Rights of Homosexuals Essay Example for Free

Rights of Homo sexuals EssayAl roughly everyone k in a flashs Ellen DeGeneresshe is just the very famous TV soulality who publicized her opening that she is a homosexual, purge chronicling her day-after-day life (in a very comical and amusing way) in a television picture in the early 90s. Even until now, she is take over a famous somebody as she is now a much-acclaimed TV host with her own show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and is marriedto a girl. Ellens storey sess be a proof of how far society and the press curb openly recognised the homosexuals. Homosexual raft can be pertained to both snappy flock (who are usually k nonted in a male-male relationship) and lesbians (who are in a female-female relationship). However, beingness gay can as well be applicable to both male-male and female-female relationships and is now accepted more by the universal public compared to the period ahead the 50s. The visibility of the gay muckle is now so flamboyant that a soulfu lness is left field to wonder Was in that respect a time when they were persecuted? The answer to that question is a resounding yes. in that location was indeed a time when the gays and lesbians were thought of as a minority group in the most corrupting way possible. It is surprising and amazing how they were once regarded as criminals and mentally ill and immoral (Gross xiv). Today however, they are now so accepted that shows, series, and movies are being produced and have become popular one subsequently another.Their story of how they fought for visibility, recognition, and liberation from being closeted is worthy of a re-telling and a movie that can be sure as shooting make into a Hollywood hit. This paper will recount the important events and someonealities which has do homosexual say-so possible and the tremendous role that the media played in the whole social function. The Power of the Press Mass media is undeniably a very powerful force that has a abundant and inf luential imp map in the daily lives of the people.Weather reports, economic and political news, fashion forecasts, music videos, commercials, and infomercialsthe media holds a great variety and a gigantic amount of certifyation which is being fed and devoured by the general public, and whether they like it or not, these information are collide withing them on a personal and naturally, on a major scale, too. What is media exactly and what is its purpose?thither are a great summate of these speculations, but it actually depends on how it is being used and by who The purposes of communication have always remained the self same(prenominal) artists wish to entertain and stimulate entrepreneurs aim to make cash governments and interest groups hope to inform or persuade advertisers help to sell goods and ideas (Cannon). Because of the media, communication to the greater and general public is faster and easier. Even if it is undeniable that the mass media has brought negative effects, there are keep mum dogmatic things which everyone should be and is grateful for.As what Buckingham has written in his report, the negative and positive effects are undeniably linked together, as what is expected from everything in the society today The negative effects of media may be impossible to separate from their positive effects. Potential positive effects relate to learning and education, as swell as processes such as social interaction, identity formation and cultural experience. Apparently inappropriate capa urban center may also provide valuable opportunities for learning. In seeking to prevent negative effects, it is important to manipulate that we do not also undermine or preclude the potential for positive effects.(3) There are a lot of things which people and the society should credit to media. Aside from the usual studies and researches that prove the effects and influences that it does to people (as that to Buckinghams) that are both positive and negative, and t he information (overload) that is happening on an almost daily basis, the media can also be credited to the fact that a lot of important historical events have happened because of themthey either made it such a big issue that it is impossible for people not to mobilize and address the conflicts or issues.Media (or the people from the press) have more than often put their lives on the line in order to inform the public ab come forth the truth that is happening around them. The press can perhaps be indistinct because they are just so powerful that they can mobilize the people when they tell the truth (or sometimes, their adjustment of it) whether people want to hear it or not. Sometimes, they are even more so powerful that they can not tell the truth and keep the public in the dark. Almost many events that have happened globally are reported by the press, and sometimes, these events are even caused by the media.In addition, all these things that have happened in the past can still a ffect the present and the future. Harvey take out and Matthew Sheppard for example are just ii individuals whose advocacy and death was made known to the public television that it