Nichol's article response.

There LGBT communities in many African countries, but very few are known because they are afraid of coming out since they are not accepted by the society in fact in countries like Uganda LGBT people get killed by their government. Back home, I didn’t even know about LGBT because no one talked about it and if people of the same sex had sexual relationship, people were just saying that “it’s a taboo and a sin against God and there is something wrong with these people”, but no one knew that it was their identity. Just like any other minority group, LGBT members face many problems in their communities in terms of employment, social, education, family,….. and we can say that they face discrimination like other minority groups.

We found Conflict Theory in this article where homosexual people face power struggle and inequality from people who are not homosexual (those who are considered to be normal by the world). Homosexuality can prevent people from accessing opportunities like scholarships, leadership, employment because of their identity.

Symbolic Interaction: Not being accepted by the society makes homosexual people blame themselves, feel isolated and that’s why we have a big number of suicides among them. The fact that even their own families don’t accept them sometime, makes the situation worse.
Functionalism: An example of countries like Uganda where the government authorizes the law of killing LGBT people and the fact that many states in USA don’t accept marriage between same sex people, is a sign that this world is far away from accepting LGBT communities.

Members of LGBT communities and their supporters have to fight had for their freedom and acceptance and this will take educating the young generation (who can prevent this discrimination in the future), law makers,.... However, i think the main point that infuence discrimination against LGBT communities is that many people believe that LGBT members have choice and control over their identity (that they made a choice of being homosexual and that they can chose to change that identity). Either this is really a choice or not, i don't know.

Nichols Article

I found the Nichols article highly interesting and thought that Sharon Nichols brings up an important issue about how one's sexual preferance can cause someone so much pain and how someone's own private and personal pereferance can be used against them just because they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. I found it extremely alarming when the article mentioned that many adolescents who are in school are "emotionally and socially at risk of depression, suicide, dropping out, failing, or committing crimes." I think Sharon Nichols did a brilliant job on introducing the concep0t as to why this is a social problem. I also agree with the fact that the article mentions how adolescents should not have to negotiate their homosexual identity. However, I also agree with the fact that our societal values and the media, televesion, books, movies, and magazines all contribute to the problem because sometimes they don't stress or emphasize on the important facts and issues enough they are very influential and sometimes I don't think the media always realizes this. People should not be killed and have violence committed towards them because they are homosexual and because of something that is private and personal to them. People do not only discriminate against homosexuals at school but they discriminate against homosexuals on the internet even the military the don't ask don't tell rule that you can be discharged from the military because of your sexuality. I even heard on televison from a comedian one time that some interpreters were fired because they were homosexual. I personally do not agree with these kinds of metalities and ideologies we are all humans and like Mr. Martin Luther King and our presidents have said before us in the past we all need to be treated equally. Furthermore, I believe the theory that best expalins why this social problem exists is the symbolic interactionism theory because they look for symbols and meanings within a social problem and this particular article was all about symbols and meanings and "norms".

Female Delinquency

Since I was young I was told that having a baby girl is always hard because female are suppose to be quiet, obey, stay out of trouble,… therefore it’s difficult for parents to have a female in the family because they (parents) have to keep an eye on her, while a male child requires less supervision. Our society has been considering female like angels and this gives an excuse to these female for bad acts. For example if a female runs away from home people may think that she has been abused by family members or that she is not getting enough attention. If she steals money people may say that she needs it to satisfy her needs. If a male runs away from home or steals money, people say that he went to join bad friends and can be more likely convicted for criminal charges than a female .

A male can be walking on the street in the middle of the night because he is believed to be strong enough and can defend himself in case he is attacked, but POOR FEMALE are encouraged not to do so because people can take advantage of their weakness and harm them, therefore we always feel sorry for them and have excuse for their bad acts. We can even see this from small kids who mostly run to their mums for protection because these kids believe that mums are hamble and nice.

In my country of Rwanda there are some people who are being charged for the crime of genocide, but whenever people hear that a woman is among those who are facing charges, it brings up many questions and discussions because many people don't believe that women are capable of such crimes. However, for us who are from that country we know that there are some women who participated in the genocide.

This is a result of Symbolic Interaction in which female have always been given a stereotype of being innocent, nice, victims, weak, ....Even in some working areas female are given easier jobs because they are known to be weak which is a disadvantage for strong female who can do hard job.

