Obviously discrimination is very prevalent in todays society. But, I didn’t expect someone in my social work class to say what she said. I was taken back slightly. She said “Gay people cannot be discriminated against because they can hide their identity when Black people can’t.” I was kinda confused and at the moment it seemed like it could make sense. When I thought about it again it made less and less sense. 

I know that looking straight is a privilege (that I have) but that doesn’t mean I have never been discriminated against or targeted. A few years back at UMBC there was this guy at late night. One of my friends (at the time) was somewhat friends with him when he came to our table and gave us a Christian talk. He went on and on about how religion has impacted his life and asked us questions. Then it got to the gay part of the conversation. He asked “has any of you ever experienced homophobia in your life?” my girlfriend said “yeah, this is my girlfriend” and you could see he panicked slightly. Then he started raising his voice and saying how we will be going to hell and that we are a disgrace and many other things that were really harmful. After looking into this guy, he pulled this with MANY other people on campus and had the campus police called on him several times. 

Although we did not have to tell this guy that we were in a relationship, it was obvious since we were holding hands the whole time and our “friend” was standing next to him and she knew about us. Gay people are discredited and pushed into the closet time and time again, socially or legally like the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell bill did to LGBTQ+ people in the military.

Before UMBC I took classes at my local community college and had to seek out accommodations due to my disabilities (mainly migraines and ADHD). The process was pretty self-explanatory and simple. I reached out and explained my situation and asked what the next steps were and scheduled a meeting. After that meeting I had all the accommodations I needed and did not need to jump through hoops to get what I needed to succeed in college. 

If you are using the bathroom and someone walks in, do you stop peeing? For me, I stop. I try to make as little noise as possible because people can’t know that I, a human being, pees. 

I want to be like others and do “normal” things like exercise or stay up all night with my friends but I can’t because if I do, I’ll spend the next 1-2 days in pain. Ever since I was about 4 years old, I have had awful, excruciating migraines, which had landed me into the hospital on multiple occasions. My body will suffer if I try to be like a “normal college kid.”