Sunset Tavern brings more to the community than chicken wings and beer. The popular bar has become more than a hang out spot for members of the gay and lesbian community.
Every Thursday, Sunset Tavern hosts Girl Planet Night. From 10:00p.m. to 3:00a.m. “ladies who like ladies” attend the bar to socialize.
Stereotypes go beyond professions, culture, languages and religion. In 2007, Intel came out with this advertisement that is obviously racist and stereotypical. The symbolism of the six black athletes bowing is definitely offensive and even though I’m not a member of the black community I also feel insulted.
The company claims that it was an innocent mistake, yet the message on this image tells another story.
Laura Martinez is a young woman in her mid-twenties. I met her at Sunset Tavern during my listening post. We kept in touch so I could get to know a little more about her community and try to understand what it’s like to be attracted to people from your same sex.
Some gay men and women try to physically express characteristics of the opposite sex but this is not Laura’s case. Lesbians at times can look more masculine and dress differently. Laura does not fit the mold. She dresses in feminine clothes and if she doesn’t tell you about her sexual preference you would’ve never guessed.
She couldn’t go to Sunset Tavern this week because of her busy schedule but instead we met at a Starbucks in Kendall where she was meeting another lady for a business proposal.
Laura has a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Florida International University. She works at the corporate offices of Regions Bank in Medley as an International Marketing Specialist.
Laura says that it was early in high school when she started feeling attracted to other girls. She’s currently in a lesbian relationship. She describes Martha, her partner as understanding and her “security blanket.” “She brings out the real me.” Martha and Laura have been dating for seven months.
But things were not always as smooth as they are now. Laura remembers her fear of telling her family and some of her friends about her sexual preference.
Her mother passed away when she was seven years old and she was raised by her father and his wife. Her relationship with her stepmother is a little “rocky.” Laura is the oldest of her siblings, she has a brother and a sister from her dad’s second marriage. Every day before going to sleep I would think about my father’s reaction. “I tried living like a normal person,” said Laura.
She started hanging out with a new group of friends and that gave her the courage to tell her family about her sexuality after 2 years of hiding her true feelings.
“My sexuality is still taboo at home,” says Laura. Her family knows about her relationship with other women but prefer not to talk about it.
Laura is also an activist in the gay and lesbian community. She has collected signatures with a group of other members of her community in favor or gay marriage.
Laura has wealth of stories and experiences she wishes to share with other lesbians to help them overcome their fears.
I recently started watching World of Jenks, a new show on MTV. I think it’s a great form of journalism. I wish there were more shows like this one, aimed at a younger audience and exposing subjects that are not easy to talk about, a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and the human side of their experiences.
Just how we’ve talked in class about people from different colors of skin, religions and cultures, there are also people with a variety of conditions.
Can’t Make Me Be is the name of the episode I want to share with you. The episode is about 20-year-old Chad, who lives with autism.
I think this is definitely one of the most compelling episodes and a great piece of journalism.
This semester my news consumptions habits changed. My courses are finally starting to be more related to what I will hopefully be doing in the future on a daily basis.
As a journalism student, it’s important to pay close attention to what veteran journalists do, the techniques they use and the way they communicate with the audience.
My TV set is the best tool I can use to learn from experienced journalists and I started watching a lot more news. I turn on the news when I’m about to go to sleep, I turn on the news in the mornings when I’m getting ready for work and in between whenever my hectic schedule permits.
One of the shows I started watching was Rick’s List. I was mainly attracted by the casual feel of it and the variety of subjects he would discuss. Another reason I liked the show was because Rick Sanchez is Cuban-American and to an extent I felt identified.
I liked the show so much that my parents started watching it too… until he was fired.
When my mom first told me about it Sanchez being fired from CNN I couldn’t believe it.
My Opinion:
A CNN source tells me that the real reason he was fired was because the ratings of the show were low.
Were his comments inappropriate?
Yes, I think he was inappropriate and unprofessional. If that’s his opinion about his management and members of the Jewish community he should’ve kept it to himself.
I also think that in general, we are becoming a society of hypersensitive individuals. What happened to freedom of speech? Is our hypersensitivity getting in the way? I understand that there are certain things that MUST be respected period. Yet I think that lately there has been a tendency to be very politically correct and by doing that we might hurt our own rights or the right another person has to express.
I don't have anything against homosexuals, but not much in common either. I believe that a person's sexuality doesn't define who they are, but this community is unknown to me. I have one gay friend who makes me laugh all the time; we even check out guys together. But I've never had a lesbian friend. In fact, one day in my acting class I had to play the role of a lesbian and I completely freaked out.
I decided to put my preconceptions aside and go in with the purpose of learning something new about a community I know little about. It was ten minutes before 8:00p.m. when I got to Sunset Tavern. The place was not very busy but there were a couple of girls eating and playing pool. I felt out of place by myself and surrounded by strangers.
I went straight to the bar and asked for a Margarita (my favorite drink). There were two bartenders, a guy and a girl. The guy was the first one to approach me and take my order so I started talking to him. Jose was the name on his badge clipped to his green polo shirt.
