Gays, Lbians & Society | Commonweal Magaze

Contents:

• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• UNRSTANDG GAY & LBIAN INTI
• GAYS, LBIANS & SOCIETY
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• HOW TO SUPPORT, EMPATHIZE WH, AND AFFIRM LGBTQ+ PEOPLE
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER MUNY

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

As the Supreme Court readi s long-awaed lg on same-sex marriage, two Pew Rearch Center surveys this sprg — one of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr adults and the other of the Amerin public — found a mon thread: that society as a whole has bee more acceptg of gays and lbians.

The number of Amerins who had a favorable view of gay men stands at 55%, an 18 percentage pot crease pared to a earlier; 58% had a favorable opn of lbians, a 19 percentage pot crease over the same time span.

A March-April survey of the general public also showed that, recent years, there has been a cle the percentage of Amerins who thk that more gays and lbians raisg children is a bad thg for Amerin society. The survey also found that 68% of those who know a lot of people who are gays and lbians — and 61% who have close iends or fay members who are gay or lbian — say they support same-sex marriage.

UNRSTANDG GAY & LBIAN INTI

While the survey of the general public found that, overall, the percentage of Amerins who say homosexualy should be accepted by society creased om 47% to 60% over the last , opns vary wily based on relig affiliatn and practic. When the nearly one-third of Amerins who say homosexualy should be disuraged are asked an open-end qutn why they feel this way, by far the most mon reason — given by 52% — is that homosexualy nflicts wh their relig or moral beliefs.

The associatn of HIV/AIDS wh gay and bisexual men and the accurate belief that some people held that all gay and bisexual men were fected served to further stigmatize lbian, gay, and bisexual people. Dpe the persistence of stereotyp that portray lbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several s of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream medil and mental health anizatns this untry to nclu that the orientatns reprent normal forms of human experience. Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life.

The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny. Th, is not surprisg that lbians and gay men who feel they mt nceal their sexual orientatn report more equent mental health ncerns than do lbians and gay men who are more open; they may even have more physil health problems.

GAYS, LBIANS & SOCIETY

Lbian, gay, and bisexual youth who do well spe strs—like all adolcents who do well spe strs—tend to be those who are socially petent, who have good problem-solvg skills, who have a sense of tonomy and purpose, and who look forward to the future.

If they are a heterosexual relatnship, their experienc may be que siar to those of people who intify as heterosexual unls they choose to e out as bisexual; that se, they will likely face some of the same prejudice and discrimatn that lbian and gay dividuals enunter. The picture that emerg om this rearch shows that children of gay and lbian parents enjoy a social life that is typil of their age group terms of volvement wh peers, parents, fay members, and iends.

In summary, social science has shown that the ncerns often raised about children of lbian and gay parents, ncerns that are generally ground prejudice agast and stereotyp about gay people, are unfound. When lbians, gay men, and bisexual people feel ee to make public their sexual orientatn, heterosexuals are given an opportuny to have personal ntact wh openly gay people and to perceive them as dividuals. Although n sometim seem like one type of gay person is shown over and over aga the media or on TV, gay people aren’t tomatilly effemate, and lbian women aren’t tomatilly mascule – fact, those stereotyp leave out a lot of other personali and characteristics.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

It strik me as a battle over assumptns: whether homosexualy is chosen or disvered; whether n and should be “cured”; whether gays are predatory recers for their “liftyle”; whether ’s sound public policy to enact statutory protectns of gay and lbian rights hog, employment, herance law, admissn to the ary, etc., and thereby to foster greater tolerance and, eventually, social acceptance of homosexualy; whether gays and lbians n be good parents; whether the notn of same-sex marriage cheapens and unrcuts or pliments and plements the male-female variety; whether the effect of the gay sensibily on polics, fay life, theater, films, the arts general is malevolent or posive, or both, or neher; whether, psychologilly, homosexualy is an aberratn, a basic flaw, or simply a difference; whether, morally and ethilly, homosexual love-makg—men lyg wh men, women wh women—is perverse, repulsive, evil, or merely a sexual variant, self neher better nor worse than heterosexualy; and, fally, whether the belief that homosexualy is of s very nature a social disvalue, a psychologil aberratn, and a moral evil is found on sound, time-tted personal and social valu or is rooted hered bias, personal ignorance, and/or homophobic fear.

Unscientific, y, but I note that whereas a mid-January New York Tim/CBS poll only 42 percent of all adults surveyed favored permtg homosexuals to serve the ary, 69 percent of rponnts wh a gay relative or iend took that posn.

Where homosexual activy or viance om tablished genr rol/drs was banned by law or tradnal ctom, such nmnatn might be munited through sensatnal public trials, exile, medil warngs, and language om the pulp.

HOW TO SUPPORT, EMPATHIZE WH, AND AFFIRM LGBTQ+ PEOPLE

However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary. Such eyewns acunts the era before other media were of urse riddled wh the bias of the (often) Wtern or Whe observer, and add to beliefs that homosexual practic were other, foreign, savage, a medil issue, or evince of a lower racial hierarchy. The European powers enforced their own crimal s agast what was lled sodomy the New World: the first known se of homosexual activy receivg a ath sentence North Ameri occurred 1566, when the Spanish executed a Frenchman Florida.

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER MUNY

Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men. ” In Wtern history, we fd ltle formal study of what was later lled homosexualy before the 19th century, beyond medil texts intifyg women wh large cloris as “tribas” and severe punishment s for male homosexual acts.

Their wrgs were sympathetic to the ncept of a homosexual or bisexual orientatn occurrg naturally an intifiable segment of humankd, but the wrgs of Krafft-Ebg and Ellis also labeled a “third sex” generate and abnormal. His efforts, and Germany’s more liberal laws and thrivg gay bar scene between the two World Wars, ntrasted wh the backlash, England, agast gay and lbian wrers such as Osr Wil and Radclyffe Hall.