The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community, otherwise known as the LGBTQ community, has been around for decades. Instead of embracing the community and accepting members for how they choose to identify or embrace their sexuality, some Miamians choose to belittle and degrade those within the community. The act of unequal treatment towards someone based on a characteristic they are unable to control is known as discrimination. Discrimination towards the LGBTQ community isn’t a new ideology. The community has been through endless amounts of abuse, especially during the riot era. There a multiple forms of harassment that can be considered discrimination, which include: disowning someone for being a certain gender/sexuality, refusing service or employment, choosing to ignore someone because they are transgender or identify as anything other than “hetero-norms”, and so much more. Despite Miami’s population having a fair-share of residents in the LGBTQ Community, there’s still a huge issue with discrimination and hate towards the community.

2. Saunders, Joe. “‘Absolutely’: Pete Buttigieg on Whether ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Is Dangerous.” CNN, 13 Feb. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/02/12/opinions/florida-dont-say-gay-bill-paley-saunders/index.html. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

Florida started off this year by introducing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which will allow conversations and topics about both gender identity and sexual identity away from schools, specifically elementary. If said bill is passed, schools will have the right to erase and modify courses from including any sort of relevance to the LGBTQ community. In broader terms, school districts have the green light to silence LGBTQ students and facilities by removing important historical facts, literature, or important health. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill will slowly place their students at risk. Cnn comments, “It's just one of several divisive and dehumanizing bills in Florida that use LGBTQ youth as political pawns to limit conversations about gender and sexual identity.” (Saunders, CNN) Miamians have rioted, protested, and argued against the bill, especially Miami educators. Educators have argued that this is a violation of the first amendment and that students deserve the right to be educated on the LGBTQ and how important they are to US culture. They also deserve to be educated on things involving stds and more, so they aren’t clueless when it comes to the acts of sexual diseases that can and are fatal. The LGBTQ community is not a disease and shouldn’t be monetized and silenced because others choose to be ignorant. 

3. “A Deeper Look at Florida’s Dangerous Transgender Medical Care Ban Legislation | Equality Florida.” Eqfl.org, 2021, www.eqfl.org/resources/trans-youth-medical-care-ban. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

It’s important to mention the “Transgender Youth Medical Care Ban”. Even though the title is extremely broad, it basically means that Florida has decided to petition a bill that will: harm healthcare officials who choose to help transgender youth with medicial care that furthers their transition and unallow transgender youth to seek care, whether it’d be physically or emotionally, into their transition. This bill is extremely cruel to the transgender community because not all trans people find their gender identity at old age, some identify themselves in primary years or throughout their teens. Equality Florida writes that “...most transgender and nonbinary minors, transition care supports "social transitioning" — it's about presenting as their affirmed gender and using their identified pronouns.” (“A Deeper Look at Florida’s Dangerous Transgender Medical Care Ban Legislation, Equality Florida”) Miami is one of the transgender friendly areas, despite the large population of fragile masculinity and transphobia that occurs. If this bill is passed, a once-safe space that has allowed thousands of transgender youth and adults to happily transition legally will be removed. This will cause an uproar and could lead to tons of deaths. Stripping away a minors right to self-expression will undoubtely heighten suicide rates, levels of depression, and other mental health issues. Most, though not all, transgender youths require some sort of medical transition in order to feel correctly placed in their body and not feel gender dysphoria. 

Discrimination isn’t a new concept, especially when it comes to the LGBT community. There have been numerous forms of harassment. Some of you might know a few, which might be:  disowning someone for being a certain gender/sexuality, refusing service or employment, choosing to ignore someone because they are transgender or identify as anything other than “hetero-norms”, and so much more. The current “Don’t Say Gay” bill is a perfect example of hatred and ill behavior towards the community. This homophobic law, which unfortunately was announced the 28th of March, is one of the reasons why I chose to engage myself into this concept. To show just how poorly this community is treated.

