“This is a new world so we all have new things to learn, never be embarrassed!” – Miley Cyrus
Sometimes a person is born knowing they are not the gender they were born with, like they were born as a boy but deep inside, they know they're a girl. This may be confusing to some of us, imagine how confusing this is to them? The reality is that gender is not as simple as just male and female, and love is not necessarily always between just a man and a woman.
Love really is a complicated thing, and we can’t help who manages to capture our hearts. At the end of the day, does it matter if the person you love is the same gender? As long as they treat you well and love and respect you, who can judge? In South Africa members of the gay and lesbian community are really fortunate that the law does not discriminate against them; in many countries across the world, sadly, same sex marriages are still illegal and couples are discriminated against for who they are. This is not right.
Same-sex marriage legal in America
On the 26th of June 2015 history was made when the Supreme Court in the United States of America made it illegal to ban same-sex marriage in all 50 states. This is a big step towards global equality, hopefully we will soon live in a world where everyone is loved and respected for who they are. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go, and many other members of the LGBTQ community are still discriminated against and treated like they are different.
What is LGBTQ?
LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, and Questioning or Queer. This term is used to basically describe all the different ways people express their love and sexuality. Lesbian and Gay we have often heard of, this refers to woman who love women, and men who love men. Bi-sexual people, on the other hand, don’t have a preference and can fall in love with and are attracted to both men and woman.
After that it becomes a bit more complicated. Remember when I mentioned being born to a gender you don’t identify with? There are many different ways to describe this, but overall these individuals identify as Transgender; these are women who were born as men and men who were born as women. Have you seen the news and articles on Caitlin Jenner? Caitlin is a great example of someone who was born knowing deep in her heart that she was not meant to be a man. Thankfully, we live in a day and age where there are treatments to fix this and help people be their true selves.
The last part of the acronym stands for questioning, some people honestly just don’t know, and often feel left out of all groups, or often don’t have a connection with either gender, defining them as questioning lets them feel like it's ok, we accept them and will not judge the decisions they make.
A brave new world
Isn't it wonderful though to live in a world where we are more accepting of everyone's personal choices?
Totally agree.