The following is a story submitted to me by one of your fellow Hokies:
I am a homosexual male growing up in a heterosexual society. I feel uncomfortable almost everywhere I am. I stereotype everyone, not to discriminate, but because I need to. I use it as a defense mechanism to target my oppressors. Darwin's theory, survival of the fittest, is not archaic; it applies to my everyday life. I know the weakest person will die off and I refuse to be that person. I spend most of my day worrying. I fear the group of people that comes after me. The group is all around me, attacking me little by little with their words, but not physically just yet.
I live a normal life for the most part. I wake up, brush my teeth, shower, eat breakfast, go to class, and come back to my residence hall. I walk around this gorgeous Virginia Tech campus and all that people notice is me. The picture perfect scene is ruined. I am the outcast. I am the outlier you learned about in math class. I am just one of the many that are discriminated against everyday on this campus.
Have you ever looked down in class and seen the word "faggot" carved into a desk? I see it, but I also feel it. I feel that same knife cut me out, away from the group of those other Hokies around me. The distance, the difference, between you and me, increases exponentially each time I read the word on a desk in McBryde. I have seen it so many times at this point; the distance between us can no longer be measured in inches, but miles. I no longer feel a part of Tech or this Hokie family.
I am an American, despite what many may say. I am just as much of an American as you. It was the Native Americans that were discriminated against first when their land was stolen from them. Then, the wave started. The Irish, blacks, Italians, Hispanics and homosexuals lined up as the next targets of hate. What is your ethnicity? Were you here first? Unless you are Native American, you weren't. Why do today's Americans feel that their very short presence on this land entitles them to decide who has the right to enter our land of opportunity? Our land: it's our land to be shared, not to own. We have all been discriminated against, but you don't remember. You never had to deal with it. Your parents might have, maybe your grandparents, or possibly your great-grandparents endured the sacrifices so you never would have to suffer discrimination. You just remember the privileges you have each and every day.
Take a second and ponder the word homosexuality. What images or feelings are evoked? For most people, the word homosexuality conjures up images of gay sex. Now, stop and think about heterosexuality. For the word heterosexual, we think about two people in love. Did you ever realize that homosexuals are simply two people in love too? Has society affected you? If you don't think it has then why do you see such a huge difference between homosexuality and heterosexuality.
Leave a comment 5 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
Being different is hard. Unless you had particularly enlightened parents or teachers, you were taught that there is a "normal" to be and deviating from it was wrong. And so the peak of the bell curve grows and those that don't climb it are, yes, outliers. Deal with it. You aren't going to change a generation's deeply embedded vocabulary. Yes, you might reach a person or two, if you put the effort forward, but it won't stop being OK until this generation's children grow up and start looking at their parents sideways for their vocabulary. You should take comfort that most of your age group has shed the last generation's rampant homophobia. I challenge you to walk right up to the next person you hear use the word "gay" and tell them "Hey, I'm gay". Just those exact words. Rather then getting assaulted, physically or emotionally, you'll probably just get an awkward apology, because those people that use that word aren't thinking about gay people when they use it. But now to the thing that annoyed me. To say you don't judge, the essentially claim that you are without prejudice, is a delusion or an outright lie. We all judge. I'm in no way religious, but even I think this phrase might be appropriate here: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".
Reply to this Top
Gay means happy, so actually if the homosexual community decided to make that their word then it is their fault.
Gay is a slang term for, well anything that you don't want to do. When I say, "You're so gay," or, "That is really gay," I am not meaning it in a literal sense. What they actually say is, "Stop acting stupid," and, "I don't want to do it it is stupid." Slang is slang get over it because the word wasn't originally meant for you folks either.
Reply to this Top
I think you flatter yourself. And this - one example of many - doesn't help your case.
I have nothing against gays or lesbians. But by all of a sudden turning around and telling the general public (because YES, you ARE a minority- get over it) that they can't use the language they use because it's 'offensive' to you... It's almost childish. "Gay" has many meanings. No one MEANS to insult you, unless they say it to your face. People call other people names all the time. IT'S LIFE. Live with it- go beyond it. And treasure the fact that you don't KNOW what ABUSE IS.
Reply to this Top
I'm addressing the whole article in general:
I think you flatter yourself. And this - one example of many - doesn't help your case.
I have nothing against gays or lesbians. But by all of a sudden turning around and telling the general public (because YES, you ARE a minority- get over it) that they can't use the language they use because it's 'offensive' to you... It's almost childish. "Gay" has many meanings. No one MEANS to insult you, unless they say it to your face. People call other people names all the time. IT'S LIFE. Live with it- go beyond it. And treasure the fact that you don't KNOW what ABUSE IS.
Top
I can't help but feal you somehow missed the entire point. If you one MEANS to be insulting, then what praytell is the meaning and weight of those words. When someone does something you disagree with and lash out at them with the words faggot, gay, or whatever derogatory term you select, what other meaning could you possible have than the derogatory nature, negative history, and evil connotation of the words you select.
An important part of this article is to give you perspective and inform you of the hurt it delivers it rains upon others. Continuing to use words you are told are hurtful, a hurt you could never fully understand, shows you to be the one acting childish. The author asks you to remember the impact your words have on others and charges you to be responsible for their impact. You ARE responsible for your words - yell "fire" or "bomb" in a crowded space and deal with the repercusions. You, unwilling to compromise, demand that the community your words slander change, grow up, tolerate your abuses. They have and do, but rapidly grow tired of your immaturity.
Top