The Social Constructs of Society (Opinion Piece)

The acceptance of being gay or bisexual is nowadays still a very controversial topic. Most heterosexual people or ‘normal’ people, as they would classify themselves, do not fully understand the concept of being gay. Being gay is often thought as being a sexual deviance or a psychiatric illness. That was the case, until recently, but now as people delve into the idea of being homosexual and start to understand what it means to be homosexual or have an attraction to the opposite sex people start to accept it more easily. But most people do not take the time to research and understand the concept of being gay and first foremost judge the idea of being gay on the social constructs that society has built up around the issue.

I say that that people should think before they speak or judge. Being gay is not something people can choose, it is just a desire or drive one has and can’t help. Personally I think that society, the stigma attached to being gay and the stereotypes which society naturally assumes come with being gay are actually detrimental to a non-straight person. This leads to the suppression of the gayness which more often than not has psychological side effects which include aggression and depression.

For most gay people trying to be straight puts a great weight on their shoulders, they live with the constant pressure of trying to conform to what is accepted to be ‘normal’. This constant conscious effort of trying to conform and the tiring weight on your shoulders can cause one to become passive aggressive and suffer from intense depression which could ultimately lead to one’s death by means of suicide, because a person of same sex orientation can never be truly happy unless they can respect themselves and are comfortable with their sexuality. I feel that the social constructs of what it means to be gay and the stereotypes need to be drastically altered so that people can lead a normal life. The only way of doing so is for people to begin to understand what it means to be gay and how a gay person actually feels, and what their unequal treatment and judgement actually is doing to a gay person.

This is obviously easier said than done, conservative families and the old social constructs which have been built up since the beginning of time, make it very difficult for society to readily accept being homosexual as being normal. However, society is slowly but surely evolving and changing, as it does with most controversial topics, to now start understanding and consequently accepting what it means to be gay. I feel that people should hold their judgement and just think first, think about the person and their feelings because if someone is constantly told they are not normal they will start to think they are not normal and something is wrong with them and ultimately start despising themselves.

Seeing a gay person as an equal is what ultimately needs to be done, because acceptance and equality are two completely different things. Most people may accept someone being gay but will rarely ever treat them as an equal. This is what I think the problem with society is. They need to look to the future and start seeing gays as the same, because as time goes on the lines between heterosexuality and homosexuality are becoming more and more blurred. And with this blurring one can only hope for the equal treatment, acceptance and understanding of what it means to be gay. The narrow-mindedness of society really angers me and I just cannot see why they cannot take time, in this day and age, to be more open-minded and start accepting gays and treating them equally.