Sunday, January 10, 2010

GLBT Mini Challenge #1

The January mini-challenge for "The Challenge That Dare Not Speak Its Name" is to write about why this challenge/issue is so important to me.

GLBT issues are something that have always been really important to me. I've always been very interested in promoting GLBT rights, not only because it's an interesting topic but also because it affects me (as well as some of my closest friends) personally. The issue of hate/harassment towards people of different sexual orientations is often shrugged off or turned away from. I can recall multiple instances where I've personally been harassed for it, and I have more memories than I can count of seeing others being harassed or bullied because of their sexual orientation. Especially in high school, people loosely use terms like "that's so gay", and call each other "fags" without taking the time to think about who they might be offending. A group of my friends in another town were denied being allowed to start a Gay Straight Alliance at their school, even after following the proper procedure to start a club, because the staff claimed they "didn't need one". I've had friends in this same town skip school because they were so afraid of how they were being treated by their peers.

I chose to participate in this challenge because I strongly support GLBT rights and believe that GLBT literature is important, especially for young adults. We are all people, we all deserve equal rights, and I think that raising awareness is an important step in achieving that.

4 comments:

Amanda said...

I hated when people said "that's so gay" in school. it was one of the main reasons that I became so vocal about gay rights.

Michelle B. said...

I agree with this post 100%. I'm not gay myself, but I strongly believe in equality of every king, so I take GLBT rights very very seriously. I'm sorry that you and people close to to you have been harassed because of your sexual orientation.

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Lovely post. I hate that people are so cruel. I'm not GLBT myself like the comment above but that means nothing. we're still all people with the same feelings and we should have the same rights. I love this challenge (I signed up too) and I love GLBT novels.

Lauren

Stephanie said...

Great post! Your high school said it "didn't need a Gay-Straight Alliance?" Hah! If they weren't needed, they wouldn't exist.