The first time that I was exposed to anything other than heterosexual relationships was watching The God Father with my Grandfather at my house when I was around nine. In no way were the two men who kissed homosexual but for the first time, I saw two men kiss on the TV. Back then that made me uncomfortable it was something I never even thought of as a possibility. I turned to my grandfather and asked him why they did that because I'd only ever seen men and women kiss. Sadly he told me that they were gay and faggots, to which my mom yelled at him and talked to me after privately. My mom said that we accept all people no matter what and to live by the golden rule "treat everyone the way you want to be treated" the way people feel and express themselves is their business. Having both these negative and positive experiences helped me stay open minded throughout life. Living in Foster Glocester it is hard to ever hear people discuss the LGBTQI+ community because there simply are not many residents here who are out about it (they do not have to be) or there are those who would think down on them for it. The next time that I encountered this was when I played basketball in middle school. I was on the girl's basketball team for three years and when we needed to be challenged my Coach Jamie would have us face off against the boys. Our boy's middle school basketball coach was Coach Alex, a transgender man. Coach Jamie and Alex were very close friends throughout middle school and high school and played together on the women's team before Coach Alex was reassigned to the body in which made him comfortable. I would hear the boys make fun of him and use words I'd never heard (probably the opinion of the parents) but he was an amazing coach. Eventually, he quit coaching the boy's basketball team because some of the parents were being transphobic. There was a video released on YouTube of his journey that I watched myself because I was so interested in why this man was being persecuted for being himself. It wasn't hurting anybody. His family rejected him, the community, jobs were hard to come by. My friends growing up had a hard time coming out as well as homosexual. Kids always wanted to make their parents proud so when they were not what they expected (heterosexual) it created tension and loss of trust when that is the opposite of what they needed. Even today I have a transgender co-worker who is a swimming instructor like me and she has some parents who feel uncomfortable that she wears women's bathing suits and asks to be called by her new name. Having so many positive people in my life who are crucified and judged for being themselves by religious, uninformed and close-minded people upsets me. Everyone is equal whether you're homosexual, heterosexual, transgender, non-binary etc. It does not make one person better than the other. Sadly to reach this opinion it took a lot of people being hurt around me to realize how badly people were being treated based on their sexual orientation. I wish that I was exposed to more non-hetero relationships growing up and that teachers did not make it seem like anyone talking about anything in the LGBTQI+ community was inappropriate for school. As a future teacher, I want to create a safe space in which children and people in the community can have an area in which they can have safe discussions, ask questions, and be informed on correct and respectful ways in which to talk about LGBTQI+.
I love how you ended this with how you want to be as a future teacher. I agree with this. I mentioned in my blog that it doesn't need to be brought up as an unnatural conversation but can definitely be open for discussion and give information about their curiosity.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you reflected on your own experiences with the LGBTQ+ community and mentioned how you want to be as a future teacher.
ReplyDeleteI loved how your mom talked to you about accepting everyone. I think that is so important and more people should be that way.
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