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Cultural Diversity and Global Awareness Assignment

Social Diversity Interview Paper

Dany Stella Nguepi Jiometsa

Department of Psychology, Sinclair Community College

21.SP.PSY.1100.5A1 General Psychology

Ms. Taylor Curtis, M.A.

March 05, 2021

Cultural Diversity and Global Awareness

People over the world used to live following rules and norms that define the society.

The premise categories people to fit into some established class in the society. What, or who

does not follow the “rules” or act differently than what have been seen before or used to be, is

directly classified as a person with mental illness, is marginalized, and sometime completely

banned from the society. Within community, that have encountered tremendous difficulties

and still doing nowadays are the LGBTQIA+ community. I am going to define this community,

and talk about their experiences both in United States and in other countries; then share my

interview with a member of this community, and lastly, talk about my personal viewpoint.

Gender is the cultural, social, and psychological meanings that associated with

masculinity and feminity. LGBTQIA+ community came together because they were stigmatized

and judged by others communities. So, they created their own community to be with each

other, and feel like they have a place (a large family) of their own where they belong, and

where they were accepted and could freely live without judgement or marginalization.

LGBTQIA+ actually stand for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Agender, and

other queer- identifying community. Queer is an umbrella term which embraces a matrix of

sexual orientation and habits of the not-exclusively-heterosexual-and monogamous majority.

All these people were struggling with their gender identity and had to go through the

judgement of the society. Gender identity-a person’s sense of being masculine, feminine, or

other gendered.

In this study, I focused in transgender-a person who lives as a member of a gender other

than that expected base on anatomical sex. Sexual orientation varies and is not dependent on
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gender identity. Transgender is often referred to sex – a medical term designating a certain

combination of gonads, chromosomes, external gender organs, secondary sex characteristics

and hormonal balances. Because usually subdivided into ‘male’ and ‘female’, this category does

not recognize the intersex bodies.

In the U.S, transgender like other members of the LGBTQIA+ community experience

discrimination and marginalization in healthcare, and in many others domains. “discrimination

is widely experienced by LGBTQ adults across healthcare and other domains especially among

racial/ethnic minority. Policy and programmatic efforts are needed to reduce these negative

experiences and their health impact on sexual and/ or gender minority adults, particularly those

who experience compounded forms of discrimination” (Logan et al.,2019). According to the

same research, LGBTQ community in the U.S experiences interpersonal discrimination

especially in adult, including slurs, microaggressions, sexual harassment, violent, and

harassment regarding bathroom use.

In other countries, things are not better for LGBTQIA+ community; I can say base on my

findings that things are even worst for them. In other countries, LGBTQIA+ community

experience wild violent, and are exposed to sexual harassment and rape, torture, prison, and in

worst cases are even murdered just for assuming whom they really are, and how they really

feel (sexual orientation, gender identity…). LGBTQIA+ community in other countries are forced

to leave their love one’s behind and move out of their own countries because if they stay there,

they will be risking their safety, freedom, and life. They are forced to live as refugees in

welcoming countries. “Findings indicates that LGBTQ refugees maybe vulnerable to ongoing

trauma from other refugees and emigration officials” (Edward et al., 2018). So, people from
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LGBTQIA+ community in other countries, due to all the discrimination, marginalization, and

torture they have experienced, are exposed more than other refugees to develop PTSD

(posttraumatic social disorder).

For the purpose of my research and for a better understanding of the LGBTQIA+

community, I conducted an interview with Emily James Wheeler (pronouns: She/Her/Hers) who

is a Transgender woman, which means She was assigned male at birth. Her social group is a

subset of the LGBTQIA+ community. When I asked Emily about her experience as member of

the transgender community, she said not all the members of their community get along like in

other communities but from the over passed ten years that she came out, she has always had

support and received love and encouragement from other members. So, she really felt good

being part of her community. She has not always been a member of the transgender

community; it took her more than twenty-eight years to come out and for her it was like she

had just started her real life. She let her old demons and got a healthy life; she went back to

school and finished her degree. For her, being a transgender is often associated by people with

shame, dishonor, and disgrace. According to Emily, being a transgender, and a member of

LGBTQIA+ community has immense disadvantages. But it also has many advantages, an

advantage can be the social network they have built for their community and on the other hand

a disadvantage can be the discrimination they face from other communities.

Her biggest hope for her community is that people becomes more accepting in society. And her

biggest fear is the isolation they face in the world, especially in the medical field.

I really had little knowledge about LGBTQIA+ community, I did not know they were

going through all of these discriminations, even in the U.S. since I am from Cameroon, in my
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county transgenders, lesbians, gays… are considered psychologically instable, and others

believe that they have spiritual problems. Now that I know more LGBTQIA+ community, I

admire them because they are going through a lot and they are persevering. I really think that

they do not deserve all that discriminations they are going through, they are human being like

all others and they deserve to be loved, appreciate for whom they are, and be respected. From

now on, I am going to be more involve and try my best to help those around me to understand

that people from LGBTQIA+ community did not choose to be different. In fact, I will advise

people to embrace the difference not to lock it up or run before the difference; because it is the

total of differences that created our beautiful world.

Work Cited

Alessi. E., J., Kahn, S., Woolner. L., Der Horn, R., & Van Der Horn, R, (2018). Traumatic Stress

Among Sexual and Gender Minority refugees From the Middle East, North Africa, and

Asia Who Fled to the European Union. Journal of traumatic Stress. 31(6). 805-815.

https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22346.

Casey, L. S., Reisner, S. L., Findling, M.G., Blendon, R, J., Benson, J. M., Sayde, J. M., & Miller, C.

(2019). Discrimination in the United States: Experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual,

transgender, and queer Americans. Health Services research, 54, 1454-1466.

https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13229

(J. Wheeler, personal communication, March 01, 2021).

University Of Illinois Springfield.(n.d). Common Terms Associated With the LGBTQIA+

Community.

https://www.uis.edu/gendersexualitystudentservices/about/lgbtqaterminology/