Talking Points # 3

Dennis Carlson

1. " Gay people have for the most part been made absent, invisible, and silent within this community and at the same time represented as the deviant and pathological "Others."

- I can't stand when people become judged of what they prefer. I have a cousin who is a lesbian and she's awesome. She dresses masculine and people do confuse her for being a guy a lot. It can bother me because why it does matter to other people if shes really a girl or boy. It is none of their concern at all! I've seen it myself, people who had finally come out and say they were gay, how silent they were and distant they were not only with others but with themselves. It took my cousin forever to tell us and we were her own family. I remembering her saying she thought we would hate her. I can't believe that, that she would think that. But that is sometimes the case, some people get rejected by their own family members and makes it even harder to be open with who they are.

2. " Throughout much of this century, the dominant idea of community in America was represented by what I will call the normalizing community."

- I quote caught my attention because of the words "normalizing community." What is a normal community? Who can be the judge of what is normal or not normal. I don't understand why it isn't just normal to be who you want to be. Why try being someone you're not. I hate to have to admit that some people see being gay isn't normal. I know gay people have come a long way from before but i still think it needs to get better. People just need to be more accepting of change.

3. "However, as those marginalized within this normalizing discourse on community have begun to "speak out" and challenge their marginalization, and have also begun to develop collective movements and communities of support, the modernist idea of homogeneous, normalizing community is being more seriously disrupted than ever before."

- I am not really sure what it is saying int his quote. Is it that gays are all these communities and groups to support them that they are becoming noticed as being normal and that the "normal" thinking for people has been disrupted by this? That's how i look at this quote when i read it. I not too sure. But if that is the case i don't understand why it is disrupting people. Why can't people just be happy the way they want to be happy?

I enjoyed reading Carlson, it was an easy read and I could my experiences into what he wrote about. I just don't get why people have to be so cruel. I understand everyone has their own opinions and judgments on whatever but to be closed minded about everything it just doesn't make sense. Like why does it have to bother people if people are gay, straight, black, white i don't think it should really matter!