Opened Eyes

I know this is a little late, but I wanted to bring up the tunnel of consciousness and my reaction to it. This has been on my mind ever since leaving the tunnel and found it appropriate to bring up again in this blog. One of the major themes that stood out to me while walking through the tunnel was how much discrimination gays, lesbians, homosexuals, and trans genders face. I know this sounds silly, but previously to the tunnel I was oblivious to this.

               I was oblivious primarily because I myself do not, at least to my knowledge, discriminate against them. I do not understand them simply because I am not in their shoes and do not go through the situations that they do. The fact that I myself do not understand is a big enough reason to not judge them. How can I judge someone who I hardly even know, just based on their sexual preference? I think that’s what our society is missing. We label others as different simply because we do not understand them. Maybe, we should try harder to gain this understanding.

               Although I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, I also believe that I am not supposed to judge others, and that EVERYONE deserves happiness.

The wall with all of the suicides hung up of people who were discriminated against due to this issue really shook me. I am sensitive to suicide in general, but seeing all of these suicides that resulted from endless bullying and discrimination made me want to throw up. Society can easily prevent these from happening by loving each other despite our differences.
Being raised Lutheran, I was taught that you follow what the bible said, or you would go to hell. Although I am now non-denominational, I still have family members who believe this is true- that certain sins and bad decisions will keep you from getting into heaven. With that being said, one of my aunts recently came out as a lesbian. She was married to a man for several years and has a son who is in his 20’s now. She realized something was missing from her life and got a divorce which led to her meeting an old friend from high school to catch up on life. She explained to us (my family) that it just felt right when she was with her and that she loved her. I didn’t really understand it, but I tried to be as open and loving as possible about the situation. The rest of my family members failed to do the same.
The ridicule my aunt received from some of my family members was ridiculous. FAMILY means loving each other despite our flaws (if you even want to call this a flaw). My aunt is one of the sweetest people on this earth, and I have never seen her this happy.

               After the tunnel, I immediately thought of my aunt and was drowned in sadness because I’m sure she faces the same type of discrimination from people she doesn’t even know.  

Before the tunnel I was oblivious to all of this simply because I myself don’t pay attention to this topic as much as I really should. I was unaware of the severity of this type of discrimination simply because I didn’t participate in it.
 There are many issues in our society today where I have the “I should stay out of it and not judge them” attitude, but that inhibits me from being fully aware of all of the injustices occurring. Isn’t that what this class is all about?  Not just accepting others who are different, but recognizing the social injustices occurring and doing something productive about it?!