Bringing the Marginalized into Conversations about American Raciality - Erin Kane - Keely Gaeta - Emily Norris

HETERONORMATIVITY : THEN VS NOW

The 1990s, the decade that Little Dog was coming to terms with his sexuality, were the last decade until the newmillennium -- a decade that oversaw a restructuring of gender norms at the hands of women who were attempting to break the chains of domesticity. However, the same could not be said in the context of sexuality. Heteronormative expectations were still rife throughout American sociopolitics. At the Republican National Convention in Houston, Pat Buchanan declared in a prime time speech, "There is a culture war going on in our country for the soul of America", with RNC audience members waved signs reading "Family Rights Forever, 'Gay' Rights Never." The next year, in 1993, The battle over gay marriage is given the spotlight when the Hawaii Supreme Court rules that denying same-sex couples marriage licenses violates "basic human rights" guaranteed in the state constitution . Throughout the 1990s, heteronormativity was challenged with swift push back from fundamentalist groups and Conservative politicians. Anti-gay rhetoric was rampant, contributing to hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community. The 21st century has made immense progress in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights and the un-embedding heteronormativity fromAmerican society. This can be seen in the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which oversaw the ruling that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, while the legal protection of same sexmarriage actively combats heteronormativity, homosexuality and other sexual orientation are seen as deviance of the American nuclear family, a concept that the prevalence of heteronormativity can be attributed to. While Obergefell v. Hodges displays a major step in the restructuring of archaic American ideals on sexuality, there is still work to be done in the elimination of heteronormativity in American society.

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