Gerri August Safe Spaces

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Safe Spaces by Gerri August allowed me to pause and reflect on the experiences that I have had in my life. I don't think I was ever really introduced the LGBT community in any of my classes and I was never taught about safe sex for gay people in my health classes. People should be made aware of other sexual orientations so that acceptance can be the next step. There are no boundaries when it comes to love and everyone should be able to marry freely.

While reading I came across the quote, "The state of California recently passed the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, which requires public school social science curricula to include the contributions of LGBT individuals" (August 87). I had wondered how many states have actually passed a law allowed gay marriage and I found a map that showed which states had passed the law and which banned gay marriage. As of July 21, 2014 only 18 states had passed a law allowing gay marriage. It is crazy to think that the marriage of two people has to have a law passed to allow it. Everyone in the United States has freedom, but do we all have the same freedom if some can't get married?

From experience I knew that gay men aren't allowed to donate blood because, "they might see negative representations of the LGBT community in the health or biology classroom, where they learn about HIV/AIDS as a gay-related disease" (85). When you fill out the questionnaire to donate blood there is one question that rules out gay men which renders their blood unusable. In an article about David Dassey, a gay doctor, he was extremely healthy and ran many marathons. When the bombs at the Boston Marathon went off everyone went to blood centers except him, knowing that he would not be able to donate his blood to save the lives of others. "The FDA classifies all gay men in the highest-risk blood- donor category-- the same category as IV drug users" (Darling). These men could be the healthiest men and free of AIDS yet they are still not allowed to donate blood.

As a young girl I remember watching the T.V. show Arthur and I remember when they came out with Postcards from Buster. I found the video that was banned from airing with the children who had two moms. There was nothing wrong with the video because there is nothing wrong with having two moms. The show lost its funding when this episode was filmed and the people who worked on it were let go. Parents started sending letters to Margaret Spelling telling her what a smart choice she made not to air that episode. Families from different backgrounds were aired on T.V., so it's amazing that a family with two moms can't be aired. To the left is the 2005 episode of Postcards From Buster.

Now in 2014 there are many shows that feature LGBT couples, which allows people who classify to feel like their community is being recognized. Popular shows like Modern Family, Orange is the New Black and The Fosters, all feature relationships that are not solely heterosexual. One of the stars in Orange is the New Black was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. Laverne Cox who has identified as transgender was the face of Time Magazine which has opened the door for other people who identify as transgender to be more accepted into society.

In my high school when I was a junior, a club called N3 was formed to make the student body aware of bullying. They presented stories of students that were being bullied who committed suicide because they couldn't handle the threats of other students. They eventually were able to start making presentations to our middle schools to make other students aware of people who were being bullied. In schools, the LGBT community should be taught or integrated into curriculum to make students aware to prevent people who identify as LGBT from being bullied.

Points to share: In schools there should be gender neutral bathrooms for people who identify as transgender. If students don't identify as a female or male which bathroom do they use? Also there should be a mandatory class that introduces the LGBT community to make other students aware. When classes like this are integrated into the curriculum it stops students from ostracizing those who aren't like them and it allows students to accept each other for who they are.