As a member of the community myself, it’s safe to say that my concerns aren’t a figment of my imagination. I’ve been a victim of homophobia, but it dwells a lot more when you’re forced to witness your friends be a victim of it too. It’s painful to have to pretend to be a different person or feel the need to hide your identity and self-expression because you’re afraid to be targeted. This is how thousands of people in the community feel, especially at some point in time. Completing this assignment has made me understand that they’re people who feel the same amount of frustration that I do, knowing how disgusting a specific community is treated, all because they don’t fit the ideal “hetero-norms” that straight, cisgender people try to force them into. It also brought to my attention that the “Don’t Say Gay” bill is filled with complete hate and there’s been zero valid points mentioned as to why it’s entirely necessary.

To summarize the recent bill, it’s entire purpose is to deny Florida educators from mentioning the words “gender or sexual orientation” in classrooms, specifically primary school. This bill opens a gate to both transphobia and homophobia, while making queer children feel as if they’re unheard or need to be closteted because they are being denied the right to learn about the issues and history of their community. This will impact mental health by a majority, because it’ll cause many students to feel alone. This law also impacts queer educators who don’t feel shame in expression themselves, in order to provide a safe space for their queer and/or transgender students. It’s also just an entirely awful (recent) law that should be removed, completely.

I educated myself more by completing assignment “SP3” because it allowed me to vocalize my feelings about my community and how discrimination is currently playing through Miami. The beautiful diverse community that Miami boasts about isn’t all that welcoming when you’re a part of the LGBTQ and recent laws/bills are proving my point. For instance, Miami attempted to shine a light at a “Transgender Youth Medical Care Ban” which would allow healthcare officials to deny the right to gender confirmation medication and would harm healthcare officials who choose to help transgender youth with medicial care that furthers their transition. That bill also wanted to deny transgender youth to seek care, whether it’d be physically or emotionally, into their transition. This bill is extremely cruel to the transgender community because not all trans people find their gender identity at old age, some identify themselves in primary years or throughout their teens. Some might need to transition at an early age for the sake of their mental health or identity. There’s a million factors that play into transition and that bill would ruin the lives of plenty. Both “SP3” and this assignment changed me as a person because I got to research people’s opinions and learn more about the struggles that the LGBT community faces, along with ways to help and show awareness.

“A Tale of Two Cities” 

The short film “A Tale of Two Cities” expresses the concerns of citizens of both Evart, Michigan and Flint, Michigan. You would think that the local government would do all of its power to make sure their citizens had fresh water, yet instead, it’s being exploited and treated like a business. “When water is treated like a commodity, people die.” (A Tale of Two Cities, “Story of Stuff”) All living things need water to survive, especially pure, clean water. Nobody should be forced to use water bottles and risk running out of water because the government chooses to ignore the problem at hand. “Our government has failed us on every single level. They poisoned the wrong city.” (A Tale of Two Cities, “Story of Stuff”) The video “A Tale of Two Cities” documents real-life scenarios of water privatization and the struggle that Evart and Flint cities face, because the government has decided to focus on business and money, rather than citizens lives.

"The World We Need"

In the animated video “The World We Need”, our illustrator, Sharon Lavigne illustrates her point of view on toxic pollution caused by production plants and companies. “As the years went on, I began to notice that my neighbors and members of my community were getting sick and dying of cancer, and that the air smelled like chlorine.” (The World We Need, “Story of Stuff”) Lavigne expresses to the audience that production plants that continued to expand around St. James Parish, Louisiana was slowly poisoning the air that the citizens breathe. She ideally focused on ways to fight for her right to breathe and how to emit the chemicals that were ruining her air. She started by informing those around her, eventually drawing attention to the national news about her fight.

I could honestly say I learned a large amount of new information after watching these two animated documentaries. I heard of the issues affecting Flint, Michigan, but I didn’t know it was affecting more cities and that the government refuses to acknowledge their struggles. Instead of becoming a union and fixing the water pollution issue in Michigan, their local government is using the citizens' vulnerability to make a business and force the citizens to buy water bottles.

