Assignment Sixteen – Jessica Ewing

    I was once told by my mom that if any of her kids ever told her that they were gay, she’d have them packed up and admitted to a counselor by the end of the week. Needless to say, while I am openly gay at school and out in the community, in my home life I am still fiercely closeted. I live every day in fear of what may happen if my family were to find out about my sexuality. LGBT youth, like myself, still face oppression and hate, even in the wake of strides towards equality such as the legalization of gay marriage in 2015.
But today, I’d like to talk about this ongoing homophobia and how it is still plaguing our society, hurting primarily LGBT youth. First, in our government. With the Trump administration and their profoundly pro-religious standpoint, the LGBT community is facing discrimination now more than ever. Second, in our homes. Families that refuse to accept their children for who they are greatly damage their child’s psychological well-being. And finally, in our communities. Stereotypes greatly hinder LGBT progression, and prejudice alienates LGBT youth from their more religious family and friends.
    Firstly, since President Donald Trump was elected into office, LGBT rights have begun to gradually vanish, starting from the day after he was sworn in and all LGBT content was removed from the White House and Department of State websites. While that doesn’t sound very profound, it was a small step that helped pave the way to larger, more destructive, decisions.
In February, the Departments of Education and Justice revoked the Obama administration’s guidance on equal access to facilities for transgender students in schools, and just this past October, the Trump administration passed a “license to discriminate,” allowing for federal agencies, businesses, and other organizations to refuse to provide services or employ LGBT people. Transgender writer and activist Janet Mock said that “the federal government does not protect us from discrimination when we’re trying to apply for a job or keep our job”; indeed, the Human Rights Campaign cites that over half of all Americans live in an area of the U.S. where LGBT people are at risk of being fired, evicted, or denied services because of who they are, and with the passing of this License to Discriminate, that number is only projected to increase.
Secondly, home life for LGBT youth can be distressing, especially if they live in a family that are unaccepting of LGBT rights, forcing them to remain closeted and in fear of what may happen if their true identity is discovered. Even if a child is out, homophobia still plagues families, many putting their prejudices before their own children. Actor and gay activist Neil Patrick Harris puts it perfectly: “Parents need to be more accepting of who their kids are and less concerned about who they think they need to be.”
The effects of an unaccepting family can be detrimental on an LGBT child. The Trevor Project, a crisis intervention organization for LGBT adolescents, cites that while LGBT youth are five times as likely to attempt suicide as heterosexual youth, those who come from highly rejecting families are roughly eight and a half times as likely to attempt suicide as those who come from families with little to no rejection. This means that for kids like me who are trapped in this situation of being who we are and not being accepted by our families for it, we’re over 42 times as likely to attempt suicide as our straight peers. The psychological damage done by something as seemingly simple as an unsupportive family can be catastrophic to LGBT youth.
Finally, stereotypes and prejudice in communities hinder cultural progression towards LGBT acceptance and equality. The all-too-familiar stereotypes of the feminine, lispy gay males or the butch, pixie-cut-sporting lesbians interfere with the reality that LGBT people can look and behave in any way, just like straight people. The confinement of these stereotypes brings many people to invalidate those who identify as LGBT by claiming that they don’t “act gay enough” or don’t “look gay.” I’m not even able to count the number of times I’ve been told that I “can’t be gay” because I don’t look like the stereotypical idea of a lesbian. Frankly, it’s rather disheartening and tiring to hear other people dictate what I should be based on their narrow-minded judgments.
Speaking of judgments, prejudices against the LGBT community are rampant in our society today, particularly in religious circles. Christians and Muslims alike disparage the LGBT community, in many cases refusing to even get along civilly with them. Teacher Wazina Zondon said concerning her childhood, “Being queer or being gay or being lesbian was never an option in our [Muslim] family,” stating that by coming out as lesbian, she not only put herself at risk, but also jeopardized her father’s integrity and dignity in their Muslim community, due to their traditional Muslim practices.
On the Christian side, Tates Creek Christian Church, which is not far from here in Lexington, was one of many churches that ignored the 2015 Supreme Court decision to allow same sex marriages, stating in their wedding policies that “the use of the church for a Biblical marriage should be recognized as a privilege, and not a right...we will not permit wedding ceremonies or events in our facilities between same-sex couples, transgender individuals or couples...or other arrangements not in accordance with scripture.” Well, according to the scripture, God loves all, and Jesus said ‘love thy neighbor as thyself,’ so why is the LGBT community being told that because we happen to love somebody different, we can’t be treated as equally as a straight couple when wanting to get married? This hatred from the religious populations, the ones self-proclaimed to be built on the foundation of the love of God, now get to determine other people’s happiness?
    Writer and producer Dustin Lance Black once said that “every day we don’t have full equality [is another] day those messages are still being sent that gay and lesbian people are second-class in this country.” The trends I’ve discussed here today demonstrate that exactly: the regression of LGBT rights in our federal government since the dawn of the Trump administration, the psychological harm inflicted on LGBT youth from a disavowing and rejecting family, and the ongoing hatred and bigotry in the form of stereotypes and intolerance from Christians and Muslims. Well, even though it feels like equality is backsliding with the rise of anti-LGBT legislation and more open discrimination in our communities, I have hope that this generation of LGBT youth will grow up to see a better, more equal future for the next.









Works Cited
“Facts About Suicide – The Trevor Project.” The Trevor Project, 2017, www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/preventing-suicide/facts-about-suicide/.
Greenfield-Sanders, Timothy, director. The Out List. The Out List, HBO, 27 June 2013.
Lunn, Sherri A. Trevor Condemns "License to Discriminate" – The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project, 6 Oct. 2017, www.thetrevorproject.org/trvr_press/trevor-condemns -license-discriminate.
O'Hara, Mary E. “How has Trump's first 100 days in office impacted LGBTQ rights?” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 26 Apr. 2017, www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/first-100-days-how-president-trump-has-impacted-lgbtq-rights-n750191.
Peters, Stephen. Trump-Pence Administration Unleashes #LicenseToDiscriminate. Human Rights Campaign, 6 Oct. 2017, www.hrc.org/blog/breaking-trump-pence-administration- unleashes-license-to-Discriminate.
“Talking about Suicide and LGBT Populations.” Issuu, Movement Advancement Project, 24 Oct. 2011, issuu.com/trevorproject/docs/talking_about_suicide_and_lgbt_populations.
Tates Creek Christian Church Wedding Policy. Tates Creek Christian Church, Jan. 2016, s3.amazonaws.com/media.cloversites.com/bc/bcb9d2e5-d9d9-48d1-9e5d-0e9f1c8de4c3/documents/WEDDING_POLICY_-_01-2016.pdf.