My project was about the LGBTQ+ Community and the backlash they get from Christians. For this project, I wrote a personal essay, a poem, and made a collage to help people better understand where it is I’m coming from. I chose this topic because I think it’s important that we realize it does not matter what someone’s sexual orientation is, but who they are as a person. We need to be able to look past someone’s homosexuality and see who they are. I had a really good experience at the exhibition. I was kind of nervous that people weren’t going to like where I stand and possibly judge me for it, but that is far from what happened. People seemed to really appreciate the pieces I wrote and were very understanding of where I was coming from. I was definitely questioned a lot (mostly by fathers), but it helped me realize exactly what I was trying to get people to understand, which is that the queer community is being hated being themselves by a group of people who are quoting a book. A book that preaches love and acceptance of everyone and everything. I do not feel like my perspective on this subject has changed much at all after doing this project. I still believe that people should be kinder to each other and realize we are trying to be our best selves. A take away that I have is finding the right way to present your argument. If you simply yell your opinion at someone of the opposite “side”, nothing is going to be accomplished or achieved. If you use everyday examples and incorporate something they hold high, you’re probably on the right track. There isn’t really anything I didn’t know or understand about my values and beliefs after doing this project. I can sort of see where the “other side” is coming from when they say that it is against their religion. Religion is an important thing to people, it’s how some are able to get through each day. However, when you say you can not accept someone because they are part of the LGBTQ+ community, I find it hard to believe you. What I have gathered from reading parts of the bible is that Jesus and God wanted people to be happy and peaceful, no matter what your sexual orientation is. Therefore, I still can not see where the “other side” is coming from because there is not much evidence arguing what I am saying. To be completely honest I’m not sure what I have learned about democracy after doing this project. I can see where both sides of this argument are coming from, although I do not agree with one of them. I can also see how this has affected our nation as a whole and divided us into two sides, and I think that should change. It really doesn’t matter who someone is attracted to, and it should not have an effect on anyone else. That is their business, and only theirs. My political views have not really changed after doing this project. I still believe that people should be treated equally, no matter what their sexual preference is. I know that if someone runs for president that does not support the queer community I will not vote for them because it is silly and unjust to take away someone’s right to love. That is something I will never support. I believe that Rogerian rhetoric or the “willingness to be disturbed” could play a very big role in a democratic society. I’ve seen that people are less willing to be disturbed now because it is a very strange and uncomfortable feeling. We, as humans, do not like this feeling, which is completely understandable. We don’t like to feel uncomfortable, but sometimes it is necessary. If we no longer feel this, we aren’t going to be able to feel pain in ways that aren’t physical. We are shielding ourselves and the youth from feeling connected to things and situations that are painful, but it is necessary. Without this feeling, we cannot feel empathy for others in a more personal way. We have started to make movies and video games that portray death and killing living things like this super cool concept, when really it is nothing near that. We need to be disturbed and see how things are really happening, so we don’t desensitize the people that are going to one day be in control of our nation. Of our planet.
This is a collage I made representing the LGBTQ+ community and Christian backlash on it. I chose to incorperate hands into it to show we need to find a common ground where we can all get along and look past this issue of unacceptance.
Poem
Love Covers a Multitude of Sins Julia Busnardo
“Surrender to the good lord, and he’ll wipe your slate clean.”
As you read this, please remember to keep an open mind. That not all opposing opinions are bad, and that you are appreciated no matter what.
“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” It’s a laughable subject in certain context. You know, the subject where people are being shunned for their homosexuality. The one where people are disowned by their own mothers and fathers, simply for being transgender. The one where friendships are broken and families are abandoning their loved ones because they are not straight. Because they are “different”.
How can we possibly say we are moving forward in the world as a society, when we can not accept our neighbor because they are a “pansy”? Only because they are attracted to people that share the same gender. What was it that Jesus said? “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” So people can be hated under the name of Jesus Christ... and yet that is not true. To love everyone as you love yourself, is that no longer possible? Are we going to continue to disregard someone because they are part of a separate community? A community where people are praised for being proud of who they are?
