Talking Points III-Carlson

The article that I read by carlson about gayness, the community and culture of homosexuality really made me think about how the society reacts to this topic in today's world. Carlson shares with us about how gayness is represented in our culture and how we see a lot more of it in public schools. He also tells us stories about teachers, not just students, who are gay and their reactions to gay people.

For example, Carlson reports of a book, "Growing Up in the Gay South" was about a high school English teacher who was harassed becuase he was gay and of the way he taught. He reacted to the student by saying..."you know i just don;t know if they are mature enough for this..." I mean really if your in high school you must be 15-18 years old. It'se to act like an adult and not start laughing at someone or say stupid jokes because their not of the same sexual orientaion as you. I think that that showed immaturity by the student(s) and it's pretty aweful to make an english teacher feel that way.

As far as past experiences, I havent grown up around as many gay people when I was in elementary to even middle school. It was more or less towards high school that I started to see these changes in the way people acted. I will have to admit that yes I was the one to use the term "fag" all the time and I did use it in public when I shouldn;t have. Last semester in Human Sexuality I learned where that term came from and from then on I try really hard not to say it to people becuase the story hit me in a way that I realized a..."what was I thinking saying that word" type of thing. I learned that gay people or lesibian or both whichever you are, I've learned to accept they are as individuals and that they are just like straight people. They should be treated the same and given the same rights as well so that goes for marriage equality too.I think that is also what Carlson's trying to say as well as his main idea.