Gender Roles and Homosexuality

There is a certain amount of fear and mystery and unknown around the idea of a homosexual relationship. I feel like these type fears are what keep people from fully experiencing relationships, whether homosexual or not. It’s not just the fear of being with someone of the same sex physically but it is also the insecurities that surround people’s gender and sexual identities. Homophobia, I believe, is rooted in these insecurities. I feel like people who lead a homosexual lifestyle therefore are freed from these gender and sexual roles. There is not as much fear and insecurity because there are no standards or norms that must be maintained. They are free to chose and go back and forth. I know that people who are homosexual feel just as much insecurity if not more than straight people while they are still figuring out who they are, but I feel that is not the same insecurity that causes homophobia. Once you tell yourself that you no longer have to fit into a gender role and that you can dress and act the way you feel there is a great deal of freedom that comes with that as well as insecurity in not knowing exactly what you want to be. I feel like people, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, whatever, would feel a lot more freedom in themselves and their relationships if they quit looking through a heterosexual lens. It is this lens that leads to misunderstanding around the subject of homosexuality. People’s expectations of gender and norms leads to relationships where there has to be definite feminine and masculine role. In a relationship where there are not black and white roles there is more freedom to switch back and forth.