“How We Got Gay”
“How We Got Gay”
“Male, female and other”. Our sociology teacher was so happy to hear these words spoken a few classes ago, and expressed her amazement and gratitude that it is starting to become part of the language of our generation. She said “even three years ago, you would never hear such inclusive language coming from such young people”. I felt a little proud in that moment, to be part of such an open and socially conscious generation. With all the studying of “kairos” and “exigence” in our ASTU class, I was curious about how this language, as well as the gay rights movement, has evolved.
Knowing very little about the history of gay rights, I decided to watch a documentary from the CBC called “How We Got Gay” about the gay rights movement in Canada. It began with a shocking reminder that 60 years ago homosexual relations were still illegal in Canada. The documentary showed how it took a few brave individuals, then the masses of people at the Stonewall Riots to get the movement started. However, according to the documentary it was not until the tragic events of the AIDS epidemic that the powerful and angry voice of the gay rights movement emerged. This tragedy is what brought widespread attention to the importance of gay right, and paved the way for future social change, such as the legalisation of gay marriage in 2003.
Although the gay rights movement may not be a traditional genre, it has still drastically changed how conscience we are in all our actions and communications. Learning about something that has evolved from such a dark past, was quite unsettling, but also gave me a greater appreciate for genre analysis, and what we can learn about society through the process of it.
Work Cited:
How We Got Gay. CBC, 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episodes/how-we-got-gay>.