North Georgia Gay Straight Alliance

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North Georgia Gay Straight Alliance
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Mission
To create a healthy, inclusive environment for
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning
and intersex students and all NGCSU students and
to prevent suicide by initiating dialogue,
providing education, and establishing support
systems
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Activities and Programs
Providing a safe space for discussion of issues
related to sexual orientation Educating the
campus community about who GLBTQI people really
are Advancing academic achievement by making the
campus a safe and tolerant place to learn and
grow Having fun!
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A Little About Us
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Statistics
33 of all teenage suicide are gay/lesbian youth
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Statistics
50 of gay/lesbian youth are rejected when they
disclose their orientation to their parents
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Statistics
80 of youth harassed as gay actually identify as
heterosexual and are 5 times more likely to
complete suicide
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Statistics
97 of all students hear anti-gay epithets in
school
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School Violence
90 of recent school shootings involved young
boys who were taunted, picked-on and threatened
with anti-gay epithets
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Dialogue
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Personal Story
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(No Transcript)
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Questionnaire

• What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
• When and how did you first decide that you were
  heterosexual?
• Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems
  from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?
• Do your parents know you are heterosexual? Do
  your friends or roommates know?
• Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just
  a phase you might grow out of?
• If youve never slept with a person of the same
  sex, is it possible that all you need is a good
  gay/lesbian lover?
• To whom have you disclosed your heterosexual
  tendencies?
• Why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce
  others into your lifestyle?
• Why do you insist on flaunting your
  heterosexuality? Cant you just be what you are
  and keep it quiet?

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Questionnaire

• Would you want your children to be heterosexual,
  knowing the problems they would face?
• A disproportionate majority of child molesters
  are heterosexuals. Do you consider it safe to
  expose your children to heterosexual teachers?
• Just what do men and women do in bed together?
• Even with all the social support marriage
  receives, the divorce rate is spiraling. Why are
  there so few stable relationships among
  heterosexuals?
• Why do heterosexuals place so much emphasis on
  sex?
• Considering the menace of overpopulation, how
  could the human race survive if everyone were
  heterosexual like you?
• Could you trust a heterosexual therapist to be
  objective? Dont you fear that the therapist
  might be inclined to influence you in the
  direction of her/his own leanings?
• How can you become a whole person if you limit
  yourself to compulsive, exclusive heterosexuality
  and fail to develop your natural, healthy
  homosexual potential?
• There seem to be very few happy heterosexuals.
  Techniques have been developed that might enable
  you to change if you really want to. Have you
  considered trying aversion therapy?

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Gay and Lesbian Myths

• Gay men are effeminate because they want to be
  like women.
• Lesbians prefer the company of women because they
  are afraid of men.
• Gay and lesbian people have a choice about their
  sexual orientation.
• You can usually spot a gay, lesbian, bisexual or
  transgender person.

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Gay and Lesbian Myths

• If young people are exposed to openly homosexual
  people they may be influenced to be homosexual as
  well.
• We do not know the exact cause of homosexuality.
• Homosexuality is unnatural.
• In homosexual relationships, one person plays the
  male or aggressive role and one the female or
  passive role.

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Gay and Lesbian Myths

• The majority of child molesters have a homosexual
  orientation.
• Homosexuality is a result of arrested or hampered
  mental health development.
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can
  have happy, healthy long-term relationships.

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Gay and Lesbian Myths

• Poor parenting, divorce, or sexual abuse as a
  child contributes to an individual becoming
  homosexual.
• Individuals have a choice about their sexual
  behavior.
• The transgender experience pertains to gender
  identity rather than sexual orientation.

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Glossary of Terms Related to Orientation

• Sexual orientation The emotional, affectional,
  or sexual attraction of one individual to
  individuals of a particular gender.
• Homosexual Individuals with an emotional,
  affectional, or sexual attraction to people of
  the same gender.
• Lesbian A woman with an emotional, affectional,
  or sexual attraction to other women.

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Glossary of Terms Related to Orientation

• Gay Used to describe a person with an emotional,
  affectional, or sexual attraction to people of
  the same gender.
• Bisexual Individuals with an emotional,
  affectional, or sexual attraction to either the
  same or the opposite gender.
• Heterosexual Individuals with an emotional,
  affectional, or sexual attraction to the opposite
  gender.

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Glossary of Terms Related to Gender

• Gender Usually refers to male or female as
  determined by apparent biological sex.
• Gender identity An awareness of being male or
  female, usually developed by the time a child is
  two years old.
• Gender role A socially determined, learned set
  of behaviors prescribed to differentiate the
  roles of males and females. These can and do
  change rapidly with cultural developments. The
  first to break the rules of an era are often
  evaluated scornfully, such as hippies.

