Economics, Different Politcal and Class Ideaologies: Safe Zone Dialouge

During the past week, students, including myself, were to attend a safe zone dialogue where students were to participate and share their ideas of human sexuality. I was a little skeptical of this discussion at first because of the household I was brought up in. We were broken up into small discussion groups and given the definition of "respectful conversations". Our main purpose of this assignment was to open up to the group and express our beliefs and opinions on what we thought of human sexuality. Two panelists from the LGBT group (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) were present in our discussions in order for the students to ask questions and become more knowledgeable in situations and questions we were unsure of. During this exercise, students were able to ask questions and state their opinions of certain topics that were brought up, such as, what is the safe zone, exactly how difficult is it to become open with the fact that someone is gay, and how should one approach this situation?
Growing up in a family where one is taught that being gay is morally wrong, I did not know what to think of the situation and was a little afraid to speak my mind. I realized through this safe zone dialogue that other students had questions as well. I learned a great deal of knowledge from this dialogue that it not only opened my eyes to what was going on around campus and other places as well but also opened my mind. It is hard to except that someone is gay, in my eyes, but gays also go through a great deal of difficulties as well. Marriage, in most states, for gays is not acceptable and is looked down upon by it's citizens. With the closed-minded citizens of most countries about whether gays should marry, this makes it that much harder to fulfill one's wishes.
With the crimes going on towards gays, safe zone is a group that allows gays and bisexuals to talk about and reveal how they truly feel without the fear of being harmed or judged. I never realized how many problems can be encountered when one decides to become public about being gay. What most people fail to accept is that gays are just like any other individual. They are automatically given the stereotype or title of being gay without given the chance to prove other significant qualities of themselves. Although I am still skeptical of the thought of someone being gay, this dialogue session allowed me to see the situation from one's perspective. I never realized the hardships in which gays must go through but it is apparent. I do think safe zone dialogues should become more abundant to students around campus, not to only learn about the gay community but to also limit stereotyping among the gay community. I, for one, do find myself stereotyping gays, but through this dialogue I have learned that the gay community is much like any other community in our culture and therefore opens my mind.