made thousands of people act over against the dissimilitude to lesbian, gay and transgender people (Lacayo, Barovick, Cloud and Duffy). Their stories which have been so abuzz with controversies were so popular in the past, and yet, historic period later, people still look back to these devil brave individuals and how their death has affected many.Hollywood, for instance, has even made a movie based on Harvey Milk and his advocacy for the equal protection for the gay and lesbian confederacy. In simple terms, media has immortalized important historical events, and life-changing and influential people by talking ab go forth them that even in later years, people are still influenced by them. In short, media has played such a very important role in the peoples lives, and the best way to exemplify this p roof is through a recount of the evolution and expansion of the gay rights which has been well chronicled by the press.The journey that the gay, lesbian, and transgender people have endured and lived through is such an agonizing story of death, sacrifices, and at last, of freedom and respect. gayness There has been a great confusion of the definition of who are the gay, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgender. Vast studies and characterization can be used as a reference to define these people. Over the years, the description of gay, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgender has also evolved a immense with their liberation and the development of their raw material host man rights. Homosexuality is not new and not a diseaseaccording to todays judgment, that is.However, decades ago, it was a different case altogether. In the past, gay people were defined by having relationships with people of the same sexif one made out or has a special friend that is the same gender that he or sh e does, and then he or she is defined as a gay person. However, different groups paint a picture otherwise. Long ago, being a gay person meant that one is a criminal, mentally ill, and immoral (Gross xiv). There are different cases though as according to TIME Magazine, being a homosexual person has grounds based on The Institute of Sex Research, founded by Alfred C.Kinsey, which defines a homosexual as anyone who has had more than six sexual experiences with a member of the same gender. However, as of now, as human rights are being demanded by people of all groups, being a gay person is not so considered as a crime anymorein many parts of the globe, that is. Homosexuality has become very unvarnished in the society nowadays that if a person is to declare him- or herself as gay (like Ellen DeGeneres for example), it is not such a big and horrifying issue, but it is still an issue. How far has the outing (Gross ix) of homosexual people gone through in the past until the current time ?If a person would look at the facts, it would not be surprising and besides right to be amazed. Homosexual Advocacy, its Evolution and their Human Rights Homosexuality can be traced even as far as to the ancient Romans whose emperors were rumored to be bisexuals, and the surprising thing isthe society back then was not as against it compared to the American society back in the 50s or 60s. Moreover, farther from the ancient Romans are the biblical passages and accounts of homosexuals being punished in the Promised Land of Israel with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.God was furious with the sexual criminal acts that the Sodomites were doing that He decided to destroy the city completely. Unfortunately, this story is what is usually used by Christians or anti-homosexual groups in trying to voice out their whimsy and displeasure with the gay people. However, the call for the gay rights did not exactly happen overnight or in a snap. This was a very slow and painstaking process that ac tually originated with the call of the African-Americans to comparability with the flannel Americans.Racial discrimination has been a long standing issue experienced globally but was most experienced in the United States of America since people from all parts of the globe were actually migrating to the US as they were lured by its promise of greener pastures. Eventually, the discrimination against the minority groupsAfrican-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians who constituted the population of the majority, were advocated by a number of famous people, and most notable of them is in the person of Martin Luther King Jr.He was assassinated for engagement in what he believed inthat equality should reign among age, gender, and most especially that of race. The advocacy and dispute of the blacks vs. the whites eventually paved the way for the shin for recognition of the homosexuals (Gerstmann 3 TIME). However, even if the homosexual (and bisexual) residential area were inspired by the ad vocacy of the African-Americans, they still had a far way to go with regard to their decision to be out in the open and eventually fight for their liberation.There were many factors which comprised the fight of the homosexual community, and unfortunately, it involved a lot of death and sacrifices that were publicized