One of the more overlooked
aspects of LGBTQ culture is the amount of advocacy and courage that many young
LGBTQ leaders exhibit on an everyday basis. Queer youth take up a daily
struggle for their rights, along with the everyday difficulty of becoming a
young adult. The lack of press on the positive aspects of growing up LGBTQ can
be disturbing, as the majority of Queer youth are not the given stereotypes shown
in popular media. Suicide rates and bullying among Queer youth should be taken
extremely seriously, yes, but it should not bet the only aspect of the lives of
Queer youth that most people hear about. Many young people who do not identify as heterosexual
are leaders, intelligent people who are set on making a difference in the
world, and should not be represented purely by the negative things that happen
to their peers.
The Colin Higgins Foundation recognizes youth leaders in the
LGBTQ community and rewards them for going that extra mile. They provide scholarships
for young people who are outstanding in their community, allowing those people to
pursue college and a brighter future. The three winners of the Colin Higgins
award in 2011 are Phuong Tseng, Daunasia Yancey and
Cyrus Sinai.
Phuong Tseng,
a biracial woman who moved to San Francisco, struggled with her sexual identity
growing up. It appears as if she went through a good amount of harassment, until
she became involved in, and eventually president of, her school’s Gay Straight
Alliance. To overcome the emotional struggle that Tseng went through as a child,
only to become confident in herself and able to lead an organization shows a
lot of determination, strength, and empowerment.
Daunasia Yancey,
who grew up in Massachusetts, overcame some of the most difficult circumstances
to become someone who helped start the first GSA in Massachusetts, gives advice to Queer youth about safe sex, sits
on a few different committees, and heads the Youth Leadership Committee for BAGLY. Having her dad incarcerated,
her mother die at age four, and experienced sexual abuse at age fifteen,Yancey
has managed to rise above her circumstances and better the community around
her. I feel as if her story in
particular relates to Nan Stein’s article, in where she did not have the
support of people around her, but managed to create a better environment for
the other Queer youth in her school by raising awareness. She has worked to educate the people around her in order to try to end some of the bigotry and harassment.
Cyrus Sinai was raised as a part of a Mormon family, and
struggled with his sexuality growing up. He was pushed to the point of considering
suicide, which is an altogether too common theme among LGBTQ youth. The passage
written by John D’Emilio discusses how youth struggle with their sexuality
due to how heterosexuality is seen as the “normal” path. Sinai
overcame this bias, and was successful in becoming GSA President and pushing
for education on the common issues LGBTQ identified people deal with every day.
This
brings into question why there is even the problem of compulsory heterosexuality.
These youth are receiving awards for standing up for LGBTQ people in their
communities, something, which in reality, should be done by everyone in every
city. These LGBTQ leaders that have received The Collin Higgins Scholarship are
doing their best to educate people and provide resources to youth in need. The
fact that there are uneducated people out there that view LGBTQ youth as
different and something that are against the norm is a testament to how little our
society knows.
To qualify one group of human beings as lesser than another, to
make their lifestyle something you have to admit to, to subject them to daily
harassment and oppression just due to who they love- that is exactly what our
culture does to people who do not identify with being heterosexual- and it
needs to end.
To read this article click
References
Stein, Rubin. “Bullying, Harassment
and Violence among Students.” Radical Teacher, No. 80 Teaching Beyond
Tolerance. Winter
2007, 30-35.
D’Emilio, John. “Homosexuality and American Society: An
Overview” Politics, Sexual, Communities in the United States 1940-1970, Chicago
Ill:University of Chicago Press, 1983.
I must agree that the amount of press on the positive aspects of LGBTQ youths lacks substance, so it was really wonderful for me to read about the existence of a scholarship that rewards LGBTQ youths, such as The Collin Higgens Foundation, for actively educating their community and surroundings on queer youths. To do so would require a whole lot of courage and determination considering the constant mockery, harassment, and violence commonly associated with being openly gay. This leads me to argue that members of LGBTQ are braver than heterosexuals because they have the courage to be outside of society's norms, and many times educate society that there is not just that standard heterosexual norm. AJ, one of Mary L. Gray's informants, thought that there was a lack of information on transgender issues and was passionate enough that he started a website that tracked the process that transformed his body to match his gender identity. The website is available to everyone in the world, which in my opinion takes a lot of valor.
ReplyDeleteBibliography
Mary L. Gray, "From Websites to Wal-Mart: Youth, Identity Work, and the Queering of Boundary Publics in Small Town, USA" American Studies 48:2 (Summer 2007).
I agree with the author in that the news often gives reports of negative aspects of the gay community such as bashing or inequities. Rarely do I see an article such as the one above that describes an account of such positivity in the gay community. The Collin Higgins Scholarship and its’ winners give the gay community a better reputation as it promotes activism of young students and shows the benefits of being knowledgeable and open toward homosexuality. In “Homophobia: Why Bring It Up?” by Barbara Smith it is written that “through the process of coming out, a person might indeed acquire this identity at any point in life.” Frequently, people discover their homosexuality at young ages and have to cope with fitting in and potentially keeping this identity a secret since as it may not fit their social norms. As if being a teenager wasn’t hard enough? So these awarded students should be applauded as they are helping their peers feel comfortable in this often difficult process, even though such acceptance was not given to them. Maybe if there were more awards such as these or more awareness about Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools then there would be more acceptances at an earlier age. Overall, these awards are given to role models in gay empowerment and ideally, people would perform such acts more frequently and without reward.
ReplyDeleteSmith, Barbara. "Homophobia Why Bring it Up?" from The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader ed. Henry Ableove, Michele A Barbale, David M. Halperin. 1993.