Gay and Lesbian Culture as it Relates to Intercultural Communication
...esearch indicated that in one recent study, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students reported "profound experiences with verbal, physical and sexual harassment and assault in school." The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an advocacy group, indicated 61 percent had experienced verbal harassment, 47 percent reported sexual harassment, 28 percent cited physical harassment and 14 percent said they had been physically assaulted at school (Storm, 1, 2000). These statistics give us an idea of what takes place at the grade school level. Homosexuality is also controversial at the baccalaureate level. The controversy at colleges and universities tends to stray away from the petty name calling of grade school. In fact, post-high school learning has accepted, if not embraced homosexuality. Despite its sympathy for gay causes, higher education has generally resisted institutionalizing both gay and queer studies. Yale University, for instance, rejected separate offers by gay alumni Larry Kramer, a writer and activist, and David R. Kessler, a San Francisco psychiatrist, to endow gay studies professorships. Kramer termed the rejection an example of "extreme homophobia" (Bull, 1, 1998). On the whole, no matter what level of education one is attaining at the time, life will be difficult for homosexuals. Gay and lesbian students have many obstacles to overcome. They hear these epithets from other students, sometimes even from teachers. If they are harassed, they are unlikely to go home to tell their parents because they often fear their parents will reject them too. At school, students may not know whom to approach or where to turn (Storm, 2, 2000). Members of this co-culture have many issues to deal with and obstacles to overcome inside the classroom. There is also another part of homosexuality that needs to be addressed. The structure of gay and lesbian families plays a large role in a child’s upbringing. This next section will take a look at homosexual marriages as well as adoption by gay and lesbian partners or couples. This paper will also look at things from a gay child’s perspective growing up with heterosexual parents and family. The advent of marriage between same-sex couples marked one of the major cultural and social changes of the twentieth century in the United States. In 1970 gay and lesbian couples requested so many marriage licenses from the Los Angeles County Clerk, that the Clerk's office requested the California legislature tighten California marriage laws. However, despite this auspicious start and the continued efforts of gay and lesbian activists and their supporters, it was not until the late 1980s that homosexual marriage was again hotly contested in the courts, the state and national legislatures, by the public at large, the mass media, and within the gay and lesbian community itself (Stabin, 1, 2002). By the late 1990s, over 30 states enacted some type of anti-same-sex-marriage legislation, explicitly limiting marriage to one man and one woman. These 1990s laws differed from those passed in the 1970s because they discussed marriages within their own state as well as the interstate recognition of marriages. In the November 1998 elections Hawaii voters passed a ballot saying there should be a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman. Although a blow to advocates of gay and lesbian marriage, a committee had yet to draft an amendment on which a vote would be taken. If passed, the amendment would make it more difficult, but not impossible, for a judge to declare same-sex marriage legal (Stabin, 3, 2002). On the flip side of the coin, children are also affected by homosexuality...