Freedom of belief is undeniably a fundamental principle of any democracy, one that nobody can censor through any means. To deny it is to deny the existence of the most basic characteristic of humans: thought. As such, one is not only free, but uncontrollably bound to believe and think unrestrained by any possible law, no matter how well versed.
Lately, all eyes have been on Lowe's and the extremist-Christian group who is targeting sponsors who advertise during "American Muslim." With all of the persecution and profiling that Muslims have to face from outsiders, it is devastating to think of all the extreme persecution that they sometimes face within their own culture. This is especially true for gay Muslims.
Being openly homosexual in a Muslim world is extremely difficult to say the least. I can't imagine how it must feel to live in fear, knowing that you can legally be killed for daring to be who you were born to be. These are the circumstances and fears that some gay Muslims live with everyday.
Muslim
Homosexuality is currently punishable by the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, Sudan, and Yemen. What makes those governments feel like they have the right to choose who gets to live and die? Hate, ugliness, fear and bitterness are what motivates them. The most preposterous part is that many of the men who despise homosexuals so much are "guilty."
Women are coming out more and more often in today's society. It is to the point where it is becoming an acceptable trend amongst women to have a husband or boyfriend, as well as a woman on the side. As I watch this trend unfold around myself, I notice that women are not widely accused of being homosexual or gay because of the choice to be bisexual, as men would be.
Bisexual Women
Some of the women that are open with this type of sexuality are actually famous, on television, or making music. It is not even a shock to see Nikki Minaj in a hip hop video surrounded by sexy women, or that Ellen, a talk show host comes out saying that she is gay. In the past this would have probably hindered their success as public figures. Now it is as if it is okay for women to be in relationships with other women. I can't help but wonder what this is doing for the male population. Are men no longer able to satisfy women?
Half/Half
Have you ever thought about how you would have looked, if you had been born the opposite gender? Well, it certainly crossed my mind, especially since one of my closest friends is taking professional make-up classes.
She would’ve made a gorgeous guy, that being said in the context or our conversation. I had absolutely no idea, she would tell her make-up trainer about our idea-chat. It turns out, that the guy made her call me to the studio.
To make the difference more obvious, I’m posting other pictures of myself. Finally, this is the result of her flawless, natural talent.
I support gay people
Right off the bat I should note that I am not gay. It is not something that I would normally feel the need to say, but given this blog post, I figured it was best to have full disclosure. Despite the fact that I am not gay, I do respect gay individuals and am happy to work to promote their causes. However, I recently felt that I did not know the gay community well enough. It may be the case that I am support of equal rights and everything like that, but I felt as though I was being a hypocrite if I did not try to engage with this community.
In order to accomplish my goal, I decided that I would participate in some events going on that were sponsored by a gay/straight alliance at my school. One of the things that was going on with the alliance was something known as a drag show. I knew that this was a performance where men dressed as women and women as men, but I had never been to one before. I resolved to go to the one that was being offered. I had no idea what to expect, but if this was part of gay culture, than I wanted to know about it.
Can we really choose?
All sexualities are chosen and fluidity can go both ways. Everyone should be freed from the restraints that impede their full sexual expression. The solution to the question, "Why did you decide to be gay?" could be "When did you decide to be inflexibly heterosexual?"
It seems that something different is emerging on the street these days... It is composed of... ordinary women and men of all varieties who sleep with, fall in love with, live with and break up with both women and men over the courses of their lives...
This is not a movement, certainly not an identity; if pushed, some of these people, sighing, will call themselves bisexual or queer, but only as a political convenience, shorthand for “not straight.”
Stacey D'Erasrno, “Has Sexual Identity Outlived Its Usefulness?” New York Times. October 14.2001.
It’s more common for today’s young GLBT people to express and accept fluid gender and sexual identities.. . . On one hand, there’s a push for GLBT young people to come out at earlier ages, [Esther D. Rothblum, Ph.D.] notes; on the other, more young people are pausing indefinitely in what she calls the “lingering” category.
Tori DeAngelis, “A New Generation of Issues for GLBT Clients,” Monitor On Psychology 33, no. 2, http://www.apa.org/index.aspx (February 2002).
How important are biology and environment in determining sexual orientation?
Although this question could mean, "What makes many people gay and others straight?" most people are only interested in why some people are gay. The heterosexual norm usually remains an unexamined given.
I happen to see quite often that very many of the LGBT community aren`t as open minded as they thought they are. The textbook definition says that being open minded means being recepted and open to new ideas or arguments, a.k.a. being unprejudiced. On the contrary, being narrow minded is exactly the opposite, and some of us are narrow minded even without knowing it.
A very good example of narrow minded people, those who lack tolerance, are some of the gay men who have something against transgender women or effeminate guys. Okay, you don`t like the idea, you`re totally into men, but that doesn`t mean you have to mock on others that ARE part of the LGBT community, and towards who you should show respect, since you want to be respected. At least this is how I see things. These narrow minded people not only lack tolerance, but also present obvious signs of internalized homophobia (I mentioned about it in one of my previous articles about homophobia and depression, I guess).
Did it ever happen to you to be emotionally attracted to a guy or a girl, when there`s little physical attraction or when it`s totally inexistent? It happened to me several times, so I decided to write this down and share some thoughts with you, hopefully that I`m not the only one who thinks that physical attraction is just as important as the emotional attraction in a relationship, when you`re trying to build something with a person. I kept on hearing that it`s the soul that matters, but personally, I believe things are a bit different. I`m not saying that there aren`t people who can fall in love with somebody even if there`s no physical attraction, I`m just saying that I`m not that type who does that as long as there`s no chemistry between me and him.
As I said in one of my previous articles, I really don`t believe in the "appearance doesn`t matter, it`s only the shallow people who think it does" crap. Appearance does matter for all of us, but it`s up to each of us to settle down a "level of importance" for it. For me, appearance doesn`t come first, but it does play an important role, along with intelligence, originality and ability to love. And many other things that are less important than the ones I`ve already mentioned.
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Katherine Moennig.
I kept hearing the term of "tomboy" but honestly I didn`t know what it means until I googled it. Apparently, not many people can clearly spot the difference between being a tomboy and being a gay woman (to be honest, neither could I, until recently, but I`m glad I can now). There definitely is a big difference between these two terms.
A tomboy is a girl that likes to dress like a boy and sometimes do boy stuff, such as playing footbal, baseball or go hunting, therefore she`s very sporty and more physically active than the other girls. Otherwise stated, a tomboy presents some characteristics that are seen by the society as being typically male characteristics.
As expected, there is a perceived connection between tomboys and gay women, but most of the time it turns out that tomboys are heterosexual women, so they date men. However, few of them come out as lesbian later in life, but their typically masculine attitude is definitely not an indicator of their sexuality. Same goes for boys that act a bit like girl.
Total hottie!
Tough question, isn`t it? I know that some of you out there don`t care that much about looks, but to be honest with you, I do. Well, don`t get me wrong now, looking good isn`t everything, but for me it matters in proportion of... let`s say 30%, and the rest of 70% is completed by the intelligence, character and that particular person`s ability to love and appreciate. Being cute but brainless is definitely not my perfect image of Prince Charming.
Yet, there must be "your type". You must have heard your friends saying it a million times before, whenever they dated a gay or bisexual guy or girl. "He`s not my type" or "She`s cute, but nah". I`m gonna tell you how I see my Prince Charming and which are the things I find attractive in a guy.
