how “Homophobia Hurts Everyone”
On February 20, 2009, I attended a Social Justice conference at UCFV with my social justice class. At first I was not looking foward to it since it was a pro – d day but once I got there my opinion changed. The “theme” of the conference was ‘ “Thats so Gay” is not okay’. Alex Sanchez was the first to speak to us. He is an award winning author who writes about homophobia and how people grow up being afraid to let others know who they truely are. He read inscriptions from his newest book and also read e-mails from teens in the same situations that his books portrayed. As I was sitting and listening to Mr. Sanchez reading the e-mails, I realize how much I use the phrase “thats so GAY”. I never thought of it as hurting anyone. It taught me that even if I don’t directly say it to a person, I may still be hurting them.
Alex gave the quote “Homophobia hurts everyone” . I partially understood what he was saying but couldn’t fully get it. That is until I was watching re-runs of One Tree Hill. There was an episode when a charcter, Anna, is not quite sure of her sexuality and becomes homophobic. She avoids the problem instead of facing it. At the same time her friend, Peyton, is being accused of being a lesbian. Instead of ignoring the rumours, Peyton takes a stand and lets the other students know that she is not afraid of being called gay. By taking a stand, she gets in trouble from their principle. He tells her that it is not okay to behave in such a bad manor, and that behaviour like that is not accepted in the school. Peyton replies by telling the principle that she is only taking a stand for those who can’t and tells him she will not stop because she is doing it for the people who are afraid to do it themselves. She ends up being suspended.
Anna later asks Peyton why she did it? Peyton gives Anna a poem that says:
“First they put away the dealers, Then they put away the prostitutes. Then they shooed away the bums, And beat and bashed the Queers. Turned away asylum seekers, fed us suspicions and fears. We didn’t raise our voice, we didn’t make a fuss. It’s funny, there was no one left to notice when they came for us.”
After she finished reading the poem Peyton told her, “It’s not about who I am, it’s about who they are. They are the people who hate and they divide and they feed off the people who don’t fight back.” “Yeah, I could laught his off, but what about the girl who can’t? Who’s going to help her? Silence only makes them stronger!”
This helped me understand more what Alex’s quote meant. It doesn’t just hurt those who are gay, it also hurts the people who are not open to the fact that some people have different sexual orientations. Homophobia creates a “wall” between different beliefs instead of making it so everyone is equal.
At LSS, I hope this problem would never happen – a student being suspended for their opinion. By allowing us to take a course like Social Justice, our teachers and principles are telling us that it is okay to show how you truely feel and to not let it break you down. Together we are breaking the silence and helping those students who can’t do it themselves.
At the end of the day, I was glad to have had such a great experience.
mberger12 said,
April 16, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I love how you referred to One Tree Hill, Miranda! Very nice and you had some very good points about the issue.