TOPIC: Interpretive drift
SOURCE: My experience at Humboldt State University
DESCRIPTION: Before I came to HSU, I didn't have any friends that identified as gay. I didn't know anything about gay culture. I never really even thought about it. I wasn't the type of person that was obsessed with having gay friends and watching Ru Paul's drag race. I didn't a gay friend to go shopping with or check out boys with, like I often heard people saying. When I came to school I met a guy in my dormitory hall. We had a lot in common and I thought he was really cool so we started hanging out a lot. He introduced to me to all his friends and we would all hang out. I later found out that he was gay and not surprisingly, he also had many friends that were gay. From then on, I also had a lot of gay friends. Now most of my friends are gay and we always joke about I have so many gay friends.
COMMENTARY / ANALYSIS: After having so many gay friends, I have seen how my views have changed on homosexuality and their rights. Before, it was never something I really thought about. But once I became close with the friends I now have, I experienced interpretive drift; as I became involved with them there was a slow and unacknowledged shift in my manner of interpreting events, as mentioned in Robbins. Before I thought it was silly when someone said they wished they had gay friends to do "gay" things with. Now that irks me because one of the most prominent lessons are that gay men and women have the same needs and wants and desires as everyone else. When we hang out we do normal things. We go to lunch. the beach, and just hang out. Some people think that gay men are all about sex, gossip, and plotting against each other. On my interpretive drift I have seen through the people I have met, that really is not the case. They have just as dynamic personalities as anyone else.
I had a similar experience with my best friend in high school; he wasn't gay at first, but I didn't notice any difference in attitude when he changed his sexual preference. When I eventually found out, I was thankful he hadn't become someone who flaunts his homosexuality, he was the same cool kid I had grown up with. I can also relate with my views regarding gay marriage rights; before I didn't really pay attention, but now that I know good people and a few I'm close to could suffer, it becomes a lot more important. The interpretive drift I experienced was happening when I didn't even know it; I went for 2 years before realizing my best friend was into other guys. Good post, makes me think back!
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