Intervention : IM STILL GAY

" I'M STILL GAY "

Shawn Bellamy

    My inspiration behind "I'M STILL GAY",  stems from a recent realization that I made a few weeks

 ago regarding acceptance for gays. That acceptance unfortunately, lies in the hands of masculinity and femininity. Commonly in society, and specifically within the gay/queer community, feminine-presenting gay men are disadvantaged in the means of social networking, and even in the workplace. The basis of the acceptance comes with the question for people of "what is allowable". Of course what is allowed is at they eye of the beholder, and for some, men wearing 7-inch crop tops , or hosting a high-pitched feminine like voice, is simply enough to avoid interaction. Of course this can be simply viewed as those people being homophobic, but I specifically wanted to target the people who don't actually discriminate or are homophobic against the gays, but rather to those who do discriminate and are homophobic against the feminine gays.

    

       This is a realization that I've made for a long time. The first time I kinda saw this feminine-based discrimination was when I turned eighteen and downloaded Grindr, like most gays when they turn legal. Upon further inspection of the app and everyones bio's, I found a trend of people's bios saying things along the lines of "NO FEMS" or "NO GIRLY MEN", as if it were a crime or sort of disease. It raised the question for me of what did my clothing, or vocal cords had to do with acceptance from others. I mean we're all gay but because I'm a little more "girly" than the next swipe shouldn't be the driving force to interact with me , especially in consideration of us being within the same community. Masculinity or femininity shouldn't be the ground basis of acceptance!

Even in the workplace, this rising problem is present . According to a psychology study conducted by Sydney Edu. , suggests that, " both gay men and heterosexual men prefer masculine over feminine gay men for a high-status role, suggesting feminine gay men may face implicit discrimination in the workplace." Am I surprised? ; no! Gays are already underrepresented within corporate America along with women. So why would they even consider support?

https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2023/01/31/gay-men-discriminate-against-feminine-gay-men--new-study-finds.html