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Rick Kinard

English 12: Sexuality & Society in Literature

Quarter 2 BM-Research Design

Plan of Action How-To

Thesis: The environment that one grows up in has an affect on one’s sexual orientation.

What thesis-related questions to study? 

•   

•  What is sexual orientation?

•  How is sexual orientation determined?

•  Can one change their sexual orientation? Why/why not?

•  Is homosexuality a mental disorder ?

•  Is homosexuality passed down through genetics 

•  What causes homosexuality?

What data might be relevant to collect? (link to sources in your AB in this section, if applicable)

•   

•  Statistic/survey linking child abuse and sexuality

•  Statistic/survey linking sexuality of parents and children

•  Statistic/survey linking homosexuality sexuality of identical twins

•  Research done on brain function of homosexuals

•  Research done on genetic of homosexuals compared to heterosexual 

•  Research done on the causes of sexual orientation

How would I analyze the results?

I believe the environment and lifestyle one lives has a impact on their sexual orientation. If the from the data about brain functions show that homosexuals and a health heterosexual are similar, it will rule of the possibility of homosexuality being considered mental illness. If the research on genetics and the statistic/survey linking sexuality of parents and children show it now genetic, I can rule out the argument of it being a disorder passed down for parent to child. If the statistic/survey of homosexuality sexuality and identical twins don’t seem to show any trends it cans also rule out the genetics argument because identical twins has very similar biological make ups.

Boeree, George. "General Psychology Sexual Orientation." Sexual Orientation. N/A, N/A. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/sexualorientation.html>.

This article is about biology and genetic and how a people behaviors are based off of them. It states that men with less testosterone tend to look and act somewhat more like women, and women with more testosterone than other women tend to look and act somewhat more like men. It also go on to say there is no direct link from testosterone to homosexuality. The helps support my topic because even though the genetic the genetic structure of a person my have some effect on a person’s sexual behavior it isn’t the cause of homosexuality.

Goldstein, Dora. "Biological basis of sexual orientation." stanford.edu. Stanford University, 03/10/95. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://news.stanford.edu/pr/95/950310Arc5328.html>.

This article’s information is mainly on puberty. Is stated a week before and after birth, testosterone has an irreversible organizing effect on the body and brain of males. If the hormone is absent during this period, the individuals’ anatomy and behavior never can become wholly male. Also, that during puberty males gets a surge of testosterone, which activates their male sexual development and behavior. This gives some hints that testosterone levels affect sexual behavior. This source and be use to support both nature and nurture arguments.

Hidalgo, Hilda. "Sexual Orientation." healthy minds. american psychological association, N/A. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.healthyminds.org/More-Info-For/GayLesbianBisexuals.asp&xgt;.

This document give some basic information of what sexual orientation is. It also lists some cause that is believed to effect ones sexuality. It states homosexuality was believed to be the result of troubled experiences or environment, and it is not a form of mental illness .The information I receive for this document I can use to introduce my topic and give general information on sexual orientation and how ones environment is believe to effect it.

Johnson, Ryan. "Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture." AllPsych Online. N/A, 4/30/03. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://allpsych.com/journal/homosexuality.html>.

There are statics identical twins in this document. I can use this because identical twins have very similar biological structures. If the both of them are the same sexual orientation there is a chance that the biological build has a part to play in their sexual orientation. If the studies show that identical twins have the same sexual orientation this could prove my idea wrong

Jones, Michael. "Nature vs. Nurture Debates Over Sexuality." Change.org. N/A, 10/05/08. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://news.change.org/stories/nature-vs-nurture-debates-over-sexuality>.

This article suggests that both the nature and the nurture have valid evidence on what can affect a child’s sexual orientation. It says proven Research suggests that the homosexual orientation is in place very early in the life cycle, possibly even before birth. Its also that suggest that nurture could be a cause homosexuality. Some causes are estranged relationships between gay children and their parents, allowing male children to play with dolls, not forming healthy same-sex bonds with peers as a toddler, and sexual abuse at a young age. 

Swidey, Niel. "What Makes People Gay?." Boston.com. Boston Global, 08/14/05. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/08/14/what_makes_people_gay/>.

In this document there is information on childhood gender nonconformity. It is a child not being comfortable in his or her own body. In this one of a pair of twins is showing signs of childhood gender nonconformity. In this situation the mother is open minded and what’s her children to have freedom of expression and allow the behavior.  