Watching “The World We Need” inspired me to dig further into the issue down in Louisiana, while inspecting issues happening locally. For instance, the fracking issue that South Floridians have been facing for decades. The more fracking that continues on, the higher chances of global warming and digging us further down water level, which we are already below of. I’ve also noticed that in the air, especially around popular cities like New York and Miami Beach, smell like chlorine. Chlorine is the same word that Lavigne used when she expressed the distaste of scent in “The World We Need”. Sometimes the air around my own neighbor would smell like gas, as if there’s a leak.

Racism continues to be a problem in today’s generation. Racists, especially government and other police officials, continue to racially profile people of color. In this particular article, Sojourner Gibbs speaks about her experience with the police and how she felt racially profiled and ignored. She explains how she was leaving the parking lot of a Sam’s Club in Louisiana when she went into a diabetic shock. Anyone would panic in a situation like this, so there’s no surprise that Sojourner felt that way. Gibbs slammed onto the brakes and the crowd of cars began to honk at her, so she yelled for help. Someone called 911 for her, thankfully. Once the cops arrived, Sojourner screamed that she was diabatic and needed attention, but the cops ignored her cries. One assumed that she was “high on something” (drugs), insinuating that Sojourner was lying about her diabetic shock. The cops continued to take their time with the situation and ignored the pain that Sojourner was in, simply because she was black. A bystander recorded the act because she remembered George Floyd’s case and the injustice that was served towards him, and didn’t want a repeat with Gibbs. The Jefferson Parish Police Form saw a black woman in distress and automatically assumed she was high on illegal substances, and not the fact that she was suffering and in pain.

Article 2: "It seemed like our lives didn't matter."

After the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was chased and killed by three white racist police officers, Elijah Bobby Henderson decided that enough was enough. Elijah’s own mother was a victim of racism and police brutality. Elijah’s mentally ill neighbor attacked his mother and she, as one would, fought for herself. She was a black woman in Midtown, which is a “neighborhood in Brunswick known for drug dealing.” (Coker "It seemed like our lives didn't matter.") The officers took one look at Elijah’s mother and thought that she must have been vicious or insinuated the fight first hand. Elijah, himself, was a victim. Police stopped him and his friends on a drive to a Saturday hangout session. The gun unwarrantedly cocked out his gun and aimed it at underage Black teenagers, where he forced them to the ground and made them undress while he searched their car. This was his first ill moment with the police, but not his last. After Ahmaud Arbery’s death broke loose in 2020, Elijah decided that he wanted change. “We needed answers. We needed accountability. We grew up here, but it seemed like our lives didn’t matter.” (Coker "It seemed like our lives didn't matter.") This started Elijah’s movement for accountability. Elijah is trying to educate the issues in the government and how racist the police force is. 

I’ve always known that racism was an issue in our country, but these two articles widened my knowledge. Racism has always been in issue, despite how often the media continues to attempt to hide it. It’s nearly impossible to hide the fact that black people suffer prejudice and ‘discrimiation on the regular, especially by officials  that are meant to quote-on-quote “serve and protect” us. For example, in article two, Elijah Bobby Henderson explains his own issues with the police. I’ve also witnessed and experienced racial descrimination. Racism is constantly vocalized as “years ago” and that Black people should “get over it” when it’s not. It’s hardly been sixty years and it’s still on-going. Sojourner Gibbs’s story proves that. She was believed to be lying about her medical emergency because the cops decided to see her as a threat, instead of seeing her as a normal citizen. If Sojourner Gibbs had been white, would the police claim that she was hostile and high on drugs? Absolutely not.

Works Cited

Webster, Richard A. “'They Saw Me and Thought the Worst'.” WWNO, 24 Sep. 2021, https://www.wwno.org/news/2021-09-24/they-saw-me-and-thought-the-worst?utm_source=Solutions%2BStory%2BTracker. 

Coker, Margaret. “'It Seemed like Our Lives Didn't Matter.'.” The Current, 30 Nov. 2021, https://thecurrentga.org/2021/11/30/it-seemed-like-our-lives-didnt-matter/?utm_source=Solutions%2BStory%2BTracker.

