A Brief History of LGBTQ+ Discrimination

Author’s Note: This is yet another assignment from my Sociology class. Last week, we dealt with race and sexual orientation discrimination.

I am queer. I am bisexual . I came out on September 23, 2013. I was 25 years old, and terrified. I began noticing my attraction to both girls and boys at 8 years old. I equally had crushes on my friend Jessica and my classmate David in third grade. While I heavily personally identified with Ariel, Princess Jasmine from Aladdin FASCINATED little me. As I grew up, I had crushes on other girls, but hid it, always. Growing up, I had no concept of anything being “in between” gay and straight. I didn’t even hear the words “bisexual” or “queer” until 19. Even then, I wouldn’t be ready to come out for several years. I grew up in a Pentecostal Christian household, where being anything but straight was preached about from the pulpit every Sunday as if it was an express ticket to Hell. This was incredibly confusing to me. The LGBTQ kids I knew as a teenager loved God and were confused as to why their faith communities had such overt disdain and outright hatred for them.

Unsurprisingly, that disdain and hatred is anything but new. Historically, being LGBTQ+ has been seen as “abnormal, unnatural, sinful”, and a host of other labels meant to shame, other, and ostracize people. Lesbians and gay men were rounded up and shipped…