Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression


Throughout my 29 years of life in this ever changing society I witnessed various groups of people be discriminated against.  My most empowering incident of prejudice was with my co-worker who was homosexual.  Her and her partner had been trying to adopt a child for years before adopting their bundle of joy.  Through their process they were denied many times because of her sexual orientation.  My co-worker shared some of the interview questions that agencies asked them about that appeared to be bias in nature due to fact that the questions were about how they would be able to provide a ‘’balance’’ household without having a male in the picture.  This question made my wheels turn because I doubt that heterosexual couples were asked about their roles as mothers and fathers.  But needless to say they were able to finally work with an agency that focused on placing children in nurturing families instead of families that focus on sexual orientation.  The incident with my co-worker diminished equity because one’s sexual orientation does not determine whether they are responsible and nurturing parents.

            This incident brought sadness to my heart because my co-worker was being denied the privilege of being a mother due to her sexual orientation.  It made me think about how high the divorce rate is for heterosexual couples and the effect it would have on adopted children.  I wonder if the bias agencies that denied my co-worker only cared about heterosexual couples adopting children regardless of their happiness together.  

            There is nothing I would do to change the incident with my co-worker because she pushed through the prejudice she experienced by continuing her search to adopt a child through a respectable agency that did not care about sexual orientation.  

 

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