Stereotyping

I know that there's plenty of people who feel the same way I do about this, but I felt like I needed my own say in this. When someone hears the word "gay" in reference to a person, a plethora of things come to their mind. "He/She probably dresses like a man/woman." "Show tunes are their thing!" "OMIGOSH YOU SHOULD BE MY GAY BOYFRIEND." Oh, and my personal favorite. "I'm cool with them, as long as they don't hit on me." When I hear all of this, I personally feel degraded.


The gay community has been striving to gain equal rights for many years, and it hasn't been an easy journey. We, technically, are considered minorities, seeing as we won't be allowed the same rights as anyone else. And no, I'm not saying gays have it the hardest, but I AM saying that we don't have it easy. We can't show affection for our partner in public without feeling as if some form of discrimination is upon us. I'm sure I speak for the whole community when I say that we want to just be able to openly show that we love someone of the same gender, just as heterosexual couples show that they love their partners without being judged.


Not only that, but we're discriminated against when it comes to getting a job. If the boss doesn't approve of someone being gay, he'll surely just fire them, or not hire them if he finds out when they apply. What difference does it make? How on earth would that affect job performance? Oh yeah, that's right. People believe stereotypes.



First off, just because I tell you I'm gay, and you HAPPEN to be the same gender as I, it doesn't mean I'm attracted to you. I don't want to get with every man I see, just as you don't want to get with every woman you see. I've had a friend ask me, every time I looked at a guy, "Would you do him?" No, I wouldn't, because I'm not a slut.


Not every gay male is feminine. I know and have seen plenty of jock-type gay guys. We don't all want to be women.


Ladies, as flattered as we are by you loving us because we're attracted to guys, stop. We have more than one dimension, and we won't be your "gay boyfriend". That doesn't even make sense. I've had a personal experience with this one. I had a friend who would constantly talk about how I'm gay. She would always bring it up in conversations, almost as if she was reminding me. One day, while we were eating lunch, I said something that was funny (I think...) and her response was "Oh Jeff, I don't think I would love you if you weren't gay." Well, yeah, I'm sure you would, because I would probably be the same person, just attracted to girls. Being gay is not the only thing I want to be thought of, and I'm sure I'm also not alone on that one. Anyway...more stereotypes...


Oh, here's one. And yes, I have been asked this before. "Do you get turned on when you look at your own penis?" I won't even go on about how stupid I feel that question is.


There are many other stereotypes out there, these are the ones that just irk me the most. I will say that, yes, there are many people that fit these negative stereotypes (well, most of them), but it has nothing to do with the fact that they're gay. If some guy is hitting on a straight guy, knowing that he is flirting with a straight guy, this has NOTHING to do with the fact that he's gay, it has to do with the fact that he doesn't know his boundaries. 




I just feel like the gay community is never going to be taken seriously because of how we are viewed by society. We're seen as girly, horny rainbow-crazed freaks who run around having sex with other men and dressing in women's clothing (a dramatization, of course). I don't think that this means these people need to change the way they portray themselves, but rather how people judge them. There are always gonna be the few who act exactly the way society views them, but that doesn't mean gays, as a whole, are stereotypical. We're never going to be treated the same at that rate, which would mean that, like we all are taught, our opposers need to see beyond the stereotype, and not let that cloud their vision of the people we truly are inside. I certainly don't want to live in a world where I'm prohibited from marrying the man I love, and I most DEFINITELY don't want to live in this world knowing that I'm judged because of the one thing people see me as. Gay.




To end this entry, I'll share a picture I feel is very accurate.