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Glossary of Terms Related to Gender

• Transgender Covers a broad range of diversity
  and gender flexibility. Generally speaking,
  transgender refers to having the biological
  manifestation of one gender yet in some way
  identifying psychologically with another gender.
• Gender benders Individuals who, for personal,
  societal or political reasons, choose to ignore
  the gender roles of their era. Examples would be
  women who chose to bob their hair and/or wear
  trousers or men who allowed their hair to grow
  long as social protest.

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Glossary of Terms Related to Gender

• Cross-dresser Men, or women, usually
  heterosexual and often married, who enjoy or
  prefer clothing generally assigned to the
  opposite sex.
• Drag Refers to the adoption of clothing and
  roles of the opposite sex by individuals for
  play, entertainment or eroticism.
• Transsexual Individuals who are biologically one
  gender, identifying as another, alter their
  bodies surgically to reflect the gender they most
  identify with.

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Glossary of Terms Related to Gender

• Intersex (Hermaphrodite) Individuals who are
  born with an ambiguous combination of male and
  female genitals. This ambiguity often leads to a
  surgical determination of gender by a doctor.

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What is it?

• 90 majority orientation, 10 minority
  orientation
• Very small that are either way
• History 5 Millenniums
• Cannot identify by looks
• Trait identified only by behavior
• Trait is not behavior It is a neurological
  orientation expressed behaviorally. Orientation
  cannot be pressured to behave differently does
  not change internally.

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What is it?

• It is not a disease or illness and it is not
  pathological (or contagious)
• Orientation is not chosen
• Signs of orientation are detectable in children
  at early age by age two or three orientation
  defines at latest by age 2 and possible before
  birth
• Not environmentally rooted
• Present cultures across all demographic lines

