Q3 BM-NHD Project: Gay Rights
Our NHD project tracked the debate concerning Gay Rights from Harvey Milk's election to current day "don't ask, don't tell" repeal.
Our video is HERE
Group members: Maxime, Luna and Julia
Even though this was not my original topic I chose to write about, I switched groups because I believed that the topic of Gay Rights had a lot more potential and fit the theme well. The project our group originally started with was a website. Unfortunately, our website did not match the requirements for NHD, so we decided to make a documentary using the timeline and speeches used in our website. This actually worked out splendidly. Our timeline and speeches fit together surprisingly well and demonstrated the debate concerning gay rights effectively.
If I had to do the project over, I would not have wasted time working on the website. If I had known that the requirements for the website were limiting, I would have used the time to find more primary source clips for the documentary. However, this project taught me a lot about the struggle to achieve gay rights.
I learned about the evolution the debate went through. The struggle started with a plea for equal rights, it evolved after "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and now the debate is about gay marriage. By watching clips of different points of view, I now understand the debate from both sides. I also observed the tactic of politicians concerning gay marriage; they clearly state that they believe gay couples deserve equal benefits as heterosexual couples but none of the politicians clearly state they support gay marriage. It is interesting that the struggle for equal rights has not yet come to a close.
