Gentil 1

Kelsey Gentil
Jennifer Rodrick
QS 115
7 December 2016
Space Creates Conformity
Throughout the years, and now with social media more and more people have lived up to
their true identity and have come out as a part of the LGBTQ community because they are tired
of trying to conform to something their not. Although there is still some individuals who have
not yet lived up to this, and have to face society along with work, family, friends, the community,
they have to conform to perform certain actions that doesnt allow them to be themselves.
Society should not influence the LGBTQ communtity to conform to standard identity, they
should identify as whoever they want. Like one of my bestest friend he has had to conform, to
act normal/straight in order to be a part of his family, a famous youtuber had also try to
conform to be normal according to him, when he was younger he didnt want to feel gay. And
not only that but societys space has made a lot of queer individuals not be there true selves
without that shame included.
Sometimes people when they finally realized and think to themselves that it is time to
finally come out it can take a different reaction as we expected. The Full Spectrum Ed.
Levithan/Merrell, a girls father founds out she is lesbian through a phone conversation. He is in
shock, and right away is unaccepting that his daughter is lesbian. Since they were a religious
family her father thinks she needs to go see a priest, that makes her really mad, because she think
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that now something is wrong with her when reality nothing is. A priest. I told my dad it wasnt
going to do anything, but Ill go to his church and Ill talk to his priest. Its not going to change
me(Canale 43). Her father though that by her visiting the priest and by also pushing religion
onto her it will change who she is. Bottom line, it traumatized her because she felt no support,
acceptance from her dad. In the book Composing Gender Ed. Groner/OHara another individual
tells her story coming out as transgender while she was in the bathroom, and incident that
happened. When I first transitioned, I became temporarily disabled since the administration
interim solution was that I use the single access handicapped restroom on a different floor of my
building (Doan 60-61). Her expressing the word disabled alone means a lot towards the way
she felt. Disabled means a person having a physical or mental condition that limits movements,
senses, or activities. If she felt in any way weird or unable to use the restroom, she shouldnt
have, because we should feel comfortable when going to the restroom in a ny public space.
Sometimes little thing like this can make an individual feel enclosed on who they really are,
which they should never feel like that.
Sometimes when coming out to be part of the LGBTQ community we dont know what
reaction to expect. Will it be good or bad? But I believe it shouldn't matter, we are who we are no
matter what anyone says. Whether accepted or not, it should never make you feel like a different
person unless you are accepted, you should feel different but as a good different. In a video we
watched in class by Morgana Bailey, (TED Talk 2014) She expresses the way she had hid herself
for over many years because she didnt want to be defined as a gay friend, a gay coworker, she

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didnt know what reactions she was going to get. Till later on she finally decided it was time, the
hiding got to her and she couldnt handle it anymore. She felt guilty for not having came out to

her friend/coworker for a bill for vote that in favor for that law that allows businesses not to
serve the LGBTQ community. I was never honest with them. That shakes me to the core.
(6:45-6:55min) This made her realize that she never tried to make a difference since she never
came out to her friend, so would never know if her dad and friend could have thought differently
of her and could have helped her dad not vote for the bill.
Growing up we have always believed you are either a girl who has to wear pink and a
boy who has to wear blue, but there has always been a more change to it throughout the years.
We sometimes feel the need to fit a particular category but the LGBTQ community has been the
ones out of the category that struggle to fit in. As stated in Trans-ventures of an F2M by
Alexander Colin Rasmussen, her grandmother continuously told her she had to be a specific type
of person or comply by actions but it was never enough for her grandmother. For me, the desire
to be perfect soon became a need. It became the reason that I lived, the reason I breathed. How,
though, could I be perfect if I had the wrong body? (Rasmussen 72 and 73) Having that thought
in her head all the time that according to her grandmother she had to fit in a certain place in order
to feel normal can affect the way she feels, she might think shes different, not perfect when we
all are our own selves and get to be them no matter who says.

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WORKS CITED
Groner, Rachael, and John F. O'Hara. Composing Gender

Levithan, David, and Billy Merrell. The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing about Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities
TED. The Danger Of Hiding Who You Are; Morgana Bailey. Online Video Clip. Youtube, 23
Jan.2015. Web. 19 Oct.
Colin, Alexander. Trans-ventures of an F2M New York: Knofp, 2006