Portfolio

Consult the Portfolio Toolkit  in the Course Resources for further guidance on the Analytical Essay portion of this assignment.

Consult the Résumé Toolkit  in the Course Resources for further guidance on that portion of this assignment.

Use a professional-looking cover page or title page that reflects what you have learned in your writing courses for your major:

Resist putting a picture from the Internet on your cover page. Use only your own original work and not borrowed materials in your document design.  Analytical Essay for Portfolio: Write an essay of a minimum of 1,500 words that analyzes and reflects on the learning that is evident in the selected works in your portfolio. Introduce each piece in the portfolio and reflected briefly on how it represents significant learning or insight for you. In the analytical essay, expand upon how your selected sample works contributed to your insights about communication, both personally and professionally. You might also choose to explore how your work in communication studies has helped you to better understand your work environment, your family environment, society in general, or world events. If you like, you might inform your essay with a particular theory or framework from your studies, but that is not required.

Alternate Essay Assignment: If you do not have enough of your coursework to collect in a portfolio, write a 3,000-word Analytical Essay about four or more significant assignments AND/OR significant courses that you completed in your studies here at UMD. Describe each one and analyze why it is significant to your growth as an individual and a professional. . If you must choose this option, omit the Core Contents section of your report, but still prepare a Title Page, Table of Contents, Introduction, the expanded Analytical Essay, an APA Style List of References addressing any material cited in the Analytical Essay section of this Portfolio, and your Résumé.

NOTE that the Portfolio section of the Course Resources includes a Checklist. Please review it and adhere to the expected contents.  Each section of your Portfolio must begin with a heading in boldface before the section's opening paragraph. Those headings must be the same as listed in the Table of Contents and address the sections listed above. Use the Evaluation Rubric below for guidance on how your work will be assessed. 

Evaluation Rubric for Curricular Portfolio Analytical Essay with Résumé

Upload your completed portfolio using to submission button below or go directly in the Assignments area of the classroom through the link in the blue navbar.

Completed portfolios are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday (Jan. 24).

 Attached below are my four samples of coursework:

1. INDIVIDUAL LINGUISTIC IDENTITY PAPER: COMM 380

Introduction

Language is used to express ideas, pass information from one person to another and express one’s feelings. It happens to be just like a basic necessity, and that is why all people including the little children use language. It is the basis of communication. Without language and communication people would not be able to communicate effectively neither would they be able to express their needs and style. Language is learned while one is growing on the end most probably kids learn the language that is used by their parents or those that bring them up. Language is used at workplace, schools, home and even social gatherings. Without the language, it would be so difficult to figure out how things would be.

Body

Throughout my entire life, language has been everything to me. I have been using language for so many purposes. One of the considerations that I have been doing using my language is interaction. Language has enabled me interact with my friends and fellows. For example, in school, I have been using language to do group discussions in class. Developing school study groups has also been successful due to language. Language has enabled me pass my exams because of consultations I have been doing to enhance my knowledge. Apart from consultations, I have been using language to study. The books studied in school are written using English language, and if it were not for my knowledge of the language, I would not be able to understand what is written neither would I be able to interpret. Therefore, language has contributed a lot to my academic excellence (Anderson, 2009).

I use different dialects when communicating with different people and this depends on the relationship that exists between me and them. It as well gets affected by the gap or the distance that separates me and them. When talking to family, I tend to use simple language and can utter anything apart from when talking to my parents. My communication with my siblings is filled with humour, jokes and sometimes it becomes satirical or ironical. The purpose behind this is because I am very free with them, and a very short distance exists between me and them.

When talking to my friends, anyone who is a stranger can tell from the look of thing. Humour guides communication with my friends although with those friends that I have academic relationships, with them, I tend to be more serious since the relationship that exists between us is professional. With my professors, lecturers and school heads, the communication is professional. Official language is likely to be used together with professionalism that gets ensured. In my communication with my professional colleagues and workmates, there exist purely professional relationship between me and them and hence, there are no jokes as opposed to the way I talk with my friends and family (Joyce, 2012).

The value of my identity language is above average in performance if I can say. The reason I may consider myself having a high value of personal linguistic is because I have been able to excel academically, and that has been accelerated by my knowledge of the language. One point in life, I have ever been appointed as the school president. That also happened because I had the ability to communicate fluently. Most of my friends have relatively lower values of linguistic identity because in most cases, I have been leading them even in the class academic groups.

Conclusion

In conclusion, language facilitates interaction amongst people. It as well makes people achieve their professional goals as well as academic goals. In addition, language makes people understand their culture and understand those people that surround them. It is important to know one's linguistic identity value for the purposes of improving them in case they fall below average.

References

Anderson, M. (2009). Language. New York: MacGraw Hill.

Joyce, J. (2012). Linguistics and its Importance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2. Literature Review: SPCH 324

Abstract Previous studies have documented that, most women respond less favorably to competition than men. Conditional on performance, men are usually more eager to compete, and they tend to respond more positively to an increase in competition. This literature review examines the robustness of these differences as well the factors that may have given rise to them. Both field and laboratory studies confirm that gender differences in competitiveness tend to result from differences in attitude and overconfidence towards competition. In risk aversion, gender differences, however, seem to be playing a smaller robust role. This paper concludes by asking what should be done to encourage qualified females and males to compete (Allan, 1992). Introduction

Despite significant advances in female education, we continuously see gender differences in labor market outcomes (Dolan, 2014). A standard explanation for these persistent differences includes discrimination, and that men and women differ in their preferences and ability over jobs. Economists have increasingly interested in investigating whether gender differences in competitiveness may help explain why labor market differences exist. If women are reluctant to compete, then they become less likely to enter male dominated and competitive fields.

