As I embark on a career in broadcast journalism, I have to admit my fears. My fear is not the hideously low pay coupled with the brutal hours. Nor is it the fact that I may get a masters’ degree in something that will prove to never be worth the money. My fear is that I will be broadcasting to an audience that may not want to watch me simply because I’m black or a female or seemingly LGBTQ. How can someone be seemingly LGBTQ? Well, it starts with being an opinionated woman that refuses to show her breasts on the news. If you haven’t noticed, everyone from Oprah to U.S. Secretary of State has been accused of being homosexual even when they clearly say they are not. Now, there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, but there is something wrong with the perception that an independent woman must be gay. This had led me to one conclusion, that I might as well be gay.

According to the HuffingtonPost article, “Oprah Addresses Lesbian Rumors, Cries to Barbara Walters,” Oprah exclaims that, “I’m not a lesbian. I’m not even kind of lesbian.” She then goes on to say that, “the reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think that I’m lying. That’s number one. Number two: why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life.” Yet, as eloquent as Oprah has confessed that she (1) is not gay, (2) believes there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, and (3) does not lie on television, there is still massive outcry that in fact she does the opposite of the three aforementioned points. Why? Is it because Oprah is single? Intelligent? And a Woman! How many men are single, powerful, intelligent, and have long term relationships with female and men (whom they also bashfully cry out are only their friends) but are never ridiculed? Perhaps America needs to stop judging the gender relations of other countries such as India and China, and start judging our own.

I say, that I might as well be Gay, because as long as I live in a country where being an opinionated woman is associated with manly attributes, then why fight back? After all being Gay is not a bad thing. And for once, it may actually end quite a bit of arrogance and intrusion into the private lives of many successful and independent women. By independent, I mean women that don’t rely on a man for everything.