LGBTQ

First, let me start by saying that the movie Milk and the exhibition changed the way I think about the LGBTQ community. I went on Friday to the GLBT Historical Society, Archives and Museum in San Francisco. We took the Bart to San Francisco then we took an Uber to the museum. We arrived there at like 5:00 pm so we had only one hour before the museum closes. Actually, it was quite enough since the museum was not as big as I expected. It looked bigger on their website. Since we’re going to see the The Oakland Museum of California, Queer California: Untold Stories exhibit next week, I decided to go to the GLBT Museum. I was also interested in seeing The Castro sign and actually feel I’m in the movie. It was also a nice experience since a lot of movies I watched were filmed in sites I’ve visited recently in the US. Mainly what I saw was a glimpse of the past of the LGBTQ community and some important influencers of the movement. Another nice thing that happened, was that I got educated about the community mainly through the movie and from the museum tour. I was learning new stuff and this was through something I love which are films. Relating what I saw at the museum to the movie was also very nice. For example, seeing the Harvey Milk part of the museum and explaining it to my friends was kind of satisfying. Knowledge is power and what is a better way than to acquire it by doing something you love(one of the reasons I chose this course).

One of the things I learned was the way these people were treated in the past. It was also well presented in the movie. This is actually one of the pros of movies since they help you live inside the movie and feel what the characters are feeling. It’s just like living the character’s life. I also got to take a look at this from a different perspective.

Another thing I noticed is how much we evolved since that happened and this is actually great. It is very promising for the LGBTQ community and it shows the ability of the world to improve and be a place for everyone. It also shows that there is always hope in improving. If we re-think that, we can notice that for example, San Francisco went from beating gays to organizing a pride parade each year in about 40 years.

As I already said my favorite part of the exhibit was the Harvey Milk part. As you will see in the pictures, the main point of it was informative so there was no special messages, only appreciation for what he’s done. Actually, that’s how people change the world forever and these are the kind of people that will be forever remembered, at least in their community. He left his footprint and did something he is proud of. I think they are 2 kinds of people, the ones who want to change the world and be remembered, and the ones who want to live a happy life no matter what.

Unfortunately, I can’t compare this to anything in my hometown back in Lebanon. Despite the fact that LGBTQ persons living in Lebanon are not very welcome, they are considerably more free than in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world. “Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code prohibits having sexual relations that are “contradicting the laws of nature”, which is punishable by up to a year in prison”(Wikipedia). However, this rule is not being applied very severely nowadays and you can find people belonging to the LGBTQ community. A great example is Hamed Sinno, the lead singer of Mashrou’ Leila, one of the greatest Lebanese bands of all time. So it is actually getting better and maybe one day soon this law will be removed.

After all of this I think that everyone is free to choose his gender orientation and I feel empathy towards LGBTQ people since they’re not yet fully accepted all around the globe. Like everything else, it just needs a little bit of effort and understanding.

I will also be sharing pictures of LGBTQ related things I saw these couple of days.