Van Buskirk, James E. "Nature And Causes Of Homosexuality (Book)." Library Journal 106.21 (1981): 2321. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

These articles talk about one environment and sexuality. It says that a family of homosexuals it is more likely for a child to come out homosexual. It also states that some events and/or relationship with parents can influence a child's sexuality. This directly contributes to my idea that one environment influence ones sexuality.  

"sexual orientation and homosexuality." psychology.org. Australian psychological society, N/A. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.psychology.org.au/publications/tip_sheets/orientation/>.

This article rules out a popular belief that homosexuality is a choice. It states that ones sexual orientation is determined at a young age before there is any kind of sexual act. It shows how some were not comfortable with their homosexuality and tried to change it. In the end their homosexuality didn’t go away. I can use this to kill the argument that sexual orientation is choice when in the end leaves the arguments that it is either nurture or nature.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the form used by the U.S. Department of Education to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) by looking at your financial information, such as income, and household information. 

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Vice Chair James F. Kenney 

 Chair Anna C. Verna

Council Woman Donna Reed Miller

Background Info On Blondell:

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has been a long time champion of children and youth, the arts and culture community, and small business development. She is now an emerging leader in energy conservation and environmental matters and is infusing her policy initiatives to reflect this new and important priority.

Some of her Accomplishments Include:

-Persuading the Phillies and Eagles, along with Mayor John F. Street , during the sports stadium negotiations, to establish a “Fund for Children” requiring each team to contribute $1 million annually for 30 years.

-Structured the new Department of Parks and Recreation to reflect national best practices.

-Sponsored resolutions that supported organized labor unions (SEIU – Janitors and 1199C – Childcare Teachers) in their efforts to gain fair contracts and fought for amendments to protect union jobs from privatization (DC33).

-Equipped police officers with a new and stronger curfew law to complement the opening of 11 citywide curfew centers.

-Created and implemented the “Groceries for Guns” initiative, a gun buyback program that resulted in an unprecedented number of gun buybacks, to help curtain gun violence in the city.

She has shown a great deal of involvement in the city of Philadelphia's affairs that have to do with child safety, recreation of homes and sponsoring programs.

I'm Lobbying laws that can possibly help the Youth in Philadelphia become less liable to be incarcerated. I called the Philadelphia Prison System Office (@2156858395) and was transferred to the Criminal Justice Center near 15th St. I was able to get a few statistics from the man I spoke to about the incarceration rate of Philadelphia, some of his thoughts on how the city is run, and how he deals with youth who come through to the trials.

"It's just heart wrenching to see kids who look like they barely got the hang of high school yet, come through here and get processed. I wish I could have possibly saved some of them, because they all just look so angry at the world, or angry at themselves, and it's truly heartbreaking. A lot of us officers do our jobs to keep the streets safe, but we don't always like it. Especially when another young kid is being convicted of a crime that could possibly ruin his teenage years." - Mr. Carl Washington 

He didn't give me an exact percentage, but he did tell me that the incarceration rate and drop out rate are higher than the graduation rate of students in Philadelphia. He also said "The more they undereducate, they Over incarcerate." When he told me this, I felt as if he knows that theres a way to save our youth in Philadelphia, and he has hope for the future.

My plan of action is to get Ms. Blondell Brown to come out to my mom's 3rd Annual "Positive Impact: Young Men's Conference" on January 28th and speak to the youth.

Information I plan to send

Positive Impact Motorcycle Events Presents

Young Men's Leadership Conference 

Date: January 28th, 2012

This event is for Young Males between he ages of 10-17

Positive Impact has lined up 7 Dynamic Professionals to speak at our event 

"Our focus is to change lives, instill integrity and build character so the the next emerging generation of husbands and fathers will take these skills and vision to make a positive difference in the world." 

During the First Annual Young Men's Conference in 2010, we've had between 90-120 Young Men come out to learn about different things that can benefit their lives positively, and they got to meet keynote speakers who have taught Anger Management, Making Passions into careers, cooking, and Leadership. Some speakers we're ex cons, some were accountants and relater. I want to Contact Ms. Blondell to be apart of this event, because the purpose of the "Young Men's Conference" is too educate and inform the youth of Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and New Jersey on the different opportunities that they have to succeed, and they teach them about the jail systems, and the different extra curricula's that go on around the city they live in. It's important to keep our youth busy, and keep them off the streets and caught up in things that could potentially ruin their futures.

http://www.blondellonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=3

​

Case 10-948- CompuCredit Corporation v. Greenwood.

