User:Johandley/sandbox

Media Diversity
In January of 2015, GLAAD announced nominations for the 26th annual Media Awards. Many of these nominees included LGBT people of color. There have also been several series and shows that have started to represent this area of topic in a more enlightening way. "The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives". As well as the start to accurately representing LGBT people in the media, there is also support from well-known actors such as Channing Tatum, who will be presenting the award to the winner of the 26th annual Media Awards.

Global Standpoint
The change in representation of racial diversity in the LGBT community is advancing towards a more equal standpoint. In the early stages of television there was hardly any media representation of people of color at all, let alone LGBT people of color. However, today the media and its audience is evolving the willingness to show more racial diversity on a global scale. This attempt at equality is to make people of all gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexual orientation feel as though they are represented fairly and evenly. Specific steps taken towards this goal are the use of different diverse characters on television. As well as the diverse characters, GLAAD is also making it a point that LGBT people of different races can have professions like doctors, teachers, etc. This takes away the single focus on their sexual preference or race etc., and displays the complexity of these characters as they would with any straight or white or middle class person.

The act of ‘coming out’ or publically making everyone aware of your sexual orientation can be complicated for some people. The struggles that some LGBT people must face while coming out is different from person to person. It is imperative to attempt to relate to these individual’s backgrounds while trying to understand them. The novel, “Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Generational Factors Associated with the Coming-out Process Among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Individuals” clearly identifies the processes some people go through.

Sao Paulo speaks about a cities effort to decrease the discrimination against gay pride by planning to create new laws protecting people from the negativity of it all. It is said that they also plan to create a gay museum dedicated to all of those who have put in efforts for equal rights for the LGBT community. This new law is said to be taking place in Brazil, with the hopes that many will follow in their lead. Paulo says, "The activists and parade organizers said a law that would ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is overdue in Brazil".

Gay Is The New Black
African American gay men and lesbian women have the increased risk of gay identity development issues. This also includes the issues of birth and adaptation. Loiacano says that, “ In our society it is generally assumed that a child born to heterosexual parents will grow up to be heterosexual. Gay identity development can be defined as the process through which an individual progresses from an assumed state of heterosexuality to an open, affirmed state of homosexuality”. This is not to say that only African American LGBT people go through this struggle, because it is something every single person of this community faces daily. This helps to define the idea of ‘gay is the new black’.

The Psychology Of LGBT People Relating To Our Community
There is still much to learn about the psychology of racial/ethnic minorities in the LGBT community; however, there is prior knowledge found through studies based on the micro-aggression that these people must face on a day-to-day basis. Relationships with these types of people can also face more difficulties in the community than that of a heterosexual couple. The American Psychological Association conducted these studies and they showed several instances where LGBT men scored higher than woman psychologically. Lesbians and gay men scored higher than bisexual women and men; as well as Asian Americans scored higher than African Americans and Latinos.

Legality
It is no surprise that the legal stand points and justice for LGBT people are still in questioning. This is where we get the comparison, ‘gay is the new black’. Similar to the hardships and struggles African Americans went through to gain rights in their own states, is what LGBT people are going through now. This demonstrates the amount of discrimination in this community and how it holds no boundaries on who will be next.

Canadian Catholic Secondary Schools
The concept of the Catholic religion believing that homophobia is wrong has been around for centuries. However, many catholic school districts in Canada are ignoring their legal, ethical, and professional responsibilities to protect their students. This is causing a lack of safe environment for kids who are in fact homosexual. This study is helping the public realize how overtly violated basic human rights are being in school settings. "Individual rights, and the responsibility of publicly funded institutions to respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, were upheld…when Justice Robert Mackinnon granted Marc Hall an interlocutory injunction allowing him to attend his high school prom with his boyfriend". Statistics place LGBTQ people at 10% of the worlds population today. Meaning that if they are to have a voice others have to start advocating for them as well. It is not easy to convince Catholic schools to abide by these rules but it can help to identify the problems and work on solutions to create a better and safer learning environment, especially for students who are LGBT.

Celebrities
Laverne Cox: Cox is known for her role in the popular TV Series, Orange is the New Black. She plays a transgender woman who gets arrested and joins the rest of the crew inside jail. Her back story not only faces the hardships of her wrong doings that landed her in prison, but also her wife and son's lives and how they begin to cope with her transformation from a man to a woman. Recently Cox posed nude for Allure. She knew that what she was doing was risking especially being a black transgender woman. She told "Allure" that "Black women are not often told that we're beautiful unless we align with certain standards…Trans women certainly are not told we're beautiful". She went on to tell the magazine that it is often that trans black women are told they're not real women at all. The ideal image of a woman is imprinted on us when we are very young. From disney princesses to fairytale movies. By posing nude for this magazine she showed the public that she is proud of what she has and hopes to make the standards for beauty more of a reality

Chase Culpepper: Culpepper is a 17 year old teen from South Carolina who was told that she was not allowed to wear makeup in her DMV photo because she was transgender and gender-nonconforming. Although she is not a famous celebrity from television or movies, she was made famous by winning her appeal to be able to wear makeup and defend her freedom of speech. She filed a 'federal lawsuit accusing the South Carolna Department of Motor Vehicles of sex discrimination and violating her free speech'. While Culpepper now identifies as a transgender young woman, at the time she used male pronouns. While she was still technically a male she said she often wore makeup and woman's clothing. The DMV allowed her to wear pearl earrings but demanded her remove her mascara and eye shadow. They did this because they felt that she was purposefully altering her appearance so that it would misrepresent her in the future. The fact that the outcome of this lawsuit was positive for the transgender teen shows that the law is becoming more open to the rights of LGBT people.

Aydian Dowling: This man, Dowling, is in the lead for a modeling contest even though he is transgender. If he is to win he will be the first ever trans man to appear on the cover of Men's Health magazine. The contest is an annual one called "Ultimate Guy". Currently, Dowling has 'more than four times as many votes as the runner up'. He does not generally care about the full outcome of winning or losing. He claims that just being able to compete in this contest has helped him define himself and become more comfortable in his skin. His transformation was not the easiest. He spends about 5 days a week at the gym getting in shape as well as hiking with his wife and friends. He chose to make his transformation around the age of 20, where he describes that as the awkward period. Dowling says "If you are going to start hormone therapies and you haven't yet, you have a lot of self-comparison". His lifestyle is a way to show others that a normal everyday life is accessible for people of the LGBT community to have.

Bruce Jenner: Most everyone knows who Bruce Jenner is now a days. He was married to the famous Kris Jenner (Kardashian) and has two children with her, Kylie and Kendall Jenner. Recently Bruce came out to the public as transgender. He believes that while he still is using the pronouns "he" and has not made the move to physically become a woman yet, he is still a truly a woman inside. Being so famous, it is clear that coming out required a lot of bravery from Bruce. He claims that the bravery of other transgender people helped him make the decision to be comfortable enough to come out. He is hoping that him having the courage to do so will encourage others to be open about themselves. Along with Bruce there are several others who helped to pave the way: Christine Jorgensen, Brandon Teena, Amanda Simpson, Sylvia Rivera, Lana Wachowski, Chelsea Manning, Renee Richards and Chaz Bono.