As a teen living in America, one of the most harmful issues is discrimination. Race, gender, and orientation are all issues that should be addressed, especially issues of orientation. I am maturing now at a faster rate due to help from my family and college classes, and what I am finding in my quest of self-actualization is that most unfair practices come from the irrational fears. I'm going to talk about discrimination to the LGBT community.
To be honestly fair, most of my life until a few years ago the issue never occurred to me. Perhaps I was still innocent and lost, whatever the case may be, but I didn't even recognize that there was a problem, even when the issue was brought to me I found it was odd and best avoided. In fact, until recently I had no idea of the true nature of the issue. Then came along Proposition 8.
At this point I pretended I understood the issue and sided with something I didn't agree with. Both of my parents pushed me to a neutral ground and I found it easier to just shut up and not respond rather than side. As I gave thought to it though, I realized I could identify with the discrimination they felt and I strongly supported their decisions. It's their lives, after all, and it's their choice. Not mine. I stuck to this for years until I reached high school, where I am currently.
I am now seriously contemplating my sexuality, but I am unwilling to experiment. Either way, I am using this moment to advocate my position in favor of the LGBT community. I think that it is everyone's choice to like who they want, and the preconceived notion that heterosexuality is the only possible norm is something I strongly disagree with, based on facts, morals, ethics, and my own opinion.
Fact: Homosexuality is not a new thing. In fact, to be perfectly honest Greece was somewhat Bi in the most part. It wouldn't be odd or even uncommon to have homosexual relationships or feelings, and much of Greek literature, art, even architecture was shaped by this. To be perfectly honest, there were many forms. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Greece)(I really don't feel like MLA formatting; maybe later)
My morals and ethical standards as a human tell me that any form of discrimination for any reason is wrong. Especially if the reasons are as mundane and normal as sexual orientation. It is normal to feel different, and there are no excuses justifying the mistreatment of humans just like you and me.
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Now to another one of the main points in the article, where I teach you something you may not have known called the Riddle Scale. What the Riddle Scale is a scale made by Dorothy Riddle to examine the levels of homophobia or lack thereof. The bottom level is revulsion, with the highest level being Nurturance. When I was younger, age 10 or below, I would have fit in best with a mixture of the categories acceptance and tolerance, in which I avoided it. This is a negative take because when you avoid the problem you exclude them, and in this way you truly harm them. As I was pushed by both parents, my internal views shifted towards the Support category, though for all preferences outward I displayed Acceptance.
As of writing this, my views if requested would probably be Appreciation, with a small dab of Nurturance. I feel that they are an important part of society just as anyone else, and that they should be openly able to express this without fear of retaliation or backlash. In fact, I admire the courage of any willing to openly express their ideals, and would never try to exclude them from anything that I do, for any reasons.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddle_homophobia_scale)
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For all intents and purposes, I am going to sum up my argument. Discrimination based on sexual orientation or appearance thereof is immoral, unlawful, and should not be tolerated. Anyone who thinks that any sort of discrimination to any parties is justified in any way is not someone who I think is the correct person to give the keys of the LGBT fates to! If everyone would just get over the fact that there is no dominant group in anything, there would be little to no conflict in the world! If everyone could just work together to bridge the gap between this world and the world where everyone is happy with who everyone else is or was, then I believe we can really make the difference! I want to finish this saying that as someone who believes in a higher power, I would think we were all created equal.
Thank you for reading.
-ChemIisan
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