Discrimination: A Queer Act

Discrimination: A Queer Act

From the beginning of time, to biblical times ("Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable"- Leviticus 18:22 ), to today gays have been discriminated against in all ways, shapes, and forms. Even though discriminated and punishment for being homosexual has decreased in severeness since biblical times, discrimination is still very harsh today. Gays are discriminated against in organizations, such as the Boy Scouts, everyday on the streets, and even the military.

Gay discrimination is everywhere, for James Dale it was in the Boy Scouts. James Dale, a New Jersey Cub Scout joined the pack at eight years of age in 1978. Rising through the ranks he reached one of the Scouts highest honors in 1988, Eagle Scout. "As the Supreme Court decision notes, 'By all accounts Dale was an exemplary Scout'."( qtd. in Gay Rights 118-119). In 1989, Dale became an adult member of the Boy Scouts of America and was made assistant Scoutmaster of a troop. While attending Rutgers University, Dale Came out as a gay man and became a co-president of the Rutger University Lesbian women/ Gay men alliance. In 1990, he was interviewed by a local newspaper about a seminar he spoke at. The topic was, Psychological and Health Issues for Gay Teenagers. When the newspaper published the interview along with Dale's photo, he was stripped of his membership in the Scouts and relieved from his position as

assistant Scoutmaster. "Boy Scouts 'specifically forbid membership to homosexuals'."(qtd. in Gay Rights 118-119)

Everyday, on the streets, of any town in America gays are laughed at, spat on, and ridiculed. Two thousand seventy-four gay men and lesbian women were surveyed. Nineteen percent of the gay men and lesbian women have been punched, hit, kicked, or beaten because of their sexual orientation, and forty- four percent have been threatened with physical violence. Ninety- four percent of gay men and lesbian women have experienced some type of victimization. Victimization is being "verbally abused, physically assaulted, abused by police, assaulted with a weapon, having property vandalized, being spat on, being chased or followed, or being pelted with objects"(Herek 19-20).

Studies have found that gay men and lesbian women of color are at higher risk for violent attack because of their sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbian women of color were found more likely than white gay men and lesbian women to report having been followed or chased (forty-three percent as compared with twenty-nine percent), pelted with objects (thirty-one percent: seventeen percent), or physically assaulted (twenty-one percent: eighteen percent). It "... also found that gay people of color were more likely than white gays to be victimized in gay- or lesbian- identified areas ( such as gay neighborhoods or outside gay establishments). Race was unrelated to experiencing vandalism/ arson and being spat upon"( Herek 29).

" Among 400 San Francisco women who were surveyed at gay and lesbian community events and establishments,