YATW Blog Post #2 (Gay Rights)
Hey, guys! I'm back for a second blog post. Can you guess what the topic is? Yep, Gay Rights yet again. There's so much to talk about this topic that I don't think I'd be able to fit it all within this blog post alone. Of course, if you're new to my blog post and are lost, here's a link to my first blog post on the subject. Click here to view blog post #1.
Now, hopefully you've read blog post #1 because I'm about to dive into some new information. It's been about a month since my last post and boy there are tons and tons of new things I want to share with you! First off, we're having the first ever transgender women to compete in the Miss California USA Pageant! The name by which she goes by is Kylan Wenzel. This is a big step forward for many in regards to gay rights. Some of you may be wondering "How can that happen? I thought they didn't allow transgenders to compete." It is now allowable since the man Donald Trump has banished the rule of having the contestants be natural born females.
To add to my research I've found a some meaty news I bet you would love to hear about! Have you heard of Pastor Dave Buehner by any chance? Some of you may know him and some of you may not. The thing is that he made a statement on January 8, 2013 that our nation's "embrace of homosexuality" will destroy everything. He says it will destroy society, lives, and families. Absurd isn't it? He has even went so far as to relate gay marriage to mass shootings across the country. He mentioned the Connecticut incident which happened last month. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Connecticut incident please click here for more information.) To me, I think he's just making a desperate attempt to try and strengthen the opinion of anti-gay organizations and change the minds of people considering supporting gay rights.
Picture of Pastor Dave Buehner's statement about Gay Marriage and mass shootings.
Pastor Dave Buehner
I've conducted my own research at my school by sending out a survey to my fellow classmates and advisories. I had a total of 36 responses. The results were absolutely astonishing! Out of the 36, 31 participants responded that they were straight when asked their sexual orientation. The next question was in regards to whether they supported gay rights or not. We had a whopping 33 participants that said they supported gay rights. The question after that dealt with if those people actively supported gay rights. This one was rather surprising, but at the same time I expected it. The results were that 15 people actively supported gay rights, while the other 21 didn't. I mean don't take this the wrong way; I'm appalled that this many people actually did support gay rights actively. It's basically about 50% of all the participants, way more than I expected.
Now, you're probably wondering what the final question was and let me tell you this was the most disappointing one. The final question was: "Do you think the government is handling the topic of Gay Rights as good as they can?" The results were that 82% of the participants said "no". This is disappointing to me because if you're own countrymen/women can notice that your not handling it well and they're pointing it out to you, why can't you do something about it? The government always says that their handling it to the best of their ability, but have we really seen any changes? I think the government doesn't want to make any "hasty" decisions in fear of losing trust from certain groups in the public. For an example, if the government decided to support gay rights, it's quite possible they'll receive much hate from certain groups such as extreme Catholics. As you may know having any sexual interactions with one of the same sex is frowned upon in the Catholic society. They've even have gone as far as to say you'll "burn in hell" for the "sins" you've committed towards god. I'm not saying Catholics are bad people it's just that there are some people who are extreme Catholics that happen to go against this concept because it says it's a sin in the Bible. I'm not here to judge. My job is to educate you on the matter at hand. This world is forever changing and we must keep up with it. There's absolutely no way that you're going to be able to ban same-sex marriages or rights, so why not just go along with it? That's just my opinion.
Since the responses were sent back from my survey, I was able to get an idea of how my classmates and advisories think about this topic. I was able to understand that not everyone is going to agree with my topic, especially since it's a pretty big and sometimes an emotional thing to talk about. I understand that this topic is pretty well balanced on both sides, each side having strong valid arguments. I know I'm supposed to be in favor of gay rights, but I'm not going to ignore reality. What I can say is that we need to fight harder for what we deserve.
My personal opinions are still the same even after I've found new information and conducted my own research, you're sexuality shouldn't matter, you should still have your rights. Think of it this way. You're born and you're given all the rights obtainable; then years later when you announce you're gay, those rights are stripped from you. How does that work exactly? I still don't understand some of the things our government does.
I know this may seem a little pessimistic, but will our government ever change to benefit its people? We've been playing this game far too long. How much longer till we reach equality for all? I'm hoping through my agent of change part that I'll make some sort of an impact. My thoughts were to volunteer or help out in some way with organizations that deal with these matter such as the HRC (Human Rights Campaign). If I'm not able to do that then I'll probably go to other schools and have a talk with them about the topic if it's allowed. Those are only two of the many ideas I have for this project.
