Question J

I found the film “Queer Streets” to be an interesting insight into the LGBT group of people. I had no idea that they had struggled so much just to escape the oppression that they have faced. That hurts me to hear that they would rather leave a place that they can survive financially and have their needs met, yet escape ridicule and oppression. According to Queer Streets, 25 to 50 % of 20,000 homeless people in New York City are LGBT. This fact was shocking to me. The fact that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups are more likely to have substance abuse problems, HIV/AIDS, suffer from violence, do sexual work, and suffer from mental illness. Although I did enjoy watching this video, I do wonder where they get the facts from. How did they determine the statistic that 25-50% of the homeless population is NYC are LGBT?? Many homeless people don’t live in shelters and the homeless population is everchanging… so I am wondering how this stat was formed. My other question is I wonder how they determined that LGBT people are more likely to suffer from all of the above? They must have been keeping close tabs on them in order to create reliable and realistic statistics right? Unfortunately I do believe that the LGBT may be more involved in sex work, given that kind of work is usually only done in a pinch, and out of desperation. As mentioned in the video, Isyss could not get a job because she did not identify with the sex that was shown legally. Even though discrimination is illegal, it still happens.

And again, I don’t think that this country is a “free country”. It seems as though people can say whatever they want freely, but cannot do whatever they please. We cannot love and marry who we choose, and there are laws and rules surrounding everything. I believe that church is still in conjunction with state although it claims to be separate. The constitution and laws are still based around the Judaea- Christian way of life. People need to let go of their own ideals and accept other people’s in as well, this will result in a more open minded society and more freedom. If the LGBT group was more openly accepted, there would be a lot less conflict in general, and much more opportunity for them. Eventually maybe this can result in people being less abrasive against others and less oppression. The truth is that we can’t stop oppression altogether because some people are not for stopping but we can affect the future generations.