Culture can defined as " the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, and social group." However, there are attempts to socially mold the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender into a cultural group. It is clear that people of different sexual orientations belong to various ethnic and religious backgrounds. Trying to say that LGBT is a cultural group lacks cogency. At the heart of this is the problem of identity politics. While it is pivotal to confront discrimination, homophobia, and heterosexism having a sexual orientation "consciousness movement" causes political factionalism. Even worse, is that political correctness stifles debate about issues surrounding this topic. There are also problems with the nomenclature of this group. This movement to form something similar to ethnic group almost becomes ludicrous. There is nothing wrong with securing rights, but doing so at the expense of others is not true equality.
LGBT does not fit into the definition of culture. Even as a social group, there is no long held tradition that would classify it as such. Ethnicity and religion could fall under this definition. The reason there are attempts to do this is because it is designed to help establish legal protection. To be more specific, the establishment of civil rights protection. The reality is that civil rights protect every citizen if properly enforced. Special legal protection designed solely for the LGBT group seem unnecessary. LGBT holidays, religious customs, and mores do not exist. There is no existence of a common LGBT nation or consciousness. African Americans, Anglo-Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans can be classified under certain cultural groups. People who are of a different sexual orientation could be a part of a many cultural groups. Forming a cultural identity around sexual orientation just complicates matters. A neologism has emerged referring to the LGBT group as "sexual minority." That term is a product of identity politics. It divides people and it gives common enemies strategies to rule over various groups.
This is the flag of gay pride. It seems ridiculous, because there is no gay nation or gay diaspora. While marriage equality and anti-discrimination laws must be promoted, identity politics should not get in the way of ultimate objectives.
Social conservatives are the enemies of progress. They believe in a strictly religious society, hate science, women, various ethnic groups, and anything that is different. The gay rights movement has split many within the Democratic Party. More conservative Democrats would not be supportive, while the progressive Democrats are. This makes it more challenging to win elections and build coalitions with this disagreement. Trying to mold LGBT into a cultural group will be counterproductive.
The It Gets Better Project represents an even larger error in calling LGBT a cultural group. This campaign was launched to address homophobic bullying in schools. Gay people are not the only ones bullied in American schools. Students who are of a different race, religion, or national origin are more likely to experience bullying and harassment to a greater extent. Gay white men will never defend gay black men, because it is clear we live in a racist society. Rarely, will you see gay white men be supportive of affirmative action causes. The founder of this project Daniel Savage is himself a questionable character. He is a gay rights activist and journalist who supported the Iraq War ( later reversed his position when it was failing) and writes a column called Savage Love . This is a love and sex advice column that is crude and at times disgusting. Free expression and speech are much needed freedoms, but being outrageous for no reason is another matter. That is minor compared to his other views. Daniel Savage has a low opinion of transgender people and has been on record disparaging them. They are supposed to be part of the LGBT culture and here he is repudiating them. Transgender people face more violence and bullying than gay white males. The murders of transgender people have been increasing, yet the It Gets Better Project ignores them. The truth is gay white men still have the full benefits of white privilege. To claim that gay white men are a struggling minority group lacks cogency.
Transgender people are even more misunderstood than gay people. This is separate from sexual orientation. Transgender people can either be bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual, or asexual. Transgender people identify with the opposite sex. Tanssexuals are not the same as transgenders. Psychologically they are identifying with the opposite sex they were born as. Through a medical issue during sex determination during gestation individuals will develop possible gender dysphoria. As a result some will get sexual reassignment surgery. There are individuals who rather not go through that process. The truth is that this is a medical issue. This does not mean that they are protected from discrimination. They face violence, repudiation, and exclusion from society. The gay rights movement is clearly divided on this particular issue. Ignoring it only demonstrates the hypocrisy of their movement.
LGBT by definition cannot be a cultural group.There is nothing wrong with people who identify as LGBT. Equality is something that should be enjoyed by all groups of people. However, one must be rational. Their are plans in the UK to establish LGBT schools according to The Guardian. The reasoning is that LGBT students would feel more comfortable in an environment with others like themselves. They would be free from bullying and harassment. This plan would have an opposite effect, because it is basically segregation. The only way the situation will change is when society becomes used to different people. Trying to remake LGBT into a cultural group will not be effective. The best method to challenge discrimination is through legal action and the enforcement of law.
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