Brenda Anaya

Facing History Reflection

December 8, 2013
Homophobia Presentation

Once again, Facing History has presented us with valuable topic that will continue to be
remembered throughout the school year. In this presentation, they explained to us the meaning of
homophobia and how people can unintentionally hurt gay people by using certain words. Before
that we did a chalk talk that had us answer questions about how we felt if someone called what
we liked gay or what we thought of when I hear the word gay and more. Later on in the
presentation, they showed us a video about how it would be like if the normal sexuality was
being homosexual rather than heterosexual. The video had such a powerful impact since it
represented how people who were homosexual felt when others bullied them and claimed that
they werent normal. Afterwards, we were broken off into groups that wrote or drew
something to represent what they thought or how they felt after the presentation. Also, everyone
wrote or drew something inspiring onto a flag to hang for people to see Blackstones views on
sexuality.
Throughout this activity, it was very difficult to keep watching the video. There were so
many emotions demonstrated in the video and one could clearly feel the pain that the main
character was feeling. Through the eyes of the main character, we saw the struggles gay people
might have faced such as exclusion and constant bullying. Towards the end when Di made her
speech, I honestly began to cry. All the pain that was heard in her voice and in the voice of the
main character was felt. My mom taught me to treat everyone how I would want to be treated. So,
when I saw all the disrespectful things happening and how they make people felt I was
speechless. This Facing History activity was definitely a very powerful one and I hope people
will remember the things they learned and saw like I will.