Gays in the Holocaust - Christine Thomas

As morbid as it sounds, the Holocaust is my favorite historical period to study. Ever since reading The Diary of Anne Frank when I was in middle school, I've been fascinated by the plight of those oppressed by the Nazi regime. Since I was in Washington, D.C., last weekend for an Honors conference, I decided to stop by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum--said to be one of the greatest in the world. Going through this museum and looking at each of the powerful exhibitions, I realized that, although many groups suffered at the hands of Hitler's army, the only people being featured in the museum were the Jewish victims. Being such an activist for LGBT awareness, I was frustrated and offended that those who wore the pink triangles and the black triangles were not being represented. In the gift shop, I did find one bookshelf primarily dedicated to the suffering of the homosexual males in concentration camps during World War II, but that was about it. What is it that makes the yellow star so much more important? Understandably, the Jews did make up the majority of the victims of the Holocaust, but the Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, communists, the disabled, the mentally ill, and so many others suffered greatly. We don't really get to hear much about that in the history books or, regrettably, in respectable historical museums.

Holocaust education isn't the only area in which Jewish oppression is seen as the only struggle worth noticing. When concentration camps were liberated in 1945 at the end of World War II, the only group not to be freed was comprised of homosexual males. Paragraph 175, anti-gay legislation in Germany, was still in effect during this time. Therefore, those who wore the pink triangle were forced to serve their full sentence for a "crime" they were accused of by Adolf Hitler. Seems logical, right? Although antisemitist attitudes began to change at the end of Hitler's reign, homophobic tendencies have only recently begun to possess the same taboo--and we still make excuses for or accept the opinions of those who express anti-gay sentiment. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

I encourage everyone to learn more about the forgotten victims of the Holocaust--including the "antisocial" lesbian bearers of the black triangle, and the gay men who were forced to wear the pink triangle. Here are a few resources you might wish to browse that will give you more information on LGBT suffering during World War II:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_homosexuals_in_Nazi_Germany_and_the_Holocaust
http://www.ilga-europe.org/europe/issues/holocaust
http://www.lambda.org/symbols.htm
http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/herstory/f/BlackTriangle.htm
(Google related keywords... there are so many resources that I'd love to share!)

Gays in the Holocaust - James Goodson

Safe Sex - Christine Thomas

Homosexuality isn't all about sex. The LGBT community works hard to shatter the stereotype that gays, lesbians, and bisexuals only care about the coital aspects of their sexual identities. Sometimes, however, in our attempts to be seen for more than our sexual desires, we lose sight of the fact that sexual education is important. In public school sex ed classrooms, students are lucky of they learn the details of safe heterosexual sex and the prevention of STDs--avoiding pregnancy seems to be the only concern in most cases. There is pretty much a zero chance of students learning that STD prevention in the gay and lesbian community is just as important as preventing babies.

Every day, there are 7,400 new infections of HIV. Even though we've come a long way since the days of referring to this disease as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), and we know that HIV/AIDS is not the "gay plague," it is still a very real danger to the gay community. The spread of other less-lethal sexually-transmitted diseases is a concern, as well. Condoms remain the most importnat and effective tool in safe sex practices. To put it eloquently, wrap it before you tap it. It may seem like a hassle in the heat of the moment, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term annoyances.

Lesbians need to worry about sexual health, as well. Even without genital penetration, the spread of contact-contagent STDs is still possible. Dental dams and condom-covered fingers are useful to women who wish to practice safe sex with one another. Once again, it might sound silly or seem like an inconvenience, but there are several infections that may be spread through oral sex and mutual masturbation, and these may be prevented with proper precautions.

Finally, everyone--regardless of their sexual orientation--should be tested for sexually transmitted diseases on a regular basis: between each sexual partner if not more often. It might not be a bad idea to go with your sexual partner to be tested, just to make sure you are being honest, open, and safe with one another.

I have been in the waiting room with too many friends as they waited for the results of their HIV tests. I have heard too many friends talk about their medication and treatment of chlamydia, gonnorhea, and herpes. Sexually transmitted diseases can be annoying, permanent, and even life-threatening. Know your status, and take appropriate precautions to keep yourself and your partner safe.

For more information on sexual health in the LGBT community, check out these resources:

http://www.gannett.cornell.edu/top10Topics/sexualhealth/diseasePrevention/default.html
http://www.lgbthealth.net/resources1.shtml#3
http://qublgbt.wordpress.com/welfare/sexual-health/

Safe Sex - James Goodson

National Equality March - Christine Thomas

Gay Pride & the National Equality March



When the LGBT community gets together, one of the activities we enjoy most is marching. We don’t seem to care much where we do it, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, and we don’t need any one reason—we just like getting together, making signs, chanting and cheering at the top of our lungs, and causing a big scene no matter where we end up. I mean, sure, it’s most effective when we go somewhere like Tallahassee, FL, to demand our rights from our state’s capitol at the Rally in Tally; or when we go to Washington, D.C., to participate in a nation-wide show of force to demand our rights from our nation’s capitol during the National Equality March. Still, if the LGBT community can get some attention by being a part of a big gay parade anywhere, anytime, for any reason, we’re in.

