Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation is one topic that has always been hard for me to speak on.  Through my religious background I was always taught that homosexuality is against God.  That does not make me dislike or hate homosexuals, I just have a different opinion on it.  Being at UWP has shaped my understanding of this and so has media.  From viewing the video "Further off the Straight & Narrow" (2006), I was able to make a connection to my life and the movie "Holiday Heart".
From  "Further off the Straight & Narrow" (2006) they talk about how back then, people were not as open with their sexual orientation as they are now. Even in television it was the same.  Back then the only way that homosexuality appeared in television or movies was through HIV/AIDS.  It was almost as if it was being hidden, and used the stereotype that homosexuals have AIDS.  In media now, it is okay to express who you are, and instead of hiding it, it is just shown. 
In this scene from the movie Holiday Heart, the young girl is questioning Holiday on his sexuality.  She had been living with him for a while but had never known the truth.  Her mom and dad did not agree with it, so she did not know what to think about it, but after talking to him she let him know that she still loves him regardless.  Holiday talks on how he is from the old days and they don;t let everyone in their personal business, but the new school people let everything hang out.  That is what they were speaking about in this documentary.
The documentary also talks about how men and women were portrayed differently in television, but this movie is a little different from the general category, because this movie focuses only on gay men, and how one of the men raises a mother and daughter.
I may not agree with homosexuality, but I have learned a lot about it, which has opened my eyes to new things, and it has also made me pay more attention to how it is portrayed in media.

Refrences

"Further off the Straight & Narrow: New Gay Visibility on Television" (2006) .Media Education Foundation.
 
Fejes, F(2003). Advertising and the Political Economy of Lesbian/Gay identity. Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.), Gender, Race and Class in Media (212-222). Location: Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.