Heteronormavity and the obstacle it creates

When you see a child, according to the sex assigned at birth, if you think that person must be with somone from opposite sex in the future, you probably grew up in a society with heteronormativity. Most of the movies we watch, the songs we listen to, the cartoons we watch, the childhood stories, and possibly the first romance novel we read all tell about heterosexual relationships. Imagine living in such a world as an LGBTQI+ individual. Everyone is cisgender in the movies you watch, and everyone in the books you read is heterosexual. This situation convinces people that the only valid relationship in the world is when two people of the opposite sex are together, whereas love is love. If two people's energies match, if they're attracted to each other and want to be together, regardless of their gender, they should be able to be together. While it can be so easy, unfortunately, we see people who still make some people to feel that they don’t belong in the society.

People sometimes argue that they do not have an attitude towards LGBTQI+ individuals, and then I hear them saying, “As long as they are not close to me, there is no problem”. However, if you're a person who thinks like this, it's defined as homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic. There are LGBTQI+ individuals around you, in your family and maybe even yourself, but with this attitude of yours, you do not let people to come out. You do not create a safe environment for everyone to be themselves.

Whatever language you speak to a person when they were born, they will speak that language when they start speaking. That is, if a person comes from a heteronormative society, that person learns about it and becomes a heterosexual person when grow up or thinks that they are. One of the situations that heteronormativity causes, is that people hide their sexuality and cannot live like themselves. People should not be in a situation where they keep themselves away from the person that they love, just because they think that we need the approval of the society.

Terms such as homophobic, transphobic, and biphobic are the names given to people who display exclusionary attitudes towards LGBTQI+ individuals and use hate speech. Heteronormativity in societies causes people to turn into such people and incidents that limit the lives of LGBTQI+ people. Heteronormativity causes people to discriminate against LGBTQI+ individuals, because they think that the “normal” people are the ones who live in hetero relationships and are cisgender.

Individuals who believe in heteronormativity cannot be healthy parents either. Because they are afraid of their own children being LGBTQI+. When I talk about these topics with people who will have children in the near future, and I realise that they are uncomfortable about talking it, it just makes me feel bad about their child. While this is not acceptable for them, this attitude of theirs is not acceptable in this world, where everyone should live under equal conditions. If you are afraid of having an LGBTQI+ child, I think you may need to reconsider being a parent, parenting may not be for you. Or you can learn to accept people as human beings.

Because of heteronormativity, people are taught as if it is a rule that they will only live with the gender assigned to them when they are born and they will be with people of the opposite sex. When people start to discover themselves and their experiences, they want to prevent this as they feel emotions other than what society has taught them. This causes people to not be able to live their lives as they are. It is our duty to accept everyone as they are and because a person is LGBTQI+, there is no need for a special attitude, just respect people for being human.