Khalid 1 Anwar Khalid Mr. Camp & Mr.

Sutherland UNIV 101L 21 November, 2013 LGBT Reflective Essay Before the presentation, I used to think negatively about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transsexual people. Being raised in a Catholic family, I was taught nothing of homosexuals. I first found out about gay people in freshman year in High School. Sheltered from the truth, I was influenced by my family and their beliefs that homosexual meant bad. It was never directly spoken about, but through actions, I figured that marriage was between a man and a woman explicitly. To this day, I lean towards the conservative side, in believing that marriage should be between what natures intentions were. This also comes partly from the fact that marriage is a religious ceremony, and religion has been known to disapprove of homosexuality. From the speaker, I learned many things. First of all, the unspoken message she sent to the people in the room was striking. She was wearing clothes traditionally related to men. This set the tone for the presentation in my opinion. I learned many facts about LGBT people, like the distinction between gender and sex. I learned that, for example, a person who is born with specific genitalia can identify as the opposite gender, thus labeling them transsexual. At first, this seemed slightly silly to me. Then as I gave it more thought, I began to realize it is a true concern for a child to be born with both genitalia, or be sexually confused. I began to connect it with my past experiences, like psychology class in High School. The most surprising piece of information I learned was the amount of people who were uncomfortable with the topic. Many students in our class put down numbers less than 10 for how

Khalid 2 comfortable they were with the topic; quite a few were 1-3. I dont think that in this day and age, LGBT issues are a weird topic for people to talk about. There were no difficult parts about the presentation for me to hear, however, the more the presenter talked, the more it made relate and agree. Why should we be limited by the societal traditions and rules that are being imposed on us? I do agree with tradition, and on a rudimentary level, I do not approve of homosexuality, but I will go to lengths and argue for someones right to be happy. The speaker opened my eyes to the details of the situation. Many people know about LGBT, but lack details and facts. She kept it interesting, comedic, and factual. My perception changed in the way that before, I didnt think LGBT issues were a big deal. I never thought it had problems other than marriage and social acceptance. I will use what I learned during the presentation when I interact with people. It has made me less judgmental, and more understanding. Next time I see a feminine looking man, I will not jump to conclusions and assume that hes gay. I will also try not to associate gay with words like dumb, or, stupid. I believe that college students should learn about and be aware of LGBT issues because its a social issue. We learn about abortion, we learn about gun control, and I think we should learn about LGBT. It raises awareness, which makes people more understanding and accepting towards each other. Its a global issue, to say the least, and in order to compete in the global market, one has to be educationally well rounded. I do recommend this presentation for other UNIV classes in the future, simply because it opened my mind, and separated myth from fact, and shed light on the issues of LGBT people.