The Saints and The Roughnecks article

I have read the saints and the roughnecks article before for my Juvenile Delinquency class so I am very familiar with this particular article. While reading this article I thought it was very interesting. However, the saints and the roughnecks article mainly focuses on Male Juvenile Delinquency. Both groups are juvenile delinquents who commit deviant acts but the saints are viewed completely different by society as well as their own community and neighborhood. For example the saints have their own cars and access to transportation, and they know a smart method on how to get each other out of class without getting caught in which they are also being truant . Because they have access to a car they go to a different part of town to commit their deviant acts therefore, no one from their own town knows just how serious the extent the saints actions are for instance they drive really fast while intoxicated. Yet, on the other hand since the roughnecks do not have have access to a car they have to commit their deviant acts in their own neighborhood and community so they are always under the public's eye and their actions are more visible. the roghnecks commit less serious crimes compared to the saints and commit their deviant acts less often than the saints but yet the roughnecks are caught and taken in by the police more often they are labeled by their neighborhood and community as being delinquent and in the view of their public and the educational system they are seen as not going to go very far in life and that their future isn't looking to bright and will become criminal. Juvenile Delinquency for girls is not the same as Juvenile Delinquency for boys. In our Juvenile Delinquency class we learned that you have to acknowledge that working with girls is not the same as working with the boys. Delinquency in girls can occur because they need strong women role models and influences in their life and if that functional dynamic is lacking things become dysfunctional delinquency in girls can also occur to due to broken homes, violence, rape, abuse, and neglect. However, Delinquency in boys occurs mostly due to peer pressure and the influence of their peers can cause delinquency in the boys. Furthermore, I also saw Symbolic Interactionism being used the most within this article. Symbolic Interactionism looks for symbols and meanings within a social problem and this particualr article had alot to do with symbols and meanings.

Campbell's Response To Rape

While reading Campbell's response to rape article it made me think of my other sociology class as well. We also spoke about these issues in my other class as well and while reading this article I realized that I can apply these same issues to my service learning project. For instance in my Juvenile Delinquency class we learned that female delinquents need a strong role model in their life someone they can look up to however, this female role model can be their mother, stepmom, aunt, or even grandma because they provide a important and very specific structure and stability for a girl which is key and major for most girls, however, we also found out that if this important aspect is lacking in a girl's life then the dynamics begin to fall apart. A strong female role model in a girl's life means structure, stability, trust, comfort, it means they have someone to confide in, and protection. Therefore, if this dynamic is lacking and isn't constant and consistent it can lead to other things such as abuse, neglect, rape, lack of attention, which can then result in girl's running away from home which then can lead to young female prostitution. While reading this article it made me think about all of these things and how they can all be tied together. Furtheremore, when someone is unfortunately raped it has long term effects and can be psychologically damaging and extremely emotional for the victim as well as traumatizing. The victim is also fighting and struggling with this issue internally and deep down within themself they are fighting a constant battle. Once a person is raped it also results in the breakdown of an individual's character. I choose the symbolic interactionism theory for this particular article because they look for symbols and meaning within a social problem and I saw alot of that with this particular article.

Homophobia in Society

I recently read an article for my gender studies class called "How Homophobia Hurts Everyone." As I was reading this, I was able to put some of the sociological perspectives with what this article was saying. The author of this article states that homophobia works of four distinct but interacting levels, which are:
1. Personal: This is where people hold their own personal beliefs or prejudice about LGBTs (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transexuals) that they should be pitied, phychologically disturbed, hated, defective, or being inferior to homosexuals.
2. Interpersonal: This is where the personal prejudices affect relations among individuals by transforming prejudice into discrimination through name calling, violence, rejecting, etc.
3. Institutional: This is when governments, businesses, educational systems, religions, and professional organizations systimatically discriminate on the bases of sexual orientation through laws, codes, and policies.
4. Cultural: These are the social norms or codes of behavior that work within a society that legitimize oppression. For example, the media and history excluding images of LGBT people.
Conflict theory would look at this as LGBT people versus the rest of society. The "norms" in society are constantly oppressing LGBT people because they are seen as different, thus a threat to society. Many LGBTs struggle with getting health coverage or being accepted into many religions. The struggles they encounter are endless because society stigmatizes them as different. And when one group is being pushed down, the other one pushing them down is naturally benefiting from this by fitting into society and getting the jobs, health care, housing, and just generally accepted by most people.
This also can be looked at with symbolic interactionism. What part of our sociolization has created the labels of "fag", "butch", "queer", or the term "gay" as meaning stupid? LGBTs are seen as differing form the norm of society through the norms set by all social institutions. The main part of this article states why homophobia hurts not only LGBTs, but also heterosexuals as well. A couple interesting ones to point out are; it compromises the integrity of heterosexuals by pressuring them into treating others badly, which actions are contrary to their basic humanity. Another one he mentions is that homophobia restricts communications with a significant portion of the population and limits family relationships. It's interesting when looked at from this point of view because it puts negetive outcomes on both the opressed and the opressors.