Diversity Rules Magazine

January 2018

Diversity Rules Magazine - _lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning_

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3 Diversity Rules Magazine January 2018 Tarringo T. Vaughan al- ways believed he had a love affair with lit- erature. One of the first pic- tures he saw of himself was of him at maybe the age of three or four year's old sitting with a book in his hand. But for Tarringo, growing up in the depths of the inner city both in Boston, MA and Springfield, MA made him believe that expression through the lit- erary voice was un-cool and unattainable. As a very quiet and shy child he learned it became very valuable in his self expression ere are many fears in the world and everyone is afraid of some- thing. Sometimes we don't realize our own fears until we are faced with them. A co-worker screams suddenly and intensely every time she spots a spider; this is her arachnophobia: a phobia that many people besides her have, but a phobia that can be over- come through more exposure to spiders and that can be the case for many of our fears. As a child and into my early adulthood I was afraid of my own image in the mirror which is something they call Eisoptrophobia; something I never heard of but after realizing what exactly it was I understood my own fear. Time has healed me, seeing myself and loving myself more has healed me although there are still times I don't like seeing images of myself. And I've heard of fear of heights, animals, the outdoors but I never thought or realized there were people with a fear of me. Homophobia: e fear of homosexuality or fear of being homosexual. Where do I begin here but to say I use to have the fear of being gay myself. When I started to realize the pos- sibility, I decided I wanted to hide it or hoped it was just a phrase. Overtime I realized I was hiding who I was out of fear of society's view on me. Not sure what they would call that kind of phobia. But I and so many others suffered from it. In fact I know many who still do. Homophobia is indeed a fear but it more is de- fined as hatred or is it cowardice? To an extent I can understand how hard it can be to accept difference, especially when there is a lack of knowledge or expo- sure to that difference. Isn't that where we get many of these phobias? Times are getting better though as peo- ple are becoming more open minded and accepting but of course the more things change the more things stay the same. Homophobia isn't cool these days so I find that it's hidden as is racism or any other prejudice out there. But there is still small mindedness rampant out there. Some people have a fear of thinking…(for themselves) called phronemophobia and a fear of knowledge called gnogiophobia. Yes, there's a name for all kinds of fear. And I actually think homophobia contains both of those fears. An openness to think and openness to knowledge when it comes to those we see as differ- ence. And when there are differences even within that subgroup we really have to open ourselves up to under- standing or attempting to. Homophobia is something that more pisses me off than hurts me as an individual because if your content with yourself then there is no need to try to make someone else feel small or "Queer" for not being like you. And I'm going to say this as I know some are homophobic when it comes to my blogs (this one in particular). ere is no worst phobia out there than the fear of yourself. ink about that. Phobia Diary Of A Black Man By Tarringo Basile-Baughn

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