Cheif Justice John G. Roberts

According to http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/compucredit-corp-v-greenwood/?wpmp_switcher=desktop 

The decision made by the courts was that the federal statutes that both create a right to sue also bar waiver of rights under thee statute are sufficiently explicit to override the strong federal policy in favor of arbitrability expressed in the federal arbitration act. The relative language is virtually indistinguishable from that and the credit repair organization fact that we have before us today the cases inclide the ADEA and CROA which create a cause of action for aggrivated parties to bring actions for damages and both statutes explicitly bar waiver of quote "any right under the statute. Well, that statute didn't have as this one has a disclosure requirement that says you have a right to sue. And that's the sole distinction between the two statutes. So the -- first of all the disclosure statute is a -- describes in layman's terms, gives a quick description of an operative civil liability section which is set out in 1679(g) and which tells us exactly what Congress had in mind in creating a cause of action. And when you look at the language of the actual operative provisions in (g), it's almost as if Congress deliberately went out of its way to use language that would not preclude arbitration.The Supreme Court's decision will clarify the extent of the federal policy favoring arbitration and will elucidate how consumers may proceed against credit repair organizations under the CROA.
The decision the court made is not really clear basically, they were both in the wrong to certain dagree, the wording used in both documents was almost identical, and there was a part in their documents saying that they did not have the right to sue the other party. 

            Dear To Whom Ever it may Concern,

                        Hello, my name is Jasmine Gladden and I attend Science Leadership Academy. I am writing this letter as a civilize student and young adult to inform you that I don’t believe that the curfew law is reasonable or fair. I understand where you’re coming from with your reasoning but I don’t think your looking at things from all perspectives. I believe if you would’ve look at things from the parents perspective and other young adult who not into flash mobs perspective then you wouldn’t have came to the conclusion with the curfew law that has been presented to us. I believe it’s not fair to the parents because some parents for one don’t have much control over there children to have their kids listen to them and be in the house at a certain time. Another reason I believe it’s not fair that a parent has to pay if their child gets caught; they have pay with their hard working money for the nonsense.

            However, I am 18, so the curfew doesn’t really bother me, but I when I was 17 and younger I was never the type to vandalize and do bad things to mess up or harm anyone. I was reading this article that was about Mayor Nutter speech and I didn’t really agree with what he was saying. I don’t believe that every child is bad and can’t control themselves in a crowd. I don’t think it’s okay to categorize everyone into one category and it’s not everyone.

            All I’m asking is for you to look into consideration of what I am presenting to you. I think this could work if you only include or show that you took in consideration everyone’s perspective. I think once you look at things fully and attempt to understand whom others are coming from, things may rule in a positive favor. Thank you for your time! Please if you find more time, can you reply with your thoughts base on what you think about my ideas.

            From looking at my previous blog posts, I feel like a letter is best because I could compile everything I need to say in one document to get my point across. I can then be able to point out the certain aspects of each blog post I thought was important in each. I think the blog post that influence me the most was the 3^rd blog  post because this had points from actual people feeling towards the who situation. 

• Dominate something. 
  The way I decided to communicate with my representative about my lobbying topic was to call the office at the same time everyday. I thought that by being consistent with how I handled my situation they would know that I was serious about this issue and that sooner or later they would have to address me.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Do a few things well 
  They never called back and very seldom did they even answer the phone. I was upset and almost outraged at the fact the office of the man that was elected to represent my interest was never available to actually listen to my needs. I was persistent in calling but I started to vary the times. I didn't want to change my strategy because it was a good one it just wasn't as effective as I would've hoped. 
  
  
• Make the strategy personal.
  The strategy became very personal as I felt my voice wasn't being heard. I think now I will change my strategy looking back because there was no progress with calling. Now I will draft one letter addressed to the representative and ask that every senior in the school email it to him. Or invite him to the school so that we could have a group discussion on how to move forward. 

Plans

The most effective way to get this on the radar is randomly placed (but still awesome) flash mobs. I have several ideas for how to organize these flashmobs. All of them start with couples (girls with girls/boys with boys) dressed in grooms outfits and bride’s dresses.

1.     Couples waiting for bus stops and taking over the trains.

2.     Spontaneous fake marriage ceremonies in malls. Complete with music over the loud speakers.

3.     “Registering” for gifts in their costumes in stores.

Then we introduce shirts into the mix. We make shirts with sayings like “Here comes the bride…..and the other bride.” And other cool stuff. And I’ll distribute enough of them so they’re everywhere you look but not so many that they’ll be a mob of people wearing them.

