Is Society Less Homophobic? Or More?

Everyone seems to think that life is better nowadays for homosexuals. After all, same sex marriage is legal now, so what more do they want? Right? Wrong! First of all, legalizing same sex marriage wasn’t what homosexuals were asking for in the first place, although it was an important step to take. Secondly, it seems that while Liberal-thinking people are standing up for homosexuals more than they did in the past, the opposition is more fierce than it ever used to be as well.

To find out what I mean by that statement, you’ll have to check out my soundscape by clicking on the link to the right. I’m also planning on continuing to do more research about this topic, and will be writing an analysis piece for J-School in the near future. I’ll post it on my blog when it’s complete for anyone who wants to check it out.

And while I was shocked about many things I discovered while doing this story, I wasn’t shocked to hear that homophobia is still alive and well in today’s world.

I used to be homophobic myself. Raised as a Christian Catholic, I was taught at an early age that homosexuality was a sin. As a child, my parents used to buy me Biblical tapes to listen to. I remember listening to a story from the Old Testament about how God destroyed the city of Sodom because of the people’s sins. From what I recall, it was suggested that one of those sins was homosexuality.

I started becoming less homophobic over time, but my attitude changed dramatically only a couple of years ago. I was a theatre student performing in the play called The Laramie Project. It’s about the true story of a hate crime committed in Laramie, Wyoming. A homosexual man named Matthew Shepard was taken to the outskirts of the town and beaten mercilessly by two men. Shepard died a slow, painful death while tied to a fence in the middle of nowhere.

As actors, we like to do research to enhance our performances. We had a member of GBLUR come in and talk to us about his experiences growing up as a homosexual, and the impact it had on his life.

I used to think homosexuality was a choice men made, and a wrong one at that. However, after listening to the member of GBLUR, I realized it wasn’t. Why would someone choose to be gay? Why would someone choose to live a life of verbal and physical abuse? It doesn’t make any sense. Society needs to realise this.

Homosexuals don’t want to just be tolerated… they need to be accepted.