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THE TOMB of NIANKHKHNUM and KHNUMHOTEP in the
necropolis of Saqqara, has intrigued some
Egyptologistsbecause of its problematic
treatment of its two male occupants,manicurists
to king Niuserre of the 5th dynasty.
http//www.egyptology.com/niankhkhnum_khnumhotep/
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Lesbian
The word lesbian comes from the Greek Isle,
Lesbos where the poet, Sappho lived in 600 B. C.
Sappho wrote numerous poems about her female
love, most of which were destroyed by religious
fanatics during the Middle Ages. While the first
use of the term lesbian is unknown, it was used
in several academic books as early as 1880. The
word became more popular in the 20th century,
especially during the feminist era.The term
lesbian separatist was commonly used to
describe women who wished to avoid the company of
men altogether. separatist' was commonly used to
distinguish feminists who wished to avoid the
company of men altogether.
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Fag, faggot
'Fag' and 'faggot' are terms used to insult gay
men. These terms stem from the ritual burning to
death of homosexuals during the Middle Ages.
Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine established a
Catholic doctrine that portrayed all
non-procreative sexual acts as heretical and
evil. Catholic armies, often on their way to one
holy war or another, would march through European
towns seeking out various types of heretics, most
of whom were tortured until they agreed to
convert. Gay men, however, were believed to be
too unrepentant to change. The Catholic response
was to ask the young boys from each village to
gather bundles of sticks (faggots), and then lay
them at the feet of the chained homosexuals.
After lighting the pyre and forcing the boys to
watch the screaming victims, a priest would
lecture to the boys about homosexuality. To
understand the cruel nature of this slang word,
you might imagine using the word 'noose' to
describe black men, in reference to the runaway
slave lynchings that once occurred in the
Southern US.
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Dyke
Contrary to popular belief, the origin of the
insult 'dyke', in reference to lesbians, has
nothing to do with waterways or canals. The word
first appeared in 1710 in British newspaper
stories about presumed homosexuals Anne Bonny and
Mary Reed. The two women captained a very
successful pirate venture and completed several
lucrative raids of the British Empire before
agreeing to be interviewed. Reporters often noted
their predilection for wearing men's clothing,
and one editorial avoided the unpleasant
connotations of cross dressing by using a French
word which refers to men's clothing, dike. Over
the years, this term was corrupted to the modern
form 'dyke'. Since then, general misunderstanding
about the term's origins have inspired many
stand-up comedy routines and bad puns.
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Gay
During the 1800s and early 1900s, 'gay' was
simply a state of jubilant happiness. However,
during the late 1800s gay was sometimes used to
describe prostitutes in much the same way that
the phrase 'happy hookers' is used today. One
theory is that gay came into use to describe
homosexual men because of the rise in numbers of
male prostitutes during the 1900s. Another theory
is that 'gay' was used within the early gay
community of the 1960s, largely because of the
numerous festive gay parties common in the United
States in cities such as San Francisco and New
York. In any case, the earlier usage of 'gay' as
happy or jubilant has fallen out of favor in
conjunction with the new usage's prominence.
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Homosexual, Bisexual, Heterosexual, Homo, Bi,
Homophobia
While homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual were
coined during the latter half of the 19th
Century, it was Sigmund Freud who popularized
their usage. Freud, now considered the father of
modern psychology, believed humans to be
naturally bisexual. He theorized that a toddler's
interactions with his parents determine which
half of his inherent sexuality he will later
choose to act upon. 'Homo' means same, 'hetero'
means other, and 'bi' means both while 'sexual'
originally referred to gender rather than
copulation. Homo is now used as an insult for gay
men, while bi is a more positive short version of
bisexual. Homophobia is a more recent term for
the irrational fear of homosexuality, and people
accused of prejudice against gays are sometimes
called homophobic. It is notable that most
English translations of the Bible use the word
homosexual as a mistranslation of yadha
(pedophile) and qadesh (male temple prostitute).
Of course, the word homosexual was not available
when the Bible was written and there was no true
Greek equivalent.
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Transsexual, Transgender, Transvestite
These three words are often used interchangeably,
when in fact they do have different meanings. A
transvestite is someone who wears the clothing of
the opposite gender, sometimes but not always for
sexual gratification. A transsexual is someone
who feels they should have been born as the
opposite gender. A transgender person is someone
who falls physically between the two genders,
either from birth or through hormones and/or
surgery. 'Trans' means literally across, and any
trans person is said to cross the boundaries of
absolute gender identification in one way or
another.
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The 10 or One in Ten
As with most common myths, the common belief that
gay people compose 10 of society has some basis
in fact. Before about 1950, most psychologists
believed homosexuals made up less than 1 of the
population. Alfred Kinsey, a biology professor
who was the first to study widespread trends in
human sexuality, released a study on male
sexuality in 1948, which concluded that 13 of
men are exclusively gay. A subsequent study on
female sexuality released in 1953 concluded that
7 of women are exclusive lesbians. The media
seized upon Kinsey's findings, averaging the two
results and running numerous stories and
editorials that shattered popular conceptions of
sexuality. Studies undertaken after Kinsey's
revelations failed to achieve the same results
statistics run as high as 27 gay and as low as
3. The methodology and assumptions of each study
appear to have remarkable sway over the eventual
findings. As a result, it is impossible for
scientists to say with certainty how many humans
are gay, percentage wise or otherwise.
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The Greek symbol lambda was emblazoned on the
shields of Trojan warriors in ancient Greece.
While the city state is famous for its legendary
battle prowess, it is also notable for its
practice of pairing experienced soldiers with
young new recruits for both training and sex. The
lambda was co-opted by gay activists during the
1950s and 1960s. While its usage is down
somewhat, it is still sometimes favored by
collegiate gay men today for its wry commentary
on Greek fraternity traditions.
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The pink triangle was originally used in Nazi
Germany, starting in 1935, to designate
homosexual men. Such men were typically put into
labor camps, where almost all were beaten to
death by prison guards or slowly starved. The
symbol was co-opted by gay activists, who wished
to engender a sense of parity with other
minorities, including the religious and ethnic
minorities targeted during the Holocaust.
Interestingly, the Nazis lumped lesbians together
with feminists under the category of 'socially
unnatural women' and designated them with a black
triangle.
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The rainbow flag was designed in 1978 in San
Francisco. It became popular after the murder of
San Francisco city councilman Harvey Milk, who
was the first elected gay politician in the
United States. As the murder trial of Dan White
progressed, followed by his five year sentence
under the now infamous 'I ate a Twinkie' defense,
the flag came under great demand, as community
support for justice soared. Visitors to San
Francisco noted the use of the colorful flags,
and the symbol slowly spread. While the common
belief is that each color on the flag represents
different sexual minorities (gay, bisexual,
transgender, and so on), the original intent was
for each color to represent an idealized trait of
the burgeoning gay community (harmony, spirit,
sexuality, etc).
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What causes gay?
A variety of theories about the influences on
sexual orientation have been proposed. Sexual
orientation probably is not determined by any one
factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal,
and environmental influences. In recent decades,
biologically based theories have been favored by
experts. Although there continues to be
controversy and uncertainty as to the genesis of
the variety of human sexual orientations, there
is no scientific evidence that abnormal
parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life
events influence sexual orientation. Current
knowledge suggests that sexual orientation is
usually established during early
childhood. Sexual orientation and
adolescentsJune, 2004, Journal of Pediatrics
113(6), pp. 1827-1832 by Barbara Frankowski, MD
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Is homosexuality a mental illness or emotional
problem? No. What about so-called "Conversion
Therapies"? Many of the claims that conversion
therapy has changed orientation come from
organizations with an ideological perspective
which condemns homosexuality. These claims are
poorly documented. For example, treatment outcome
is not followed and reported overtime as would be
the standard to test the validity of any mental
health intervention. http//www.apa.org/pubinfo/a
nswers.htmlwhatcauses
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Can therapy change sexual orientation? No. Is
sexual orientation a choice? No. Can lesbians,
gay men, and bisexuals be good parents?
Yes. http//www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.htmlwhat
causes