Introduction

According to the Ecology Global Network there are approximately 360,000 births per day in this world. When someone is born in a hospital one of the first things the doctors do is assign the child a sex based off of the biological parts present. From there the rest of the world takes over in making assumptions about the child’s gender based off of the assigned sex. As Sam Killerman said in The Social Justice Advocate’s Handbook: A Guide to Gender, “Gender identity is our internal response to a social construction that attempts to make a connection between a person’s biological makeup and their eventual role in society.” Gender is a socially constructed idea and often in this society it is assumed that one’s gender matches their assigned sex, or it is assumed that both of the previous match up with the individual’s gender expression. From there people also assume that one’s sexual or romantic orientations fit into neat normative boxes that coincide with gender expression and identity, and sex. In actuality though, these assumptions just are not reliable. With 360,000 births a day there will be some babies that are not born just male or female, there will be some babies that don’t identify as men or women, and there will be some babies that are not attracted to the opposite sex. The goal of this blog is to define and discuss a few of the many identities and orientations that people possess and to show that as a society we simplify topics we should not. There is beauty in diversity, so let’s shine a light upon it.


http://www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates/

Monday, April 13, 2015

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is probably the sexual identity that people are most familiar with, aside from heterosexuality. It gets a lot of attention in the media, unfortunately often at the expense of erasing other identities. Homosexuality is the sexual attraction to someone of the same sex or gender as yourself. A homosexual man would be sexually attracted to other men, and identify as gay. A homosexual woman would be sexually attracted to other women, and would identify as lesbian or gay. Although "gay" is the term used for men attracted to men, it is also an umbrella term used for anyone attracted solely to the same gender as themselves.

        People tend to focus on the sex part of homosexuality … that's what they picture. They don't understand          that there is love involved, too. Whoever you fall in love with, that is normal sexuality. Normal is in the eye        of the beholder.

Kristine, Michigan, age 16

The above is an excerpt from an Advocates for Youth brochure, written by and for young women who are questioning whether or not they identify as lesbians. The brochure includes many quotes from lesbian teenagers, as well as advice on how to deal with what it is like to be a teenage lesbian, how to deal with coming out, and learning to accept themselves for who they are. These are all things that are on the Heterosexual Checklist we read for class, as things that heterosexual people do not have to worry about, because heterosexuality is the accepted norm in our society. Other things that the brochure deals with that are not problems for straight teens are wondering if you are normal because of your sexuality, finding other people who are like you,


http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/storage/advfy/documents/lesbian.pdf
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