Steps

1.     Gather willing participants

2.     Dress up said participants

3.     Partner them up

4.     Assign them areas

5.     Watch the fun

6.     End watching of fun

7.     Make shirts

8.     Assign shirts to much less people

9.     Watch confused people

10. Enjoy

Reflection

Marriage Mobs

This will definitely be effective because for one thing, flash mobs have a way of getting around. It’s not that this will get support for gay marriage right away but it will get people thinking about it.

Everyone will want to know what its all about and that gets me in the door to explaining my cause.

Sexy Shirts

The shirts are just a fashion statement to keep the issue from losing publicity. Plus the money made from possible sales of the shirt can fund more lobbying of my issue. 

There hasn't been much this year for my issue so there isn't really any status as of now. But in 2008, seven states were records to "consider proposals" that would lower the LEGAL drinking age from 21 to 18 years of age. 

In Kentucky, Wisconsin and South Carolina legislatures are working on for military personnel only. In Missouri, the citizens are working on a ballot to lower the age. A lawyer in South Dakota is working on a campaign for young adults (ages 19-20) to buy alcohol with a low level (3.2% and under). Minnesota citizens are trying to work on a bill that allows restaurants and bars to serve alcohol to people ages 18 and older but not liquor stores. 

Although I'm not sure who's working on this other than myself, I can figure out who is and try to work with them and collaborate on our issue. Not only myself, but we (anyone besides myself and I) can influence our community and district leaders to look into the issue more in depth for reason that can show evidence and good reasoning as to why the drinking age should be lowered. 

As of now, there aren't any meetings or committee hearings (presented to the public) but there may be more to come in the near future. 

   ​For the fourth part of this lobbying assignment I decided to contact, Council Woman Joan L. Krajewski. She is the one that represents my district, district 6. Council Woman Joan L. Krajewski is the Vice-chairwoman of the public safety committee,  "She sits on the Committees of Public Property and Public Works, Licenses and Inspections, Public Safety, Fiscal Stability, Legislative Oversight and Disabled and Handicapped. She was first elected councilwoman in 1979 and has since continued on  a similar path. She was the first woman in Philadelphia City Council history to hold the position of Majority Leader. I also found out that she grew up in the same neighborhood as me and I found that very interesting.  
            Council Woman Joan L. Krajewski is one of the people that is directly responsible to me. I was hesitant in contacting her, for I was unsure of the method to use. I then decided on writing a letter, I came to the realization that it takes a long time for the letter to get through. In order to inquire regarding my topic I contacted her through phone, and email as well as the letter. I also forwarded the email out to the governor and our city's mayor; they have yet to reply to me. 
       In the letter I wrote, my reason for contacting them, along with links and a summery of my previous blog posts. In the letter I explained the safety in schools problem and how much education reform is needed, along with statistics on the high school drop out rates. And proposed several changes in order to better a students school life. I am still waiting for a reply from any or all of my representatives and am hoping for a positive response. 

The letter I wrote: 

Dear Representatives: 

My name is Elona Myftaraj, I a senior at Science Leadership Academy. I am working on a project, and lobbying for education reform is my main point. I am contacting you because you are my representative and I hope it wont take too much of your time to reply to me. I am contacting you in order to discuss, and make aware a few serious problems in our school system. "Across United States public schools, just 74.9 percent of students who were freshmen in the fall of 2004 graduated from high school on time in 2008, according to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics." There have been many school related incidents that I fear has many students feel that they are not in a safe environment. This is a link to a blog post I wrote on education reform, and suggestions for change. http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Lobbying-_Education_Reform:2

A perfect example of my lobbying topic is the violence erupted at South Philadelphia high school where off-campus and lunchrooms attacks targeted about 50 Asian students, injuring 30, primarily by African-American students. The Asian students boycotted classes for more than a week after the attack, stating that they had endured relentless bullying by African-American students while school officials did nothing about their complaints. I want there to be a change in education and in schools because there are many kids that come from "The Hood" or bad neighborhoods, and I believe that schools should be a safe haven as much as a place of learning, kids need to have a place or person they trust and I believe that this is a part of a teachers job. 

I feel that it is incidents such as this that make students loose faith in schools and the school system. Therefore I am asking for your help to actively join me in taking action for education reform and an accurate schedule along with locations for public meetings regarding education reform.

Thank you in advance

Sincerely

~ Elona Myftaraj