Modern Containment/Resistance to Containment of Homosexuality

This week I am writing a blog about gay rights and how that is a prime current example of containment culture. I think what is happening right now is that the gay culture is being contained. I also believe that there are steps being taken to get it out of containment.

One example of gay culture still being contained today is found on the blog “Gay Rights Watch.” The specific post, “Court: ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Will Stay in Place,” aims to shame the Obama administration for keeping Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in place. The post is dated from July 11^th, 2011, so it is pretty recent. Disobeyers of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy can be penalized or discharged, based on the ruling of the court. Director of an Servicemembers united, organization specifically made for gay and lesbian troops and veterans, makes this comment about the policy: “The situation with finally ending this outdated and discriminatory federal policy has become absolutely ridiculous.”

Here it is easy to see that gay culture is being contained. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is that people who “demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts” should be barred from military service. It would be more understandable if it were only engaging in homosexual behavior that prohibited entry into the military, but here we see that even people with the natural inclination towards homosexuality are barred from service. I think that this is extreme containment. Openly homosexual individuals are not allowed to serve in the military! I think that people should be able to be honest about his or her sexual orientation. I am convinced that there is no policy barring people from talking about their heterosexual lives in the military. Why should it be any different for homosexuals? I think that they should have the same rights.

That is the negative containment of the homosexual culture. There is, however, a positive side to all of this. I believe that there is something to be said for homosexuality resisting containment as well. From the same blog, there is a post titled “CA: Senate Passes Bill Strengthening Parental Rights for Non-Biological Parents.” The point of this post is that the bill would protect both same-sex and opposite-sex couples with children. I think the coolest thing about this post is that we see same-sex and opposite-sex relationships being equated. Here they are actually equal to each other. This is resisting the containment felt by all homosexuals not too long ago. Finally our society is breaking down those barriers and we are becoming more accepting.

I think as a whole, we as a society have become more accepting of everything that has to do with LGBT. Sure, there have been a lot of instances where people will lash out at LGBT, but I think overall, the number of people who now accept this lifestyle is growing every day. I think that gay-straight alliances are really cool to see. It shows that heterosexuals can look at homosexuals as equals. They can both look at each other and leave each other alone. I think that’s a big step from where we as a society were just a little bit into the past.