Did you know?
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in state employment. Currently, the Florida Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, or marital status The Deutch/Skidmore Civil Rights Bill would add “sexual orientation” and “familial status” as additional protected classes. This essentially means that in states like Florida you can be fired for being gay without legal recourse. Is this acceptable? We can vote, pay taxes, and even go to war (don’t ask don’t tell) but the basic right to work and provide for our families are not protected under the constitution.
The writer Richard Mohr begins by telling us that 1-5 Americans have a gay acquaintance, a number which should be significantly higher based on the number of homosexuals in the United States. As a lesbian woman myself, I know that number is much higher, many men and woman continue to closet their homosexuality fearing the impact on their lives both personally and professionally. My journey to “Coming out” was one of the most challenging times of my life. I was a married mother of three, living a normal heterosexual life, when at thirty I discovered my homosexuality. People often ask me if being gay was something I always knew. I couldn’t just have become gay; I must be confused or worst bisexual. I’ve have realized that ones journey towards self discovery is unique to that persons experiences in life. I lived my life I was conditioned to, education, marriage, kids; I always knew something was missing in my relationship with men. My lack of exposure to “gay” culture, friends, and experiences limited my knowledge of sexual orientation and gender identification. The reading reflects on the two major stigmas or stereotypes of homosexuals, the first an issue of confused sexual identification the other the deviant behavior of “gays”. Society sees me as a straight woman unless corrected, because I do not look like a bull dyke, queer, stud, or tom boy. When confronted with my orientation they are often shocked, surprised, and curious? They want to no if something happened to me. They assume that I nice feminine girl like me should be able to fine a man. Was I molested as a child/ abused by a man? Did I have some awful heterosexual experience? My more masculine counterparts however are often looked at as being born that way, trying to be something they could never be; a man. It never occurs to society that gay people are trying to live, be happy, and love just like heterosexuals.