HRC's Logo
Click here to view my annotated bibliography!
Now, hopefully you've read blog post #1 because I'm about to dive into some new information. It's been about a month since my last post and boy there are tons and tons of new things I want to share with you! First off, we're having the first ever transgender women to compete in the Miss California USA Pageant! The name by which she goes by is Kylan Wenzel. This is a big step forward for many in regards to gay rights. Some of you may be wondering "How can that happen? I thought they didn't allow transgenders to compete." It is now allowable since the man Donald Trump has banished the rule of having the contestants be natural born females.
To add to my research I've found a some meaty news I bet you would love to hear about! Have you heard of Pastor Dave Buehner by any chance? Some of you may know him and some of you may not. The thing is that he made a statement on January 8, 2013 that our nation's "embrace of homosexuality" will destroy everything. He says it will destroy society, lives, and families. Absurd isn't it? He has even went so far as to relate gay marriage to mass shootings across the country. He mentioned the Connecticut incident which happened last month. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Connecticut incident please click here for more information.) To me, I think he's just making a desperate attempt to try and strengthen the opinion of anti-gay organizations and change the minds of people considering supporting gay rights.
Picture of Pastor Dave Buehner's statement about Gay Marriage and mass shootings.
Pastor Dave Buehner
I've conducted my own research at my school by sending out a survey to my fellow classmates and advisories. I had a total of 36 responses. The results were absolutely astonishing! Out of the 36, 31 participants responded that they were straight when asked their sexual orientation. The next question was in regards to whether they supported gay rights or not. We had a whopping 33 participants that said they supported gay rights. The question after that dealt with if those people actively supported gay rights. This one was rather surprising, but at the same time I expected it. The results were that 15 people actively supported gay rights, while the other 21 didn't. I mean don't take this the wrong way; I'm appalled that this many people actually did support gay rights actively. It's basically about 50% of all the participants, way more than I expected.
Now, you're probably wondering what the final question was and let me tell you this was the most disappointing one. The final question was: "Do you think the government is handling the topic of Gay Rights as good as they can?" The results were that 82% of the participants said "no". This is disappointing to me because if you're own countrymen/women can notice that your not handling it well and they're pointing it out to you, why can't you do something about it? The government always says that their handling it to the best of their ability, but have we really seen any changes? I think the government doesn't want to make any "hasty" decisions in fear of losing trust from certain groups in the public. For an example, if the government decided to support gay rights, it's quite possible they'll receive much hate from certain groups such as extreme Catholics. As you may know having any sexual interactions with one of the same sex is frowned upon in the Catholic society. They've even have gone as far as to say you'll "burn in hell" for the "sins" you've committed towards god. I'm not saying Catholics are bad people it's just that there are some people who are extreme Catholics that happen to go against this concept because it says it's a sin in the Bible. I'm not here to judge. My job is to educate you on the matter at hand. This world is forever changing and we must keep up with it. There's absolutely no way that you're going to be able to ban same-sex marriages or rights, so why not just go along with it? That's just my opinion.
Since the responses were sent back from my survey, I was able to get an idea of how my classmates and advisories think about this topic. I was able to understand that not everyone is going to agree with my topic, especially since it's a pretty big and sometimes an emotional thing to talk about. I understand that this topic is pretty well balanced on both sides, each side having strong valid arguments. I know I'm supposed to be in favor of gay rights, but I'm not going to ignore reality. What I can say is that we need to fight harder for what we deserve.
My personal opinions are still the same even after I've found new information and conducted my own research, you're sexuality shouldn't matter, you should still have your rights. Think of it this way. You're born and you're given all the rights obtainable; then years later when you announce you're gay, those rights are stripped from you. How does that work exactly? I still don't understand some of the things our government does.
I know this may seem a little pessimistic, but will our government ever change to benefit its people? We've been playing this game far too long. How much longer till we reach equality for all? I'm hoping through my agent of change part that I'll make some sort of an impact. My thoughts were to volunteer or help out in some way with organizations that deal with these matter such as the HRC (Human Rights Campaign). If I'm not able to do that then I'll probably go to other schools and have a talk with them about the topic if it's allowed. Those are only two of the many ideas I have for this project.
HRC's Logo
Click here to view my annotated bibliography!
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