“...homosexuality is wrong because it involves sex that doesn’t create life.” Sex is not something that should be constricted to reproduction, nor a certain pair of people. It is an intimate way to express the attraction you have for someone. The love you hold for them. Sex is a different way of connecting with the person you share feelings with, and should not be restricted. Why should you be allowed to have sex with the person you love and hold high, but your gay nephew can not have that kind of intimate relationship, thus holding them back from this feeling that is so powerful?
“Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.” -Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:43-47 It is ignorant to hate someone for being homosexual, especially when you are doing so under the names of Jesus Christ and God. They state that they love everyone, no matter their ethnicity, gender, or sexual attraction. God loves all of his children.
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
Personal connection essay
Can You See Me? Julia Busnardo
The halls are busy, voices chattering, bodies pushing through doorways. I’m not aware of any of this, for my mind is caught in a trap of odd thoughts. “Is this normal?” I’m asking myself. “Is there something wrong about this?” I’m entering my 7th-grade humanities room, slamming down in my seat, sitting and wondering if it’s normal to be attracted to both boys and girls, telling myself I should keep it private. But I don’t.
I realized I was bisexual when I was 13 years old after school one day in 7th grade. When it first hit me that I wasn’t straight, I thought it was a “bad” thing or that I was wrong for feeling attracted to both genders. I figured it would affect the way my friends saw me, so I just didn’t tell anyone. Because of this, I started trying to block it out and not think about it, which resulted in me not knowing who I was. I assumed it if I told people they would see me differently or judge me, but I didn’t keep it a secret from everyone. I started dressing differently to try and please myself instead of others, and my clothing style took a more masculine turn. I came out to a few of my friends at the end of 8th grade, my mom during October of freshman year, and my dad in February of freshman year. No one made a big deal out of it. I was relieved.
The thought of people not being allowed to completely be themselves disgusts me. The fact that people in China can only be in relationships with the opposite gender for legal reasons is depressing. WE only legalized gay marriage 4 years ago in 2015. The definition of legalized: makes (something that was previously illegal) permissible by law. I don’t believe sexuality should be seen as something that is either legal or illegal (unless it is pedophilia, beasteality, etc.). It is a part of who someone is. It’s not a label; it’s not a mask; it’s not something (that should be) used to get more attention. And yet people feel like they have to hide this about themselves. I know I did. My first thoughts were that something was wrong, that I shouldn’t have felt like that, and that it was bad. How can we say we are living in a world of happiness and acceptance when we can’t even accept ourselves?
I believe that not going to church had a big impact on how I accepted this part of myself. I never grew up in a religious household, so I didn’t realize (until I was older) that some people don’t think it’s ok to be attracted to people of the same sex, for religious reasons. The only religious aspects of my life when I was younger were my grandparents, but we never talk about Christianity. I occasionally went to the Dharma Center with my Buddhist mom. These definitely impacted me because one Buddist teaching is that you should accept each other and find happiness in everyone together. I grew up being told that on the daily, and it has impacted the way I see things. I feel that if I had grown up in a more Christian household it would have been harder for me to come out to the people in my life that are important. I have not yet come out to the people who are extremely religious out of fear. I worry that they will not accept me for who I am, so I have concluded that I would rather hide a part of myself from most of my family than possibly lose my connection with them. It’s really strange and hard being in this position because I don’t want to have to watch what I say around certain people and feel like I should hide a defining part of myself, but I am very scared not everyone will be ok with it. I personally don’t think religion and sexuality should be intertwined in any way. I don’t believe you should be able to tell someone they are going to hell simply because of who they are attracted to. I’ve been told this many times before and it doesn’t really phase me because I don’t believe in hell, but I can’t imagine being told this if I was religious. I don’t think people who say things like that understand how bad it feels to be completely separated from everyone over this.
So how are we going to create a world where people feel safe and comfortable being themselves? A world where people are accepted for who they are. One that doesn’t diminish a person for who they are attracted to. My parents, friends, and family all accept me for who I am; how can we accomplish that for everyone?
