Homosexuality and Racism in America
Jonathan Roberts
Ms. Brandt
AP Literature
3/29/13
In society, everyone has a label. Based on what someone’s skin color is, their sexual orientation, who they hang out with, what their religion is, what they enjoy; sure enough there’s a label for that person. People are so quick to judge others over things they don’t understand, because the unknown and strange scare them. Some discriminate because they’ve been taught to, because they learned to discriminate from their parents/legal guardians. People who like the same sex are one of the groups who are frequently discriminated because it goes against a lot of things from religion, to this country’s founding values and upbringing. Homosexuals are discriminated to the point where they are considered second class citizens, all because of their sexual preferences. This country’s public opinion on homosexuals is similar to its public opinion of the Blacks in the 1600’s - 1960s because this country yearns to control what’s different.
African Americans are the second largest minority group, next to the Latinos. Between the 1600s and the 1800s, Africans were forcibly immigrated to the America of that time. From then, they were dehumanized and considered as free labor. To the slave owners, they were less than human. They were beaten when they didn’t comply and sold in slave auctions like property. The slaves then were treated like dirt because of their skin color and their lack of knowledge. They were treated less than a human because how they were born. This is no different from how homosexuals are treated in America today. According to an article on homosexuality in the New England Journal of Medicine by Richard C. Friedman and Jennifer I. Downey, homosexuality was once considered a behavioral disorder. “The deletion of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association in 1980 marked a dramatic reversal of the judgment that homosexuality is a behavioral disorder.”
Ms. Brandt
AP Literature
3/29/13
In society, everyone has a label. Based on what someone’s skin color is, their sexual orientation, who they hang out with, what their religion is, what they enjoy; sure enough there’s a label for that person. People are so quick to judge others over things they don’t understand, because the unknown and strange scare them. Some discriminate because they’ve been taught to, because they learned to discriminate from their parents/legal guardians. People who like the same sex are one of the groups who are frequently discriminated because it goes against a lot of things from religion, to this country’s founding values and upbringing. Homosexuals are discriminated to the point where they are considered second class citizens, all because of their sexual preferences. This country’s public opinion on homosexuals is similar to its public opinion of the Blacks in the 1600’s - 1960s because this country yearns to control what’s different.
African Americans are the second largest minority group, next to the Latinos. Between the 1600s and the 1800s, Africans were forcibly immigrated to the America of that time. From then, they were dehumanized and considered as free labor. To the slave owners, they were less than human. They were beaten when they didn’t comply and sold in slave auctions like property. The slaves then were treated like dirt because of their skin color and their lack of knowledge. They were treated less than a human because how they were born. This is no different from how homosexuals are treated in America today. According to an article on homosexuality in the New England Journal of Medicine by Richard C. Friedman and Jennifer I. Downey, homosexuality was once considered a behavioral disorder. “The deletion of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association in 1980 marked a dramatic reversal of the judgment that homosexuality is a behavioral disorder.”
Cited: Friedman, Richard C., and Jennifer I. Downey. "The New England Journal of Medicine." Homosexuality — NEJM. N.p., 06 Oct. 1994. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. Kramer, Larry. "The Yale Law Journal." JSTOR. N.p., May 1997. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. "Jim Crow Laws." National Parks Service. National Parks Service, 21 Mar. 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. Herek, Gregory M. “Hate Crimes against Lesbians and Gay Men” N.p., June 1989. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. Brontstema, Robin. “A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation” N.p., June 2004 Web. 04 Apr. 2013 Millstein, Jason. "Straight Talk about the N-Word." Teaching Tolerance. N.p., Oct. 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.