I do not care for makeup on a woman. To me, nothing beats a beautiful, natural face. However, I appreciate a woman's sometimes multi - hour effort to neatly, neatly, and yes, neatly apply makeup to her face if she feels it makes her more attractive.
I also am not a fan of baseball. It is too slow and technologically unprogressive. Still, I appreciate the coordination and skill it takes to knock a good one out of the park. That's what she said.
Why did I say all of that? For one, I habitually talk too much, but also there is a lesson to be learned: you can express appreciation for what you do not like or engage in. That is exactly how I feel about the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) community. Despite my preference for tight clothes, I am not gay, and I have no ill will towards those that are. Whether you support their lifestyle or not we really should be in admiration of the gay community's ability to organize, lead, and even bully. Let us further examine.
My senior year of college I wrote a paper about HIV/AIDS for my Science and Technology Second Year Writing class. Yes, I did just say I took my second year writing class my senior year. Nonetheless, HIV/AIDS was first discovered in the mid 1970s primarily amongst homosexual men in San Francisco, California and New York City, New York. Given the lack of knowledge of the disease at the time and considering its target audience, the greater gay-bashing public deemed HIV/AIDS to be the "gay plague". While this theory seems laughable today, it was actually quite logical to believe such at the time. Today, HIV/AIDS has shifted from being most commonly known as a "gay" disease to being a "Black/African" disease. I will spare everyone from conspiracy theories regarding the shift, but to quote Hillary Clinton, "If HIV/AIDS was a leading killer of White women there would have been a cure". I digress.
Through my research, I learned of how the GLBT community took up "lay activism". In "lay men's" terms, lay activism is action(s) taken to address and influence an issue by people who lack expertise in the area needing attention. Rather than sitting patiently and letting a "curse" kill off their population the gay community responded quickly and efficiently, organizing and funding such organizations as STOP AIDS and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Their efforts brought forth medical breakthroughs to combat the disease, active prevention methods, and assurance of the fair distribution of medicine of those infected by the disease. While the disease is still more likely to be contracted by gay men than non-gay men the GLBT contributions to HIV/AIDS research has been remarkable.
The GLBT community has polarized America. The 2000s were dominated by talks of the legalization of gay marriage and same sex partner employment benefits, many of which swayed political elections. Most recently, the US military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT)" policy banning openly homosexual members has been repelled. So how is it that a population that is less than 1% of our country's population has been so effective in bullying their way through legislation? Well, Sherlocks, the answer is pretty simple - the GLBT community has shown us the power behind organization, educated members, and inclusion. I am particularly fascinated with the term inclusion as too many minority groups, and I don't limit that to race, further limit their support from outside sources by being too concerned with establishing themselves as a separate peoples instead of being amongst all peoples. Suddenly Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton come to mind. Go figure?
The GLBT community has marched together through their plights for respect and human rights, and have done so by understanding legal protocol and attacking the system from within. Many "ethnic groups" (really, everyone is ethnic, why do we say that?), for example, are losing ground in attaining need-based college scholarships because of their minority status, and I argue that now having a proclaimed basketball playing minority President has given the false impression of an entire group's success, and I do not mean an underrepresented group of basketball players. Just as the gay community took up lay activism, imagine how great these "ethnic" groups would benefit by becoming part of the legislation that has the power to influence scholastic awards, rather than let Ward Connerly get on his soap box? If you do not know of Mr. Connerly, you should for the sake of your children.
In closing, let us all take a lesson from the the gay community. The power of organization, education, and inclusion can go infinitely far towards achieving our goals. To quote Captain Planet, "The power is yours". Whether Captain Planet is a homosexual or not, the world will truly never know. But like our GLBT brothers and sisters have shown us, we each have the power to change what effects us.
Thank you
-Christopher Charles Ivory
-Christopher Charles Ivory
