“The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

My name is Maria Lorenzo. Above is a portrait of me… what do you see? Well, I have long hair, I am wearing makeup, and my outfit is seemingly feminine. Oh! I must be a girl. I look pretty girly, so why wouldn’t you assume I am straight? Well, that’s right. I have chosen my gender that “correlates” with my biological sex, and I am heterosexual. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not. However, why would people make any assumption about my personal life? Why does society allow for people to assume anything about anyone? Maybe you don’t assume anything, but when television and other media outlets lack representation of any minority, assumptions arise. I am guilty of it myself, and as I researched the media representation of homosexuals, I saw the media flooded with assumptions based on “the single story”.

Who am I to assume what it feels like to be misrepresented when I am a white, straight female? When it comes to education, research will never fully do you justice in the world of humanities. Speak to people, ask about their experiences, try to see the world through their eyes the best you can. I will never understand what it is like, for example, to be in the wrong body or to be attracted to the same sex or to be a way that society doesn’t “expect” me to be, so it is important that I allow individual voices to be heard after my research. What I can do is I can listen, I can sympathize, and I can advocate for a change like everyone else should.

[Check out the BuzzFeed video that inspired me to explore this topic!]

 I think that the terms sex and virginity are very much subjective, but health should never be. Doctors are not supposed to discriminate; however they absolutely do. So, if someone engages in queer sex that does not involve phallic penetration, he, she, or they must seek out a DIFFERENT doctor. A whole DIFFERENT doctor just because they are not having straight sex. Often times, it is hard to find doctors who are receptive to realizing that queer sex is sex. Or, LGBTQ-friendly facilities will not be covered by insurance plans the same way that general practitioners are. And seriously, why on EARTH should we have to disclose our identities just to receive treatment? Many people are not out, and will not come out to their doctors, so their health will suffer. – Elisa Buttafuoco, Vice President Elect of GLASS @ CUNY Baruch College

Though any public exposure for the LGBTQIA community is great, when “white” males become the face of the community, it can undermine a lot of many real issues Queer people of color (QPOC) face, and the “gay” experience is often attributed to the “white-cisgender” experience. In other words, when someone thinks about being gay, they think about it through the perspective of a white male–and even though there are probably many issues that overlap, the QPOC community often times have a whole set of other issues that are drowned out by this sort of “tokenization”. Many people take the “white” gay experience to be the standard for all gay experience, which is not the case. QPOC live something other than what’s seen in the media. This is an issue. –Naimul Khan, President Elect of GLASS @ CUNY Baruch College

[Check out the  GLASS video regarding the lack of gender neutral bathrooms at Baruch that Naimul was involved in making!]

Photo credit: Angela Jimenez

I also want to draw your attention to this incredible queer kids’ show called Sez Me, wherein children interview and are interviewed by drag queens.  Regarding whether or not kids should be thinking about sexuality at this age I think 1) some kids don’t have the luxury of not thinking about it.  If they are not gender normative, if they don’t fit the predetermined binary, they have to think about how they fit into their world, their community.  Pretending that sexuality and gender identity don’t exist until we’re adults does not serve queer kids or kids who are raised in queer families.  2) I simultaneously think that we should be wary of making kids choose boxes at that age.  Childhood should be a flexible time of experimentation, trial and error.  When kids who don’t fit the predetermined box/binary are asked to simply choose a different box and to “come out” as that box – it’s still a box.  What a more open public conversation, diversity of representations, and truly queer cultural production like Sez Me can do for children is to let them know that they don’t have to choose any particular box – certainly not now, maybe not ever.  We should respect the boxes and labels that humans choose for themselves, absolutely.  But I firmly believe that we should all reserve the right to change those boxes and labels when we want/need to, and to resist boxing ourselves in at all if that choice feels good. –Janet Werther, Theatre Professor @ CUNY Baruch College

[Along with Sez Me, make sure to check out The Wuzzles, too!]

Now thinking about children’s television, having queer characters would broaden their minds to different types of people and show them that having other sexualities besides heterosexual is normal (would’ve been helpful when I was little). –
Addie Gettenberg, Elisa’s girlfriend and incoming freshman @ CUNY Hunter College

I’ll tell you something funny about assumptions.. when my extended family met my girlfriend, they were more shocked that she was dating me then I was. When I asked my cousin why they were so shocked they said “we assumed she was from the softball team and had hair like yours.” Needless to say they were shocked my girlfriend wasn’t a flannel wearing, short haired manly girl, because that’s what they assumed every lesbian was like. –Mikaela Mersten, long-time friend

[See the show Faking It that Mikaela mentions on her page!]