"eating is an agricultural act?" the ethics of food and eating
Throughout this project, I have learned so much more about food and what I am consuming. We had to read The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I was assuming would bore me to death. Instead, I learned about farming, corn, the meat industry, and so many other relevant topics. To me, this is a very interesting project choice. We could have learned about war or our presidents, but instead, we had to opportunity to learn about health. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, even though we weren't able to do any of it at school. This entire project was done at home with online meetings and updates instructing us through the project. One of the most interesting things I learned is that corn is pretty much in everything we eat nowadays. I don't mean you can find a kernel of corn in your doughnut, but there is cornstarch in that. There's some variation of corn in pretty much every food, and that is kind of freaky if you ask me. When people started coming over to America, the indigenous people here were utilizing this food called maize (corn). The explorers noticed that the corn could be used in many different ways, so they started using it while cooking more and more. Corn started being used more and more until it became a booming industry, and here we are today. We have different categories, sections, and strains of corn, and they are all sold by different companies. While we were learning about food in Humanities, we were also learning about it in Chemistry! I found this interesting because I was learning about a couple of different sides of food. Although we were learning about the food industry and health benefits in Humanities, we were learning about the chemistry of different combinations of chemicals that happen while cooking. For my project, I decided to bake cookies with different types of flours to see how the chewiness would change. I used bread flour, all-purpose flour, and gluten-free flour for each batch. I learned that gluten is what makes a cookie chewy because there are proteins, one called glutenin and the other called gliadin, which bound together while you mix the dough. These bindings make gluten, and the more bindings you have the more gluten there will be. I hypothesized that the chewiest cookies would be the batch made with bread flour, and I was right! Since bread flour had a lot of gluten in it, they came out the chewiest (by the by, bread flour chocolate chips cookies are the best). I enjoyed learning about food in both classes because it helped me understand how everything works in the food world. A main takeaway of mine from this project is that it's important to know about what you are consuming. I don't believe you should worry too much about what you're eating but it is important to take care of your body. I found that the project really impacted my view on food in a good way. I believe that you should moderate the food you are eating, no matter what it is, to make sure you stay healthy and happy to live the best life you can.
food ethic essay
"Your life on earth" personal philosophy project
This was one of the most impactful projects I've ever done. We started by studying philosophies about the meaning of life and what our purposes here are, and this is when the project really set in for me. As we read about what our purposes were, I started to subconsciously formulate my philosophy more and more, but I didn't have it quite yet. A few guiding questions that helped me figure out what life meant to me were "What does it mean to live a meaningful life? AND What gives your life meaning?" and "What is the purpose of (your/human) existence?" Instead of writing an essay about my philosophy, I decided to write a poem. I'm not really sure where the inspiration came from, but I've found that it's easier to write about subjects when I do it in the form of poetry. I also didn't have an inspiration for where I developed my philosophy from, I just stayed up late one night and figured it all out. Over the course of this project, I realized that people have been trying to figure out the meaning of life for a long, long time. It goes all the way back to Aristotle and his questions about why we are here. As I stated, we read many articles and watched a few movies (such as Into the Wild) to try and figure out what the meaning of life was/is to us. Through the research we did, I found that I don't have an answer, and that I don't need one. I realized that I don't need to know what my purpose or meaning is here, and that if I stress about finding answers to these questions and so many others, I will be wasting my time. As I read through all of these different philosophies, some saying the meaning is to find and reach the ultimate level of happiness while others said you must devote your life to one thing and pursue that, I found that I could be happy in the moment. My philosophy is that we don't need the answers to these questions. You're not going to be receiving the answers anytime soon, so don't stress yourself out about it. Because if we had the answers, what would that do? What would that change? From here, I'm not really sure where my intellectual quandaries and questions will go. I've realized I don't need the answers to questions everybody thinks about and wonders, so had my thought train stopped at the depot? I think that if I keep wondering about these questions I will find more specific answers, but I'm content where I am, and I'm happy. And I do believe that is a extremely important thing to achieve in this life.
Poem
I also had an art piece to go along with this poem, but I left it in a classroom at school and then we went on Spring Break and never went back to school. So, I don't have it, but it's a painted silhouette of a person and then a few blotches of different grays behind them. When the painted dried I wrote a ton of questions all over the paper that connected to the project (Why are we here? Where did we come from? What is our purpose? Etc.) and made it look like they were coming out of the persons head to connect it to my poem. I'm sad I'm not able to upload it on here, but don't worry! When I get back to school next year I will put it on here.