Micro Aggression and LGBT Community - Essay Example

Relationship MattersExercise oneI was welcomed into this world by loving couple who happened to be my parents. Mum and Dad showed me compassion. I started learning many things while growing up. Much of the learning was done through observation. Firstly, I could see clearly that my mother was very different from my father. The differences were observed in their voices and body shapes. My parents introduced me to their religious beliefs and culture. In my youth, I learnt that men could only marry women and not their fellow men.

That would be the main relationship rule. Our religious leaders made that point clear and declared homosexuality to be a sin before the almighty.In our family setting, I observed that my mother always did the cooking and laundry. Father would go away for a whole day and come back home in the evening and at times, during the night. My father’s role was to work hard and put food on the table[Rig11]. On the other hand, my mother’s role was to take care of us by feeding us and ensuring that everything is orderly.

Those are but some of the gender scripts that my parents followed. Thinking about my relationship, there are ways that I seek to follow the scripts that I learnt while growing up. First and foremost, I strongly believe that a man should provide for his family and a woman should take care of the household. However, there are ways that I am writing new scripts. For instance, I do not believe that men should make all the decisions in the family without consulting their wives. In our family, my father would make all the decisions without consulting us.

That is one of the scripts that I seek to change. I will endeavor to be consulting my wife when making any decisions.The goal for me and my wife is to have a sense of egalitarianism in future. By consulting my partner during the decision making processes, I would show that I do respect my partner’s decisions. That way, I would achieve equality in our relationship.Exercise Two.LGBT people face several types of micro aggressions. Many people use transphobic terminologies to describe the LGBT people.

Such terminologies include: “homo”, “tranny”, “she-male” etc. some rappers unapologetically use the term “faggot” while referring to this group of people. The situation may be worse if an LGBT person is not a white man or woman. Other terms such as “niggers” accompany the other ugly terms and this add insult to injury. LGBT people from different cultures face the endorsement of heteronormative behaviors. The culture and religion, dictates how a man or a woman should behave.

For instance, after Lorenzo changes his gender, he is still being expected to live like a man. Since he is in a catholic community, he has to subscribe to the machismo gender role[Nad13]. This is a micro aggression because he is expected to live in a way that causes some discomfort for him. The other micro aggression that is faced by the LGBT people is the denial of the body privacy. In the same case of Lorenzo, his family keeps asking him about his genitalia. Therefore, such an incident can be termed as the denial of body privacy[Nad13].

The situation is worse-off when an LGBT person is disabled in some way. Many people assume that any LGBT person is abnormal. Therefore, when such a person develops some disabilities, the theories are confirmed. For instance, Marcia a disabled LGBT person feels that her female crushes reject her because she is disabled. This makes her feel hurt and invalidated[Nad13].Personally, I feel that the micro aggressions occurring in the LGBT community are worse than those occurring in the general society.

\ReferencesRig11: , (Riggle & Rostosky, 2011), Nad13: , (Nadal, 2013, p. 48),