Fighting for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning(LGBTQ+) people is an extremely prominent issue in our society today, and although I am in complete agreement with giving everyone equal rights, it seems as though we are too focused on issues regarding the LGBTQ+ community. The United States currently has military troops in 150 different countries, we have a debt of over $18 trillion, we have one of the highest rates of national child poverty in the world, there is a tragic shooting seemingly every week. Despite the fact that all these major problems are going on, if one doesn’t immediately know or understand what ‘pansexual’ means, he or she is open to being called a bigot or not aware of the LGBTQ+ discrimination that frequently happens. I speak from a personal standpoint, as situations like this have happened to me on several occasions. With all this being said, I must restate that I am in no way against the LGBTQ+ community, I just choose to acknowledge the fact that there are issues of equal or more importance that many people simply refuse to address.
“When we accept them [the LGBTQ+ community], people basically jump on the bandwagon of accepting them publically, which is a good thing,” said junior Jesus Ramirez. See, but there lies the problem. Talking about the pressing issues that we face makes people think for themselves, but is generally only applied to issues involving the LGBTQ+ community. If we viewed any and all major political, social, and economic problems with this same outlook, there would be even more positive change occurring in our society.
“The conversation of issues like same-sex marriage overshadow issues about more important things. Obviously same-sex marriage is important and the national legalization was a huge step, but it’s not necessarily as important as the safety of transgender teenagers or LGBTQ+ people of color,” said junior Eleanor Johnston Carter. This coincides with my point. We tend to give so much attention to the basic issues that fall under the LGBTQ+ spectrum, while there are more important issues that lie within just the LGBTQ+ spectrum itself.
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skye morris • Jan 15, 2019 at 11:47 am
in my opinion we don’t focus on the lgbt community enough
anony(mouse) • Nov 4, 2015 at 1:07 pm
no such thing as cisphobia… and LGBTQ+ embodies everyone that is a minority in the area of sexuality and gender identity aka everybody except straight people and cis people.
Aric Sweeny • Nov 4, 2015 at 1:11 pm
“as a cishet boy your opinion on the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t really matter and that you don’t have the right to say that we spend too much time talking about the LGBTQ+ community” is most definitely a cisphobic statement.
Luca MacDougall • Nov 12, 2015 at 12:59 pm
It’s true. The opinion of non LGBTQ+ people on our community is essentially irrelevant unless it is pertaining to giving or taking away our rights. It’s the same as other groups: men shouldn’t have a say in anything for women, white people shouldn’t have a say in anything for people of color, and cis heterosexual people shouldn’t have a say in anything for the LGBTQ+ community. It isn’t that your opinions aren’t valid, it’s just that white people, men, and straight/cis people have insane amounts of privilege and shouldn’t be making choices or decisions or even telling us what to do at all because they simply don’t understand the struggle.
Spooky Anonymous Person • Nov 4, 2015 at 5:55 pm
God you are dense. You said something displaying a blatant prejudice against straight/’cis’ people and then you claim that prejudice doesn’t exist? You don’t get a free pass on hating an entire group of people just because you’re standing up for a good cause (although with how far you’re taking it I’m having doubts). If your entire movement is about acceptance, why are you insulting the people who you want to be accepting of you? Do you really think that will work? You can’t get respect from people if you don’t respect them. Grow up.
Eric Osmond • Nov 5, 2015 at 10:06 am
Ohhhhh snap!
Eleanor • Nov 2, 2015 at 6:09 pm
Um … Have you ever considered that as a cishet boy your opinion on the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t really matter and that you don’t have the right to say that we spend too much time talking about the LGBTQ+ community?? Like maybe just consider your privilege before you tell marginalized groups that there is too much focus on them when literally our whole society is catered towards you.. Just saying …
Aric Sweeny • Nov 2, 2015 at 6:23 pm
The point of the article was essentially saying that if we gave every issue as much attention as we gave the lgbtq+ community then a ton of progress would be the result. As I said numerous times in the article, I am completely, 100% for all rights for every person. We devote a lot of time towards the rights of lgbtq+ people (which is what should be done) but sideline many other issues.
Spooky Anonymous Person • Nov 3, 2015 at 1:36 pm
Check your privilege! Your opinion doesn’t matter. Don’t you know that disgusting cishet white people are immediately disqualified from talking about anything?
Shilah • Nov 3, 2015 at 1:52 pm
Have you ever considered that the LGBTQ+ is inclusive of all genders and sexuality preferences? Including “cishet boys.” Your argument is irrelevant and frankly cisphobic. Maybe consider the privileges you have as well? Aric never said that there was “too much” focus on them. He was stating that there are other problems in the world that people seem to forget as well. Simply reminding them that along with focusing on the LGBTQ+ community we also need to focus on other things such as our nations debt, poverty, or hunger.
Eric Osmond • Oct 29, 2015 at 10:00 am
Aaron is right, no one is saying that LGBT issues outweigh other issues. Go read the statistics on Ella Jackson’s Spirit Day article.
Eric Haupt • Oct 29, 2015 at 7:14 pm
You have a point. I’m sure anybody at the school talking about gay rights would also acknowledge the other issues when asked.
However, what I think the article is trying to get at is that the attention distributed to these issues at SLO High in particular is disproportionately focused on LGBTQ+ struggles. What if we devoted this much effort to solving all the other problems too? Wouldn’t that be even better?
Eric Osmond • Oct 30, 2015 at 8:51 am
Students here at SLOHS are trying to make LGBT students feel welcome so that they know they are not alone. This school is lucky to have so many people that are this accepting of gay people. Us as students can’t solve problems such as America’s debt or child poverty. All these issues are equally important, but we are trying to resolve the issues that we can help with.
Aric Sweeny • Oct 30, 2015 at 11:49 am
At least addressing them would be nice.
Anonymous Aaron • Oct 28, 2015 at 6:18 am
This is like saying we shouldn’t explore space because we have problems on our own earth we should solve first. There are always going to be other problems, and attention does not work in the way you seem to think it does, I’m really not sure where you’re coming from with this article. It seems forced and poorly written to me.
Eric Haupt • Oct 28, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Your analogy/simile/whatever demonstrates a misunderstanding of what this article is trying to say.
Anti-space people who use that line of reasoning advocate for abandoning the space program entirely. This article never claimed that LGBTQ+ discussion should be abandoned or that the cause is unimportant; it is simply reminding us to make sure we don’t lose track of the other issues our world is facing by focusing all of our attention on just this one.
Frankly, your criticism seems contrived. There’s nothing forced or poorly written about this article.