Is It Safe To Be Gay In The UK

Hey!

Welcome to a brand new blog post! I think the title says it all really but I thought that today I would talk to you guys about why I believe that it's not completely safe to be gay in 2017.

I know that within the UK, we have some rights that ensure that we can be ourselves and we have things such as a legal same sex marriage now compared to things in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Russia where being gay endures harsher punishments such as jail and concerntration camps but not everything within the UK is rose tinted spectacles.

Let's take going on a date for example... You have to awkwardly seem like you're just two friends catching up in case a staff member catches you and they chuck you out due to the news stories such as the Bakery denying a same sex couple to have a cake made for them. You then can't really show any affection and you're always scared on the actions that you make whilst you're on said date because in public, someone might cause harm to you... The lightest harm might be name calling and the hardest harm that might happen might be physical harm such as being beaten up for being something that you can't control. You end up realising that it's just easier to invite them to a date at home due to the amount of hate that happens...

I know that name calling might not sound like a big deal but when it happens time and time again, it slowly chips away the foundations of your self confidence when out and about.

Sadly, I've had some of the above thrown at me whilst being out in the public and it just makes you feel like you should be like you shouldn't be who you are because then you'd feel safer

Obviously, it doesn't happen everytime but it happens the majority of the time which is the sickening thing.

Sadly, media has helped to socialise the general public and reinforce hegemonic ideas into their minds via using minorities such as homosexual people as scapegoats to ensure that the general public steer their minds away from the truth and put their anger and frustration into something/somebody else. The general sort of lines include the fact that homosexuals are the epicentre and vessel of HIV or AIDS and if we didn't have them then the count for that would be lower when in fact the passing of HIV/AIDS can happen via sharing things such as needles which can be used by anyone not just homosexual people or they write some spiel about how something can ensure that someone is homosexual such as smoking marijuana. I'm not promoting marijuana but how can smoking something once make you instantly be sexually interested in the same sex as yourself. It's ridiculous... I know the nature/nurture debate about topics such as sexuality is a massive thing within society but I honestly doubt the nurture side can happen via partaking in something once...

I know that we have rules and laws in pace such as the Equality Act which ensures that no discrimination against people who are disabled, different sexualities, ages etc but does everyone actually know of this act and do they abide by it because if so then would we really have this much hate which has even gone to murder before because I honestly doubt it if we did... I know that some wouldn't abide by it but not as many that do in today's society.

People aren't safe in the UK but if we gave a little more tolerance and acceptance then we can make society a better place for minorities such as people of colour and the LGBT+ community. Just please take that into account.

What's your opinion? Let me know down below! 

I hope that you've enjoyed this little rambly LGBT+ based blog post and I hope that I've made some sense. I hope that you come back next time for another blog post!

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x 

Talking About The Last Few Years | Education

Hey!

Welcome to another blog post! As results day was last week, I thought that it would be a good idea to talk to you guys today about my experience with the education that is available to all citizens within the United Kingdom.

A stock image from Pexels.com containing small white square Scrabble tiles spelling out the word Teach on a light wooden table with stacks of different coloured books behind it on a light background. 

Education is a weird thing in my opinion due to the fact that we go through it without any choice, we learn things that have been written into the history of mankind such as Kings and Queens, Sciences and social skills (that's just via primary education, when it comes to secondary education we're socialised to be submissive and behave like little puppets via things such as sanctions in the form of detentions) but then as soon as we've left, we forget everything that has been kept under lock and key in our minds via the summer holidays and then the cycle is repeated until instead of education, its a workplace.

I decided once that I was done with secondary education, that I would go straight into catering due to loving everything food based such as creating a dish from another chef all the way to messing about with different components to create a completely different dish for someone who has an allergy or an intolerance... I also definitely liked eating it too but who doesn't? Sadly after a while, I had to leave the kitchen due to the heat of it especially as I was having frequent anxiety attacks due to a plethora of things. Unfortantely, all of the above slowly made me lose my love of food and cooking and that is something that I'm still getting back in touch with to this day. After all the things that happened that year, I now dub it the year that I spent in the cubicles due to amount of attacks that I ended up having over everything.

After that I decided to brush up on my skills to ensure that I had everything ready for my life which I did, Within this year, I learnt quite a lot about myself and this is when the platform that I am talking to you on was created.

After that, I decided to do A Levels within Media, Film and Sociology where even though hurdles came up, I managed to jump over them. I also learnt that its good to sometimes be outspoken and sometimes be yourself. Within these two years, I learnt a plethora of things but the main thing that I have learnt is that people aren't always ignorant due to wanting to be ignorant but because society and socialisation have not taught them the information that they should know about the matter whether this be about sexuality, gender, mental health and much more.

I've jumped through many personal and unpredictable problems within the time that I have been in education but I have trumped through them all and I'm now going to University where I hope to carry on jumping through hurdles, smashing the glass ceilings of society and teaching other students about culture that they might not know of.

I hope that you've enjoyed this slightly rambly education post and I hope that you come back next time for another blog post.

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x