by the media. According to Larry Gross in his book, Up from Invisibility Lesbians, brisk Men, and the Media in America, the first ever advocacy for gay recognition and empowerment happened in the person of Lisa Ben who gave out copies of a magazine that signaled the first stirrings of the modern gay rights movement in the United States (xiii).What she did was both adventuresome and dangerous, for in those years, being a homosexual person meant persecution because it was considered a crime. As what a gay person was found saying in the BBC video about the Stonewall Riot, the word homosexual cannot even be uttered. long time later after Lisa Bens small magazine and advo cacy, gay movements were mobilized little(a) by little but were not very successful as they were often defeat up by the legal philosophy for being fags or drag queens. The early 1960s can be also said that it had the same turn of events as that of the 50s.It was and during the late 1960s that people finally acted and pursued their one endingequalityfreedom, respect, fundamental rights will follow after and come with it (Bendersky Gross). The most famous Stonewall drunken reveler that happened in the month of June 1969 in Greenwhich Village, New York City was a historic landmark for their fight for equality The turning point came in the summer of 1969 in Manhattans Greenwich Village, when 400 gays flooded the streets for several nights to protest constabulary raids on the Stonewall Inn, a homosexual bar on Christopher Street (TIME).With the riots, movements, and publication of weeklies (like of Grant crossroads Gay Life), the community of the gay, lesbians, bisexuals, and tr ansgender was soon heard and felt by the people not only in the United States of America people around the globe also became aware of their fight The crusade is being fought on many levels. Politically, the movements victories are now barely balancing its defeats. Thirty-nine cities, towns and counties, including Detroit, Washington, D.C. , and Minneapolis, have enacted ordinances dour discrimination against homosexuals in jobs and housing, but only five of those communities have been added to the list in the past two years. (TIME) When the famous Harvey Milk was elected in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, another milestone in their advocacy was again met. Harvey was out in the open as a gay person, and he was elected in a high position in the society.Milk made such a great impact because not only was he a politicianhe was a politician who is gay and who is demanding for an anti-discrimination gay act to be passed. Moreover, when the advocacy of the Church was made clear th at they were against gay rights and that teachers who are gay should not be deemed fit to teach in public schools, Milk fought hard against that judgment. Eleven months later, Milk was killed, and the act was passed.In addition, the Civil Service Commission ruled in 1975 that being a homosexual person should not be the grounds for a person to be unemployed. When Milk died, it was not only the gay community who was enraged by this event but also people from all over. Even the straight ones were now on the same side, and the fight was biggest and strongest as ever with the equality for the homosexual people (Bendersky). mess have now become more open to the concept of homosexuality and has come to grips with the reality that people should be accepted for how they are.How unbelievable it may seem when years ago, the gay and lesbian people were being beaten up by the police and or being horrifyingly mistreated by the straight community that they are even publicly put on trial and/or pe rsecuted and yet, decades later, the world has opened up to them. As what appeared in the TIME Magazine issue which has been cited for seemingly countless times in this paper, companies and corporations on a national level have publicly voiced out that they do not come apart in hiring or promoting people because they are homosexual. The most ground breaking is the support and the next trample of the media. As what is understandable, if the media is able to openly portray and even give a spot on stories or characters who are homosexuals in a non-villain role, then it means the general public is able to accept and look on such role being enacted out Television and movies are treating gay themes more openly and sympathetically. first principle hit series Soap, for example, has two homosexual characters, one a macho football player (TIME).Years later, although things have been better in terms of the gay people being not regarded as retards or criminals, they are still far from fully realizing their goal. If in the past they were fighting for freedom from discrimination or safety and survival from those people who made it a point to not only discriminate the gay people but to also hurt and in some cases, even kill them, the 90s brought in a new fightthe homosexual people want to get married. According to Gerstmann, there is even no such thing as gay rights. There are only basic human rights which can be enjoyed by people no matter their gender, age, or race. brotherhood is a basic human right, and