www.gvsu.edu/allies/a-brief-history-of-homosexuality-in-america-30.htm
(accessed April 30, 2014).
[2] Ford,
Milt. "Allies & Advocates." A Brief History of Homosexuality in
America.
http://www.gvsu.edu/allies/a-brief-history-of-homosexuality-in-america-30.htm
(accessed April 30, 2014).
[3] Ford,
Milt. "Allies & Advocates." A Brief History of Homosexuality in
America. http://www.gvsu.edu/allies/a-brief-history-of-homosexuality-in-america-30.htm
(accessed April 30, 2014).
[4] Ford,
Milt. "Allies & Advocates." A Brief History of Homosexuality in
America.
http://www.gvsu.edu/allies/a-brief-history-of-homosexuality-in-america-30.htm
(accessed April 30, 2014).
[5] Ford,
Milt. "Allies & Advocates." A Brief History of Homosexuality in
America.
http://www.gvsu.edu/allies/a-brief-history-of-homosexuality-in-america-30.htm
(accessed April 30, 2014).
[6] Morris,
Bonnie. "History of Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Social Movements."
http://www.apa.org. http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/history.aspx (accessed
April 30, 2014).
[7] Zdrok,
Dr. Victoria . "Why Lesbianism Is Widely Accepted." AskMen. http://www.askmen.com/dating/vanessa_100/121_love_secrets.html
(accessed April 30, 2014).
[8] Zdrok,
Dr. Victoria . "Why Lesbianism Is Widely Accepted." AskMen.
http://www.askmen.com/dating/vanessa_100/121_love_secrets.html (accessed April
30, 2014).
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