Straight is good?

This has been a quiet weekend, as I had to write a literature review. I wound up with 11 pages of literary excellence and I believe I have uncovered one of the major issues in our society regarding the oppression of the gay and lesbian community.

Whether we like it or not our society loves to give us subliminal messages, which mold our way of thinking. Fro example, black is a bad thing or evil and dark and white is good. Finding this hard to beehive? Back in the 1940's there was a doll test and it was repeated recently. African American and Caucasian children were asked to pick which doll was good and they were given a black and white doll to choose from. Most children will choose the white doll when asked to pick the good doll and the black one when asked to pick the evil or bad one. How can innocent children do this? Bad parenting could be one reason but if you choose to really dig deeper you will find a societal machine, which causes children to think this way. It is in the school system, government, and many other areas of our society.

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2008/05/doll-test-white-good-and-black-bad.html

What I came up with in my literature review was the idea of straight being the right way or the norm. Following the straight and narrow path means the way of proper and honest behavior. I do not believe the term straight should have ever become the word to be used to describe heterosexuals. It is a put down of other sexual orientations. Of course most heterosexual people do not have an issue with it because they are not being put down.

Is straight is good and pure does that make being gay or lesbian crooked?

It might seems as if I would be making something out of nothing but there is no greater example of the societal machine than the doll test. Pure innocent children know black is bad and evil and white is good. On softball teams I have played on throughout my years there has always been a lot of busting chops and poking fun at one another. One of the most common knocks is to say a man is gay. It is a put down that most everyone laughs at. The use of the word "fag" or "faggot" is prevalent and it is used to jokingly question a heterosexual man's manhood. There is an assumption with this mindset that gay men do no thane manhood but rather something else.

I wrote an 11 page literary review regarding this, as I believe the education of children is the only thing that can stop this machine from warping our minds. People should be judged on their character, not their color, sexual orientation, or even political beliefs. If children are associating to be gay or lesion is not straight they must believe it is crooked or not right. This causes gay children to have many issues when they grow, as they also believe that they are wrong and evil because they are not the norm. Our system is raising gay and lesbian children to hate oneself and it also causes many to hide their sexual orientation and some even attempt to live a straight life by marrying someone of the opposite sex.

Tying this into my personal life I am learning how I have never cared about any issues unless they directly affected my life. For example, I never cared about supporting places like the Ronald McDonald house or donating to NICU funds until I myself had to rely on them. When something touches us directly it then becomes an issue we address. For example most people without gay or lesbian people in their direct family do not really care about gay and lesbian rights. As society we need to send subliminal messages of sensitivity and let the children learn what is right and wrong by the people they meet and some of our guidance. Our guidance should not include people are wrong because of their skin color or sexual preference. It should teach children how to judge people by their character and I know my daughter will learn those values from me.

End rant and begin update.... Nadia weighed in at 1,056 grams yesterday and I held her for about two hours. We are now just looking for growth and eventually her brain to regulate her body temperature on its own. I am hopeful of bringing her home by December 20th, which is her real due date.

This will be a big week for Tash as she has had some blood work and will undergo some more testing tomorrow. It is likely that she will receive an immunosuppressant this week and we hope this will resolve her colitis.

I am a lonely man right now as my wife and daughter sit in a hospital. I am handling my schoolwork as best I can but cannot remove either of them from my mind.

As a budding social worker there are various areas I can enter in the field of social work and I want to do them all. Eventually I will have to make a decision.

That is it for now, as I need to proof my literary review, do some reading and write a small paper regarding Blumer's five stages on how a problem becomes a social welfare issue.