Readings for 4/16/2008: GLBTQ

I really liked the article “Out of the Closet and onto the Bookshelves” by Mari M. McLean and the article “Supporting Gay Teen Literature” by David Levithan. I think that the GLBTQ community and these articles can be looked at in a way that almost sums up this course. Many people in society might consider the GLBTQ community a more controversial community than other groups that we have studied, and I think that the articles recognize this. The articles do a great job of highlighting the fact that people like to feel like they are apart of a group, but also that we cannot over generalize or stereotype people based on this. This sense of identity is true for all cultures, not just GLBTQ. I started thinking these issues right away when reading the McLean article. “Some might argue that the reason references to homosexuals do not appear in many multicultural materials is that there is no ‘homosexual culture,’ because homosexuality has no racial or ethnic basis for existence” (McLean, 179). First, I would like to say that I agree when McLean says that “culture often transcends the boundaries of race and ethnicity” (179). I do think that the GLBTQ community should be considered a cultural group. However, in a certain way, I interpreted the first quote about how there is “no homosexual culture” to mean that homosexuals are individuals, rather than always being cast as an ethnic group. In a certain way (but not always) isn’t this a good thing? Reflecting upon all of the different diverse groups of people that we have learned about in this course, one thing that I came away with/one thing that was reinforced with my previous thoughts is to remember that people are individuals. There is not always an “insider,” and different “insiders” can have different view points about the same culture. Because of this, I feel that it is important to not make large generalizations about people, but to always remember that they are their own individual self, with their own thoughts, beliefs and personality traits. I think that looking at issues from this point of view that people are individuals can help decrease stereotypes. A social problem here is that some people deny GLBTQ of their culture, when they do recognize other “ethnic” or “racial” cultures that are different from their own as “real” cultures. This does pose a problem, however on the flip side this can lead to less stereotyping. If someone is not considered apart of the “gay” culture because the gay culture does not really exist to some people, then maybe they are actually saving individuals from the stereotypes that go along with being homosexual. If people from all cultures were not categorized, then maybe we would be a more accepting society. The problem with this however, is that by being “colorblind” or in the case of GLBTQ community seeing them as invisible, we then rob people of their identity. When I think about this, I see the pros and cons as a never ending cycle! I personally do not believe in being colorblind. I think that people should strive to understand others and recognize that we are different, but I can see the argument of trying to ignore this.
Another point that I really liked from the McLean article was the quote about the importance of literature. “Whether texts structure the reader’s experience or whether the reader’s experience structures the text, the fact is that the ignoring or denial of a group’s existence in literature invalidates the experience and self-identity of members of that group by rendering them invisible, not only to themselves, but to all other groups in a society. Aside from the self-identity point of this quote, what I really like is how McLean points out that the reader’s experience can be structured by the text, or the reader’s experience can structure the text. This just reinforces how all people/students can benefit from having diverse literature in the classroom. You do not necessarily need to have experience or knowledge of a cultural group to enjoy a piece of literature, because the text, if well written will give you this positive experience and allow the reader to empathize with characters who represent someone different than oneself. If the reader’s experience structures the text, then the reader now has something to identify with, which can give a sense of confidence and a feeling of acceptance. Looking back on when we read Habibi, my experience mostly structured the text. My whole life, I have had the opposite experience of what Liyana went through in the novel. She moved back to the old country and interacted with her family that was different from what she knew in America. About once a year from my personal experience, a family member(s) from Lebanon comes to visit, and a few years ago four of my cousins and my Aunt and Uncle moved to American from Lebanon. When reading Habibi, I kept seeing my own experiences through Liyana’s character and was literally imagining the characters as my own family members. Parts of the novel made me laugh because I had so much to identify with. On the flip side, novels such as Heart of a Chief, and Al Capone Does my Shirts allowed me to really empathize and try to understand struggles that a Native American or person with a disability/family member of a person with disabilities might face. It is often hard to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but engaging literature is an excellent way of doing this. This is probably especially important for GLBTQ literature because so many people have such strong opinions about this group of people.
Finally, maybe the most important thing about the two readings for this week is that “being gay is not an issue, it is an identity. It is not something that you can agree or disagree with. It is a fact, and must be defended and represented as a fact” (Levithan, 1). As a future teacher, I will make an effort to have a representation of homosexual literature in my classroom because if someone identifies as something, no one has the right to tell them that they do not- and this is something that I think can be learned to be respected with the help of literature.