yet, people who are of the same sex are deprived of it (Gertsmann 3-4). Their community in the past seemed to be fighting for survivalfor their endangered lives because of the discrimination happening. Now, the homosexual community is fighting for their basic human rightto be married to the person they loveeven if it means that they belong to the same gender. When the then President Bill Clinton made a speech in 1996 that he supported the brotherhood and union of peop le who are of the same-sex, homosexual people were overjoyed, for it meant a huge leap for them.However, when only a short time later, the Doma Bill was passed wherein a marriage can only happen between a man and a woman, the gay community was outraged at Clintons treachery and lies. Years later, Bendersky of the Huffington convey writes in November 2008 of the Proposition 8 in California that calls a marriage to be made only between a man and a woman. In some countries and states, being a homosexual person is still a crime and is subject for persecutiondeath penalty in public.There are still some states in America which openly oppose same-sex marriages and outing of closeted homosexual people they even rule out some basic rightslike entrance to schools. Clearly, there is still a discrimination going on even if it is not openly voiced out. Even if the entertainment industry has long been open to the enactment of gay or lesbian people and has produced shows, series, and movies, ev en that of cartoons and commercials where the characters are blatantly gay or the piece revolves around them, there is still an underlying tension with regard to the subject of homosexuality.Famous shows like allow for and Grace or The Ellen DeGeneres Show may be famous on national television show and is already accepted by the general public, but it does not necessarily mean that they have already achieved their goal. In Aaron Belkins article for example, he writes that President Barrack Obama is going to fire his Arabic linguistic scientist because the linguist declared on national television that he was a homosexual person. There is a reason for that however. In the same article of Belkin, he further writes that there is a law that states that the military MUST fire any service member who acknowledges themselves as being gay. Years later, the death of Milk and the appalling and well-publicized death of Matthew Sheppard seem to be a waste as the homosexual community has still n ot met their goal for their fight for equality (Lacayo et al. ). Conclusion In conclusion, from the outing of the homosexual people to the fight for their equality and to the expansion of their rights, they have come a long way. From the ancient Romans to the Harvey Milk and Matthew Shepard, homosexuality has long been present, will always be present, and the press has played a big part in both its development and dramatic sensationalization.Whether people like it or not, the events of the past will continue to haunt and affect the events of the present and of course, the future. One thing that everyone should remember is, the whole adventure that the gays and lesbians went through is one amazing ringlet coaster ride, and that despite the sickening downs they experienced, the exhilarating ups are definitely worth itone is merely to look at the entertainment industry today and acknowledge where they are now. Works Cited Buckingham, David, Natasha Whiteman, Rebekah Willett, and Andre w Burn.The Impact of the Media on Children and Young People With A Particular Focus on Computer Games and the Internet. Byron Review, Centre for the Study of Children, Youth an Media, Institute of Education, University of London. 30 Apr. 2009. 7 may 2009. http//www. dcsf. gov. uk/byronreview/pdfs/Buckingham%20Impact%20of%20Media%20Literature%20Review%20for%20the%20Byron%20Review. pdf. Belkin, Aaron. Obama To Fire His First Gay Arabic Linguist. The Huffington Post. 7 May 2009. 8 May 2009. http//www. huffingtonpost. com/aaron-belkin/obama-to-fire-his-first-g_b_199070. html.Bendersky, Ari. Where is Harvey Milk Today? The Huffington Post. 1 Dec. 2008. 8 May 2009. http//www. huffingtonpost. com/ari-bendersky/where-is-harvey-milk-toda_b_146933. html. Cannon, John. Mass Media. The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford Oxford University Press, 2002. Encyclopedia. com. 30 Apr. 2009 http//www. encyclopedia. com. Gerstmann, Evan. Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution. Cambridge, Ma ssachusetts Cambridge University Press, 2008. Gross, Larry P. Contested Closets The Politics And Ethics Of Outing.Minnesota University of Minnesota Press, 1993. . Up from Invisibility Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Media in America. New York Columbia University Press, 2001. Lacayo, Richard, Harriet Barovick, John Cloud, and Washington Duffy. The New Gay Struggle. TIME Magazine. 26 Oct. 1998. 8 May 2009. http//www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989406,00. html? loomia_si=t0a16g2r2c0. 177585b22455434xid=Loomia. Time Inc. How Gay is Gay? . TIME Magazine. 23 Apr. 1979. 8 May 2009. http//www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920281-1,00. html.