Week 13

                On Tuesday we watched a video on transgender people. It started talking about a young boy Noah who acted, and pretty much thought he was a girl. He would dress up like girls, and dance. It was surprising to me that his mom said that people like him had a slim chance of living because of either suicide, or being killed. Like the one transgender lady who they talked to her boyfriend was beat to death with a bat in his sleep when people found out he was dating a transgender. The science behind transgender happens very early in pregnancy fork in the road, and some time the genitals will go one way, and the brain the opposite.  Also it was surprising to me how India had a very homosociety for men growing up. The boys growing up have very little contact with women or girls. Thailand to me was very different, but good in a way that they are very accepting of transgender people. I don’t know however if I like how they show of their transgender women in Bangkok.  

                On Thursday we had Russian Tea Cakes as our snack. I thought that they were very tasty and surprised they were a tradition in Mexican wedding cake. Then we talked with Ed the rest of the class. He was a very interesting person I thought. He has been through a lot I was surprised that he never had a point where he knew he was suppose to be a boy he always knew. I thought it was very cool how he had a lot of good friends for support, and especially his brothers helped him out. It was also interesting to me that he did not have to have voice lessons or anything it was just from his testosterone supplements. Talking to him really changed my view on transgender people he seemed very normal. I think some people think people do it for attention but talking to him it was very relevant that he was born to be a guy.  

Week 12

On Tuesday we started talking about how accessible places are for disabled people. Most places are getting better. Matt said the University of North Dakota was made very accessible, and Williston State is pretty good I think. However I thought it was crazy how you brought up that Matt would not survive in China. Nothing there is accessible for people with disabilities there are stairs everywhere. The thing that caught my attention the most was when you said that a lot of people there if they are beggars would mutilate their children so people would then in turn give them more money. This is something that I just cannot believe. We also talked about how everyone has disabilities or things that they are not good at, and every one becomes disabled sometime by the aging process. We also talked about learning disabilities. They are different because it is a harder to tell right away if someone has one. Also society sometimes just thinks these people are stupid. When really they just learn different ways, or learn different things better.

                On Thursday we had Mary from San Diego State talk to our class over skype. She was quite the character she talked to us about LGBTQ, or lesbian, gay, bi, tran, and queer. She talked about how her campus has done a lot to be supportive of lgbtq, and how they created safe zones which create a supportive environment for lgbtq.  I thought it was interesting because she believes she made the choice to be a lesbian that it was her choice she was not born that way. This is different then what you hear sometimes it seems to be a big debate on whether people are born lgbtq or they choose to be that way. She also said South Africa is the only country to consider lgbtq rights in their constitution and have same sex marriage. I thought it was really cool to meet Mary, and see that people that are lgbtq are normal people too.