BenL
03-20-2007, 12:58 PM
Alecto said in a post on the Cal Lutheran thread:
And, ultimately, I'd be a lot happier if I was somewhere that was accepting (or even just "tolerant") because they thought about it and it made sense for them to be rather than someone who was "forced" to be.
It got me thinking about the stages of acceptance GLBT people have to negotiate as society and its institutions work their way to total acceptance. I think this addresses the heart of the Equality Ride mission.
The Riders are visiting colleges where homosexual acts are considered sinful and where students who come out or who are outed are subject to being expelled. The Riders are trying to break through a belief system that condemns homosexuality. The Riders are trying to bring about a reassessment that will result in tolerance at best and neutrality at the very least in the admissions policies of these colleges.
Tolerance beats outright hostility, but I'm tired of just being tolerated. There's a long road from tolerance to begrudging acceptance to being embraced and affirmed to a place where it no longer matters that you are queer. Our African American sisters and brothers know that road well, and we can take some cues from them, I think. They founded all-black colleges when it seemed impossible for their children to break the color barrier and get an education in mainstream schools. Now those same mainstream schools are trying to recruit African American faculty members in order to better represent the general population on their staffs. There is still a long way to go before our society is color blind, but for some African Americans it almost doesn't matter any more. We have made progress, with still a ways to go.
The GLBT community has a different situation. Most of us can masquerade as straight. We don't have the numbers (especially of out GLBT people) to found our own institutions. We have access, at least in urban areas, to jobs and housing, but we still have to be careful not to put ourselves in pyhsically dangerous situations. Many political subdivisions have anti-discrimination laws. Many employers have similar personnel policies. But people can be fired, or not hired, for other reasons without mentioning their sexual orientation or gender expression.
We're far from a point where it doesn't matter. I think as a society we're at a point on the scale somewhere between hostility and gruding acceptance. It's only in certain geographic areas, certain occupations and certain religious organizations that we have much more than that.
Without people on the front lines, like the Equality Riders, the process of acceptance will never get started in some of the colleges they are visiting. I think we owe them a debt of gratitude.
And, ultimately, I'd be a lot happier if I was somewhere that was accepting (or even just "tolerant") because they thought about it and it made sense for them to be rather than someone who was "forced" to be.
It got me thinking about the stages of acceptance GLBT people have to negotiate as society and its institutions work their way to total acceptance. I think this addresses the heart of the Equality Ride mission.
The Riders are visiting colleges where homosexual acts are considered sinful and where students who come out or who are outed are subject to being expelled. The Riders are trying to break through a belief system that condemns homosexuality. The Riders are trying to bring about a reassessment that will result in tolerance at best and neutrality at the very least in the admissions policies of these colleges.
Tolerance beats outright hostility, but I'm tired of just being tolerated. There's a long road from tolerance to begrudging acceptance to being embraced and affirmed to a place where it no longer matters that you are queer. Our African American sisters and brothers know that road well, and we can take some cues from them, I think. They founded all-black colleges when it seemed impossible for their children to break the color barrier and get an education in mainstream schools. Now those same mainstream schools are trying to recruit African American faculty members in order to better represent the general population on their staffs. There is still a long way to go before our society is color blind, but for some African Americans it almost doesn't matter any more. We have made progress, with still a ways to go.
The GLBT community has a different situation. Most of us can masquerade as straight. We don't have the numbers (especially of out GLBT people) to found our own institutions. We have access, at least in urban areas, to jobs and housing, but we still have to be careful not to put ourselves in pyhsically dangerous situations. Many political subdivisions have anti-discrimination laws. Many employers have similar personnel policies. But people can be fired, or not hired, for other reasons without mentioning their sexual orientation or gender expression.
We're far from a point where it doesn't matter. I think as a society we're at a point on the scale somewhere between hostility and gruding acceptance. It's only in certain geographic areas, certain occupations and certain religious organizations that we have much more than that.
Without people on the front lines, like the Equality Riders, the process of acceptance will never get started in some of the colleges they are visiting. I think we owe them a debt of gratitude.