Papers B&C LGBT

Cierra Anthony 313-358-7056 Cierra.Anthony@wayne.edu Paper B& Paper C November, 24 2015 LGBT Panel LGBT panels discuss their experiences as being apart of the LGBT community “ When I came out to my mom she told me that I would burn in hell.” Those were the words of Kyle Taylor a public relations student at Wayne State University and a member of PRSSA, participant in the LGBT organization Affirmations. Taylor and three other LGBT panelists spoke about their experiences with coming out to their friends and family. “ When I came out to my dad he didn’t talk to me for like three months” say’s Taylor. He says once his father finally accepted him for being gay he took him to his house for Thanksgiving and told Taylor, “This is not a coming out party so I would appreciated if you didn’t tell anybody.” Taylor says he instantly felt disrespected, “If they can’t accept me for who I am then they are not my real family.” “ My coming out experience was a little bit difficult,” says computer science student at Lansing community college, Coletta Motta. “My sister Frankee outted me,” says Motta “ I remember being terrified I didn’t want to go home.” Motta says it was difficult at first, but I went back to normal after a while. The LGBT panelist also spoke about questions they dislike being asked from straight people. Tim Carroll Tim Carroll a journalism student at Wayne State and former editor of The South End says he hates “when someone asks me who is the girl and who was the boy.” “They don’t think its offensive, but it kinda is.” Carroll said “I used to freak out when someone ask me that question, but I have a thicker skin now.” Carroll says “its normal for straight people to think that something is straight and everything else is different,” he says it’s called normality, “One has to be a boy and one has to be a girl and that's just not the case at all.” Taylor says he do not like when people asked him “well if you're gay why don't you act gay,” “I do not think it's fair that people think that all gay people are flamboyant.” “There are some Flamboyant men that don’t like boys and the same goes for girls too.” Chase Herle a banquet server at The Inn at St. John's says he does not like when people asked him, “how did you know you were gay?” says Herle “ I’ll always respond with how did you know you were straight.” Motto says she dislikes when a person asks her “how do lesbians have sex,” “Does that even count as sex?” “ I used to feel so uncomfortable because I did not want to answer that question,” says Motta. They also discussed the issues of gay rights. Herle says “It’s legal in this state to fire someone for being gay, and you cant find back in the court of law for that.” “It’s also legal to deny housing to LGBT members,” says Herle. Motta says “Its really hard adopting kids or even having them because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Motta “ you could go to an agency and say me and my partner want to try to adopt and they can deny you.”