In Juliet Brophy’s evolution presentation, she tours human evolution in South Africa by verbalizing the discovery of fossils. Brophy starts her presentation by mentioning the unusual fossils that were discovered in a cave and how the researchers who took part in that discovery noticed that the fossils were of a new species. These new species were ancient humans. Juliet Brophy, who is a paleoanthropologist, takes a closer look into these fossils by allowing us to reconsider where these ancient species come from and how the process of evolution truly works. She wants us to provide a second-thought at what “it means to be human” and evaluate the characteristics that made us human, and if they were different from how we present ourselves physically, would we still be considered human? 

Citation: Brophy, Juliet. “How a New Species of Ancestors Is Changing Our Theory of Human Evolution.” Ted.com, TED Talks, 2013, www.ted.com/talks/juliet_brophy_how_a_new_species_of_ancestors_is_changing_our_theory_of_human_evolution?referrer=playlist-theories_of_evolution. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.‌

Video 2: “Nature Is Everywhere -- We Just Need to Learn to See It.” 

Emma Marris is right! Nature is everywhere. Marris’ presentation is meant to educate and persuade us to see the beauty in nature and in life, which is something that humans take for granted. Marris attempts to redefine “nature” and provide evidence as to how beautiful nature could really be, and that depriving it from you and your (future) children is more detrimental than one might think. Nature isn’t just the trees that one may see in their day-to-day lives, but it’s also the hidden wilderness and unattended patches of nature that are growing in urban or rural places. Encouraging both humans and children to touch and play with it so they’ll be able to fall in love with the natural beauty that humans call nature. 

Citation: Marris, Emma. “Nature Is Everywhere -- We Just Need to Learn to See It.” Ted.com, TED Talks, 2016, www.ted.com/talks/emma_marris_nature_is_everywhere_we_just_need_to_learn_to_see_it. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.

Watching both videos made me realize how much I’ve taken nature and the world around me for granted. It’s crazy that the human species has continued to evolve, how my ancestors possibly look nothing like me, and how they could potentially be different types of human species that we haven’t discovered. However, the topic that really stuck with me was Marris’ explanation on nature and how beautiful the world is. How we deprive ourselves from discovering or seeing new plants and places because humans have trained themselves to believe that nature is only the things we see on the daily. For example, we live in Florida and we know that Florida has the best palm trees, with beautiful blue waters and white sands, but what about the forest of flowers in Hawaii or the gardens in Colorado? There’s potentially undiscovered, or even discovered, places in your local area that you/we haven’t gotten the chance to view yet. We have to let ourselves explore the world around us and stop allowing ourselves to be comfortable with seeing the things we usually do, and be able to fall in love with the beautiful, natural land around us. We should make a commitment to spend a certain amount of time outside and see if we can find something we’ve never seen, whether it’s new to ourselves or not. Learn to fall in love with your city and area, from a different perspective.

It’s interesting to think “food appearance” is such an important factor to people, due to the large amounts of wasted food. In this video, the presenter attempts to show the viewers how much food is really tossed and trust me, it’s a lot. She mentions that someone tossed away a cucumber because it didn’t look as appealing as the others, despite it being just as fresh as the rest of the batch. In the beginning, she talks about how “an entirely good loaf of bread” was tossed away. This relates to my community because the homeless community is extremely large and instead of throwing away good and edible foods, we could be handing them out to those who need it most. If it’s being sent off to the trash anyway, how does handing it over to the homelessness community make a difference? You could be feeding humans with the products that people exam as “wasteful” or “inedible.” This video has motivated me to challenge myself in providing unwanted (and very edible) foods to provide to the homeless around me, while also branching my horizons and eating foods that others might recognize as wasteful. There’s only one planet, with a limited amount of resources, and it’s time to stop taking that for granted.

DW Planet A. “I Tried to Eat Only Food Waste for a Week.” YouTube, 25 Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgh-ExkMlMc. Accessed 22 Mar. 2022.