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OutFront Minnesota Executive Director Ann DeGroot spoke and had an
interactive conversation on the relationship between sexism and
homophobia at the Women’s
Foundation of Minnesota for its UpStart Lecture Series on November
29th, 2006. Ann told of her own history with the feminist movement,
taking one of the first Women’s Studies classes at the University of
Minnesota and getting active in the 1970’s and ‘80’s in actions such as
‘Take Back the Night.’ “I work for women’s rights every day at OutFront
Minnesota,” she said.
In her talk, Ann said homophobia had three components:
- Erotophobia – “the fear of the erotic; of something being erotic
in a different way; to be in a same-sex relationship is going beyond
acceptable boundaries”
- Xenophobia – “the fear of something being different, it’s
absolutely a rampant problem in our culture.”
- Sexism – “it’s a major piece of why homophobia exists. We have a
belief system that there are sex roles. At OutFront Minnesota, we
think of gender roles as quite fluid. When you are in a relationship
with someone of the same sex, the question (from the perspective of
the larger culture) is ‘what are the gender roles?’”
Ann also talked about a basic foundation of the sex-role system which
is “one person is dominant and one person is submissive. If you have
that as your construct, you’re always trying to figure out who’s
dominant and who’s submissive. All of the names we call gay men are the
derogatory names we call women. We don’t allow men to act like women, so
that when a man says he’s gay, that’s considered ‘bad’ and that’s
sexism. You don’t want to be in the submissive position because then
you’re the woman and that’s bad. We start playing that out in the world
with GLBT people.”
Having a comfortable, interactive conversation with the group, Ann
talked about the emergence of the GLBT movement as having been motivated
by both the civil rights and women’s rights movements. The discussion
also included religion. “I think religion plays a big role in marking
homosexuality as immoral. Religion has also played a role in questioning
that as well.”
“Our job at OutFront Minnesota is to create a better environment for
GLBT people. The environment over the last five years has been very
hard. There are people who’ve said ‘these people are bad and they’re
ruining our families.’ She talked about the political motivations behind
the 2004 marriage amendments across the country, in an effort to draw
millions of conservative voters to the polls in a presidential election
year.
OutFront Minnesota Executive
Director Ann DeGroot and Women's Foundation of Minnesota President and
Chief Executive Officer Lee Roper-Batker at the foundation's UpStart
Lecture Series event November 29th, 2006.
“I listen really closely to groups like Focus on the Family, the
Minnesota Family Council, and Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage,
and they are saying there’s one legitimate family system that deserves
to be supported by the government. They’ll talk about the dangers of
single-parent households. And who heads most of those families? Women.
The argument is that unless you have a man in the house, you have all
these other ills.”
Ann talked about the importance of taking positions that support all
families. “I think the question is ‘What is family and what gets in the
way of families being successful? It’s the economy. Gay people don’t
destroy families.”
Ann was very warmly received and the audience posted articulate and
intelligent questions and comments. Ann said the intersection of sexism
and homophobia is why OutFront Minnesota works with feminist
organizations – because the two problems have the same root. She
emphasized the scope of issues that arise because of the presence of all
forms of oppression. “We should be talking about ways to deal with
sexism, racism, classism, homophobia.”
OutFront Minnesota is an engaged member of not only the GLBT
community but the larger community as well. Ann DeGroot’s guest talk at
the Minnesota Women’s Foundation of Minnesota UpStart Lecture Series is
part of our organization’s continual outreach and relationship-building
that is vital to the work of advancing GLBT equality in our state.
OutFront Minnesota Executive
Director Ann DeGroot with Girl Scout Council of Greater Minneapolis
Chief Executive Director Shelley Jacobson at the Minnesota Women's
Foundation of Minnesota's UpStart Lecture Series where Ann was the
featured speaker, November 29th 2006
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