Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Of course I've always known that there were people out there like this...but I'd never actually ENCOUNTERED any of them first hand. OK, that's not true...my exhusband is a major racist and homophobe...and I really hated that about him. I mean, how embarrassing is THAT to live with??? Helloooo...EX-husband. Anyway...I digress...
Today in my EPY class we talked about the GLBTQ community and how we can support them on campus. Now, you're probably saying..."what's EPY?" It's hard to explain, really. Basically it's a college success class. We use the book "On Course" but we also learn tolerance (ha!) and about the various things that the college offers us as students. It's deeper than that but that's the most basic of definitions. Anyhoo...back to today's class. We had guest instructors today who announced that they were teaching the class. They introduced themselves as gay and lesbian. Immediately to my life is a woman who is around her mid-fifties, I want to say, and she immediately had a very cold feeling about her. Normally she's a very happy woman with always something kind to say. I didn't really think much of it because I'm not one to practice intolerance of anything but stupidity. They began the class with a short little movie about a gay couple in a bar and how others reacted to them being there. When it finished she had a massive scowl on her face and when I asked her if she was ok she said she was pissed. I thought, great! She's pissed at how this couple was treated in the bar. No go. She was pissed that we were covering this topic in class! She was more than pissed. She was livid! They passed out blank pieces of paper to us and told us to write down any questions that we might have. She passed hers on saying "I'm not doing this". Then they passed out a paper with questions on it for our own viewing that basically gives you an idea of how tolerable or accepting you are. She didn't even touch it...like it was poison or something. They we began an activity where we all introduce ourselves and say that we're either lesbian or gay after our name. It was just a role play but she up and left. I understand that she may have been uncomfortable saying that she was a lesbian or whatever...but to honestly up and leave the class or behave the way she did was so uncool. In this day and age...ESPECIALLY on college campuses you need to be tolerable of all kinds of people. This woman is obviously not. It irritated me to badly that after class I called my husband and vented to him about the small-mindedness of some people. A true "sport" would have just said "hey, this is not my thing but I'll play along because it's only 1 hour and 15 minutes of my life". It really angered me that she couldn't do that. That she behaved as though she were in HS or even younger. I had fun doing the role plays...and the rest of the class...even a few of the guys who were obviously uncomfortable...all played along and were great about it. Why couldn't this one woman have been?
I know that not everyone has the same open mindedness that I do. That more people should. But it saddens me that she couldn't put aside her petty beliefs for one class.
*Sigh*
This ties in, also, to the civil rights chapter that we studied a few weeks ago in my poli-sci class. There is nothing that makes my blood boil faster than people who get the short end of the stick...ESPECIALLY because of skin color. OOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!!!! Don't get me going...I feel my blood pressure rising even now! Seriously!
In the spirit of the 60's movement....make love not war.
Today in my EPY class we talked about the GLBTQ community and how we can support them on campus. Now, you're probably saying..."what's EPY?" It's hard to explain, really. Basically it's a college success class. We use the book "On Course" but we also learn tolerance (ha!) and about the various things that the college offers us as students. It's deeper than that but that's the most basic of definitions. Anyhoo...back to today's class. We had guest instructors today who announced that they were teaching the class. They introduced themselves as gay and lesbian. Immediately to my life is a woman who is around her mid-fifties, I want to say, and she immediately had a very cold feeling about her. Normally she's a very happy woman with always something kind to say. I didn't really think much of it because I'm not one to practice intolerance of anything but stupidity. They began the class with a short little movie about a gay couple in a bar and how others reacted to them being there. When it finished she had a massive scowl on her face and when I asked her if she was ok she said she was pissed. I thought, great! She's pissed at how this couple was treated in the bar. No go. She was pissed that we were covering this topic in class! She was more than pissed. She was livid! They passed out blank pieces of paper to us and told us to write down any questions that we might have. She passed hers on saying "I'm not doing this". Then they passed out a paper with questions on it for our own viewing that basically gives you an idea of how tolerable or accepting you are. She didn't even touch it...like it was poison or something. They we began an activity where we all introduce ourselves and say that we're either lesbian or gay after our name. It was just a role play but she up and left. I understand that she may have been uncomfortable saying that she was a lesbian or whatever...but to honestly up and leave the class or behave the way she did was so uncool. In this day and age...ESPECIALLY on college campuses you need to be tolerable of all kinds of people. This woman is obviously not. It irritated me to badly that after class I called my husband and vented to him about the small-mindedness of some people. A true "sport" would have just said "hey, this is not my thing but I'll play along because it's only 1 hour and 15 minutes of my life". It really angered me that she couldn't do that. That she behaved as though she were in HS or even younger. I had fun doing the role plays...and the rest of the class...even a few of the guys who were obviously uncomfortable...all played along and were great about it. Why couldn't this one woman have been?
I know that not everyone has the same open mindedness that I do. That more people should. But it saddens me that she couldn't put aside her petty beliefs for one class.
*Sigh*
This ties in, also, to the civil rights chapter that we studied a few weeks ago in my poli-sci class. There is nothing that makes my blood boil faster than people who get the short end of the stick...ESPECIALLY because of skin color. OOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!!!! Don't get me going...I feel my blood pressure rising even now! Seriously!
In the spirit of the 60's movement....make love not war.
Labels: Life, Rant, Relationships, Vent
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