Why did we start up with this whole “marching” thing, anyway? I think we’ve got the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to thank for this particular tradition in the LGBT movement, as the first gay pride march occurred one year after the riots in order to celebrate their anniversary. “The first marches were both serious and fun, and served to inspire the widening activist movement; they were repeated in the following years, and more and more annual marches started up in other cities throughout the world. In New York and Atlanta the marches were called Gay Liberation Marches, and the day of celebration was called ‘Gay Liberation Day;’ in San Francisco and Los Angeles they became known as Gay Freedom Marches and the day was called ‘Gay Freedom Day.’ As more towns and cities began holding their own celebrations, these names spread.” (Stolen straight from Wikipedia.org.)

Last Friday, several members of UWF’s Gay-Straight Alliance embarked on a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Equality March. Some of these members rode on a bus for over 24 hours, traveling all over Florida to pick up students from other Universities before heading on a course to the nation’s capitol. Unfortunately, yours truly was having her own fun at a leadership retreat and could not participate in the LGBT festivities, but I’ve heard all sorts of magnificent stories. Those in attendance at the National Equality March got to hear from speakers such as Judy Shepard and Lady Gaga… those speakers alone would have made it worth the trip, in my opinion. There was lots of cheering, lots of flag-waving, over 300,000 LGBT individuals and their allies, and best of all… a ton of pride and demands for equality. Words cannot express how very proud I am of my friends and fellow GSA members for participating in this monumental event.

Check out these fabulous videos from the National Equality March!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=national+equality+march&search_type=&aq=f

National Equality March - James Goodson

Pride - Christine Thomas

Pride

There are many models of the “Stages of Coming Out,” but my personal favorite is a six-step model consisting of the following:

1. Identity Confusion
2. Identity Comparison
3. Identity Tolerance
4. Identity Acceptance
5. Identity Pride
6. Identity Synthesis

To sum it up, when a person realizes that he or she (to simplify my typing, let’s just go with “he”) is somehow different (for our purposes, we’ll just use the blanket term “gay”), there is a psychological process that he goes through in coming to terms with this new realization. It starts with confusion: he’s not quite sure why he’s attracted to other guys and tries to deny or fight against these feelings. Next, he begins to compare himself to others, noticing that he is different and trying to figure out what exactly a gay person is comprised of. In the tolerance stage, he begins to admit to himself that maybe he could be gay, and in the acceptance stage, he starts to come out to others. We can refer to the pride stage as the “I’m here, I’m queer” stage. This level is all rainbows and gay paraphernalia all the time. When reaching the level of synthesis, he begins to see himself as a person who happens to be gay, rather than a person who lives and breathes nothing but homosexuality and gay culture.

While Identity Synthesis is the ideal level in coming to terms with one’s sexuality, the stage that seems to bring the LGBT community together is #5: Identity Pride. For one, the word “synthesis” just isn’t as easy to rhyme, say, or tweak as the word “pride.” For another, I think it takes individuals who at least keep a toe in the Identity Pride stage to really make a difference when it comes to LGBT equality. If we were going to make this model a scale, I’d be at about 5.5—halfway between Pride and Synthesis. Most of the time, I don’t go around thinking or talking about being bisexual. Contrary to popular belief, I’ve got a life outside of LGBT activism that doesn’t involve my sexuality whatsoever. I’m pretty well synthesized, if I do say so myself. Really, though, since such a huge part of my life consists of the fight for equal rights, my sexual preference (and the preferences of my friends and activist colleagues) is a consistent topic of conversation. Therefore, I still wiggle around a bit with Identity Pride.

If you haven’t noticed, pride is a really big deal in the LGBT community. It’s important to not only accept our sexuality, not only to not be ashamed of it, but to announce it loud and proud just to make sure we’re grabbing everyone’s attention. I like to think of pride as more than an excuse to wear lots of loud crazy rainbow accessories… pride is more of a tool in the battle for equality. Think about it. If the LGBT community was guaranteed 100% equal rights and no discrimination, would we have any need to scream and shout about our sexuality? No. We’d be considered (insert gasp here) normal members of society, and would have no need to go any further than accepting and understanding who we are. As it is, however, we face all sorts of hate crimes and the legal inability to marry and denial of employment and housing and… you get the picture. Therefore, we have to show “the man” that we are proud of being members of the LGBT community and that we do not want to change to fit into society’s pre-determined mold of who is and is not worthy of equal rights due to issues of sexual preference. In this way, we use pride to help us achieve our ends.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my rambling on the subject of pride. This was all really very train of thought and I’m just glad you people seem to care enough to read about my random LGBT musings. Thanks a bunch and have a great week. :D