He seemed very approachable and I started talking to him. The first thing I told him was the purpose for my visit. Jose found it interesting and introduced me to Laura, an active member of the lesbian community.
I soon found out that Laura and I had more things in common than I expected. She graduated from the university which I currently attend and has a Bachelor’s degree in communications.
She seemed a little hesitant about sharing her thoughts with me but as the conversation continued she offered to explain more about her story and the experiences in her community.
Laura recently "came out of the closet" and told her parents about her sexual preferences. She said she was afraid at first and tried to cover her feelings but as she grew older she realized that she had a strong attraction for women.
We exchanged phone numbers and I asked her to meet up at the bar for more another interview.
This was my second visit to Sunset Tavern during Girl Planet Night. This week there was a bigger crowd. In addition to hosting Girl Planet Night, the bar also showed earlier on their flat screen televisions a baseball game, the New York Yankees against the Minnesota Twins.
The crowd was more of a mix in comparison to last week because of the game.
Last week I met Laura Martinez at the bar, she is an activist in the lesbian community and during this visit I was looking forward to talking a little more with her but she never went so I took the time to become more familiar with the place.
The bar advertises Girl Planet Night for “ladies who like ladies,” says Brandon Vargas, manager of the establishment.
I also learned that most of the management and the employees are gay.
At the beginning of this year, in a discussion about politics, my friend brought up the news about a plan to build a mosque in lower Manhattan, very close to Ground Zero.
At first I thought he was exaggerating and using this fabricated story to prove his point. But to my surprise he wasn’t.
I was surprised by the news and it didn’t made sense to me. Why build a religious sanctuary for people who practice the same religion of the terrorists who killed about 3,000 Americans? Why two blocks away from Ground Zero? Who is behind this and what’s his/her agenda?
I’m sure this is what many Americans are also wondering.
After some research, I found the answer to my own questions.
What they are proposing to build is not only a mosque; it’s an Islamic community center. The center will have a swimming pool, an art center, a basketball court and yes, a mosque.
The project is going to cost an estimated of $100 million. The proposed site is 13-story building that used to be a Burlington Coat Factory before it was ironically damaged during 9/11.
Feisal Abdul Rauf, a.k.a. Imam Rauf is the person behind the project. He is an Egyptian-American author and activist who claims to want to improve relations between the West and the Muslim world.
My Opinion:
No, they shouldn’t build the mosque in that location. I wouldn’t oppose to the project if it was somewhere else, in fact, I would favor the project because it exercises freedom of religion, one of our most treasured rights.
But I’m not the only one that shares his opinion. According to a CNN poll, 68% of Americans are against plans of building the mosque, only 29% are in favor. In New York City, the percentage of people against the mosque goes down to 53%.
Something else I find interesting is that when someone refers to this project as a mosque, you immediate associate the word with terrorists who killed close to 3,000 Americans. On the other hand, when you think of “community center,” you think of a place in your neighborhood where people meet and seek some sort of assistance.
But my main concern is from where is Rauf going to find the funds for this project? So far he hasn’t given the media a definite answer and has repeatedly denied access to financial statements.
I usually surround myself with people that have things in common with me. We share the same interests, behave similarly, come from similar backgrounds or just “click.”
I’m a straight young woman in my 20’s and conservative when it comes to romantic relationships. One of my close friends is gay and I feel as comfortable around him as I would with a straight friend. But I don’t feel the same way about lesbians; in fact I don’t have any friends who are lesbians.
I’ve never been interested in engaging in any conversations with them unless they approach me.
In my mind, I have a fabricated a perception of lesbians I created back in middle school and high school. Most of the members of the school’s women’s basketball team were lesbians.
They didn’t behave in a feminine way like me, especially the girls from the basketball team. Some of them used to hold hands and their behavior was manly. Their outfits were long loose shorts and shirts three sizes bigger than their actual size. They wore white socks and tennis shoes, instead of sandals that exposed my pedicured toenails. Their hair was always picked up in a bun or a ponytail, very different from my long blonde locks.
And that is why my professor assigned me to a lesbian bar for my listening post.
Hello!
I wanted to share with you this story from CNN. NY Jets football players in the locker room harassed a female reporter from TV Azteca, the second largest TV station in Mexico, during an interview with a Mexican player.
Reporter Ines Sainz personally received an apology from the owner of the Jets after the incident.
During class we’ve discussed the diversity of ethnic backgrounds and social classes, sometimes it’s uncomfortable for a woman to be in a predominantly masculine environment.
Curiosity is my main attraction to a career in journalism. They say curiosity killed the cat, but it’s in my nature to question and manifest a sense of inquisitiveness for the unknown. In fact, not knowing just makes me want to dig a little deeper and find out what’s hidden beneath the surface; in this case, other cultures and different ethnic groups. I’ve always liked the city I live in for the mixture of cultures and that’s what makes it a unique and exciting destination.
I come to this class with a fairly clear understanding of my opinions when it comes to ethnicity, but also with the objective to understand them a little further. The exercises we’ve done and discussed in class quite accurately reflect my personal opinions and point of view.
