The Final Chapter

In conclusion, after doing this cultural connection assignment I got to excperience another cultures way of thinking. I became one of them and stayed amongst them to understand what constructed their LGBT community to have such a discrimination agaisnt those of their own kind. In the heterosexual world we do not see it as an issue, but there is a sociological bigger picture. A famous sociologist named Karl Marx basically said that we do not make our decisions, and that the decisions we do make is influenced by society. I noticed that this culture is no different from any other culture. In all cultures every idea is influenced by society. The idea of the "biphobia" is constructed by the community within itself. Even though the reasons to discriminate agaisnt bi- sexual females may be logical in their eyes, it is also and idea that has been influenced. One term used in public speaking is that communication is irreversable, once you say something you can not take it back. I realized that the same connection is made here. Once society throws an idea out there it's irreversable, the idea will begin to spread and if its the new phenomena people will believe it. Doing this cultural connection assignment help me realize that discrimination is everywhere even in those cultures who we believe is to be very accepting amongst their own. Many of the videos I found were on youtube the url is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvjoc7UYFWA also I learned that we all are different and even though society depicts the LGBT community as evil, and sinful, and nasty we all have try to relate in cultures. Also I realized that society will always have an everlasting impact on ideas from every culture. Sociology makes this world go around.

The Scholarly Article.... and Interviews.

Finally I got to conduct two interviews with individuals who identities will remain anonymous. To summarize the interviews, each interviewer was asked a series of questions that relates to the biphobic epidemic. Some questions that were ask is were they themselves are biphobic? Why do other individuals from the LGBT community discriminate agaisnt the Bi- Sexual individuals? Other questions that I asked pertained to their views about how society conforms their thoughts and do they believe that their thoughts abnout biphobia was influenced by other individuals from that community. To summarize the interview we all came to the conclusion that the the discrimination agaisnt bi- sexuals is an idea that was socially constructed. To exemplify this I asked how would they know if a male or female is bi- sexual if they do not say nothing? Is there a way to tell or understand if they are? After asking them the questions they came to realize that the idea is socially constructed. Also what I found out through them is their personal opinion on bi- sexuals females. In their eyes the only thing that is wrong with the bi- sexual people is that they have a tenancy to cheat if they find someone interested of the opposite sex. It occured to me from the interview that their main issue was the trust level, and also health issues that falls under the issues. I read a scholarly article called "Speaking Out Loud about BIsexuality", the author is Daniel Welzer- Lang. The article can be found in Journey of Bisexuality 2008 Vol. 6. In this article it sepaks about a survey that was taken in the Euromeditteranean summer school of homosexuality. The goal was for the authors to understand the term of biphobia amongst gays and lesbains, and to also bring up a discussion about bi-sexuality that has been avoided in conferences for the past years.

The LGBT experience

So my lgbt experience revolves around my experience at a couple of clubs. Also I decided to do a little test for myself to see if the research was proven to be true. In one week I went to three different clubs where they basically have a gay night. The three clubs were Club Envy, Dolce, and CC's. My experience being amongst them did not made me feel uncomfortable at all. I went with four of my friends two were guys, and two were girls. However, each of of the genders were at least bi- sexual, or lesbian/ gay. My experiment at the club was to see if this bi- sexual epidemic really exists and suprisingly after the night was out I realized that it did. The experiment was they had to approach 10 people from their same sex, and try to get a number from the person that shows interest in them, the catch was that they must disclose their sexual orientation to them. If they do not get a number they were to show me the individual and I asked questions why. To summarize the results; my female, and male friend that is bi-sexual in total came back on average between 5-10 numbers in total from the clubs. After asking some of the club attendees that they have spoken to, I found out some interesting information. Many of them did not like the fact that they were bi-sexual. The question of does it matter was asked to them, and the response was yes. I also asked why do they have their views and most of them said that it is an idea that has been going around the community, and there are even times where you are not respected for dating someone who is bi- sexual. However, my gay and lesbian friend proved to be more successful because they were of the norm that the LGBT community accept among them. After doing this experiment it seems as if the LGBT community themselves is an out- group but is also consisted of the in- group of the bi-sexuals.

A youtube video

I found a youtube video about the subject of discrimination agaisnt the Bi- sexuals. The proper term is Bi- phobia. I went to look up this video because its it good to see from actual videos reasons as to why people of the LGBT community are bi- phobic, also it was good to see the opinions of other people in the community expound on their resons as to why bi- sexuals are indeed a part of their community. Here is what I learned. From the point of view of bi-sexuals, i learned that their reason is that they do not label themselves "bi-sexual" at times because they believe that love does not have any limit. I also came across that they label themselves as "us". It seems that they believe that whoever discriminates agaisnt them has a level of ignorance because they are genralyzing something about their sexuality. However, from the point of view of the bi- phobic some believe that it is bogus, and there is no such thing as loving both genders. Also a health issue was raised agaisnt the bi-sexual people. It is sought that many lesbians, and gay people do not want diseases carried to them. For Ex: when a lesbian is dating a bi-sexual and she so happenly cheat on the lesbian with a guy, there is a chance that the disease can be brought back to the lesbian from the bi- sexual. In the LGBT community there is this understanding that the highest rate in AIDS is in African Americans that are found in the LGBT community. Many people believes that it is passed through the community by the bi- sexuals, thus the fear and discrimination of Bi- phobia was brought. It is noticed that indeed the term and discrimination was socially constructed amongst the group, and the idea was spreaded and influenced to other people.

What Did I find Out?

Doing some research I came across another blogsite, and also some information regarding the discrimination of sexual preferences and labels. One blogsite that I encountered was about they Tyra Show. In the episode of the Tyra show she was addressing the same issue that I am doing the blog about. In her show she introduced the LGBT community as a community that has many issues within themselves. The terms that were introduced into her show was Bi-phobia, Ex- gay, and many others. Also in this show she had different people from the LGBT community come and give their thoughts on it. Some thoughts that were presented by a lesbian was that Bi- sexualism is bogus and unreal. It also seemed that the lesbian believe that there is no such thing as having the best of both worlds. Also another issue that was presented was the transgender. People in the community did not understand or come to the conclusion of what exact sexual orientation they transgendered are. It was even brought up does trangered people should be a part of the community? Amongst other research I found an article names "Put the B back in LGBT" written by Chrysanthe Tan. Basically she discusses the discrimination and hatred that has been presented agaisnt bi- sexuals in the gay community also the transgendered. After reviewing these blogs, and the article, this gives me the conformation that this discrimination is a big epidemic that has swept this community. I delpore the thought of the discrimination because people fought to have rights because they were a part of that community. Also I noticed that this was also socially constructed over time. I noticed that in the community they seem to adore the norms which is completely being with the same sex and only the same sex. Looking at these articles it seems as if it's taboo to like both sexes.

My initial thought

Before I did this project about the LGBT community, I had the understanding that they are people just like heretosexual people. Some initial thoughts I presumed about their community is that they would love, and cherish all types and variations of their community. After the 1970's the LGBT community fought to try to gain respect, and recieve the same rights that heterosexual people do. The battle was not easy many of them were being bashed and discriminated agaisnt because of their sexual preference. As time goes on certain rights were granted to them in certain states such as gay marriages. I was encouraged by this minority because they wanted to be equal and fought for what they believe in. As a result many people would believe that they would accept all variations of their people, because they understood that there is a society thats is agaisnt them. However, my overall question that I want to understand is, Why is their discrimination in the LGBT community about people sexual preferences and people "Labels" of who they are? also who constructed it to be this way?