This paper is a review of the rapidly increasing literature based on gender differences in their competition. A sequence of studies documents that, women are often more reluctant to compete than men condition on performance. The study provides an environment in which some factors like preference or discrimination for, family don't compromise any gender differences in competitiveness. Other merits of this study are that, it is possible control factors that may influence competitiveness systematically. The literature in this study has become a prime example of a very fruitful interplay between experiments and standard economic methods.

The review starts by presenting research on preferences for performing in competitive or non-competitive incentive schemes. Looking at Dolan (2014) which records considerable gender differences in tournament entry showing that, these were primarily driven by gender differences in attitude and confidence toward a competition. This study organizes the subsequent investigations of causal inference around the central explanations for the observed gender gap.

Gender gap

A gender difference in performance is greater in a competitive environment than in a way that is not competitive. Specifically, men respond positively to an increase in competition than women do. Throughout this literature, a concern is raised that women with high-ability opt out of competitions. From an economic perspective, this loss of high-ability workers is costly and thus paramount to ask what can be done to address the tournament entry.

One strand of this literature takes gender gap in competitiveness as given to asking whether changes in institutions may encourage high-ability women to join environments that they are likely to succeed. Another strand questions whether competitiveness is learned or innate and investigates the measures that can be taken to change gender gap in willingness to compete. In a light of the review, this paper conclude by presenting research that questions whether it is advantageous for individual and society to encourage more gender competitive behavior.

Women shy away from competition

This paper examine whether men and women differ to join games when controlling factors that might account for such differences. Attitudes toward sports are a very significant factor towards the outcome of a game, although men feel comfortable performing in a competitive setting while women may feel anxious about such prospects. Moreover, in beliefs about relative performance, men tend to be more confident that they are among the highest-performing participants and thus likely to compete. Finally, in feedback aversion and risk the tournament is not only competitive but is also, uncertain and provides more information about performance than the piece-rate scheme. For instance, if women are more averse to such factors, they may be less inclined to choose a competitive compensation (Dolan, 2014).

Gender Differences and competition in Beliefs

There exists a vast and extensive literature in psychology that finds women less confident than men about their relative ability. Economists have recently begun to replicate and investigate this finding. A series of approaches has studied the role of confidence in the gender gap role for entry into the tournament. A better way is to measure the beliefs directly as well as use them as controls to decide on whether it is wise to enter a tournament. An alternative way is to manipulate ideas by changing the task. Relative performance expectations typically change when performing in a stereotypical female rather than a male job. Another way of assessing the roles of beliefs is to provide participants who have information on relative performances before they make a decision whether on whether to directly manipulate ideas.

In contrast to previous studies, it has been found that controlling for beliefs and performance accounts for gender differences in entering a tournament. The previous literature elicits beliefs on piece-rate performance, although such beliefs affect the choice that comes with a piece-rate scheme and a tournament. They do not eliminate gender gap. Grosse & Reiner (2010) use a measure of overconfidence that does not correlate with the competition entry decisions and find a significant gender gap in tournament entry when controlling for beliefs. The overall evidence suggests that elicited beliefs explain but do not eliminate the gender gap in, winner of a competition entry. The second way of assessing the role of ideas is to manipulate them by changing the task. Choosing a math task to understand why women are reluctant to enter competitive and male-dominated fields.

Earlier studies discovered that gender differences in beliefs are present when it comes to a masculine domain. One treatment provides participants with information on the performance of the winner of a tournament of their group of four. They found that this information eliminates the initially observed gender gap in a competition entry. These studies combined demonstrate that feedback reduces the gender gap in tournament entry.

In summary, this literature has shown that, conditional on performance, men and women differ in terms of their beliefs about their relative performance. These differences in beliefs help them explain the gender gap in tournament entry. However, when controlling for beliefs, gender differences in a competition remain when examining stereotypically men tasks. By providing information on a relative performance or changing the job to one that females are believed to have an advantage reduces and simultaneously eliminate the gender gap in a tournament entry. Additional research is very necessary for assessing the extent to which precise beliefs measures can account for the gender differences in a competitive entry Afshar, & Eade, (2004). Gender Differences and competition attitudes of risk

When the payment is made riskier in a tournament, the expectation is that risk aversion will d influence directly affect the personal decision to enter a tournament. There is a vast literature in economics and psychology debating when, whether and by how much females are more risk averse than males. Women demonstrate greater risk aversion. Although women are more prone to risk in some situations, many studies have found no gender differences. A number of previous research has examined the extent to which risk attitudes can account for the gender difference in competitiveness.

One way to controlling for risk is to have participants make choices that mimic the risk of the tournament entry choice. Kleppinger (1995). Take this approach when eliciting compensation decisions for any past performance. The risk of this decision is no different from that of entering a tournament and then competing. Using this decision in two ways to evaluate the role of risk. First, when selecting a compensation scheme for a past piece-rate performance, it has been found that, gender gap do not exist in tournament entry when controlling for performance and beliefs.

The theories suggest that, risk aversion is unlikely to playing a role when selecting compensation for a performance in a future. Second, if a past piece-rate performance selected as a bonus choice for control, it was found that, there exists a substantial gender difference in tournament entry. Thus, risk aversion cannot adequately account for that gender difference. Similar results have been shown by and Kleppinger (1995). Basov & Basov, (1992) replicates the second result without analyzing the first one? He measured risk attitudes by having their participants choose an incentive scheme for randomly drawn numbers. Kleppinger (1995), found major gender differences when he was making a decision on submitting past piece-rate to the piece-rate or a payment scheme when controlling performances only. In a competition, women perform less

Previous studies repeated measurements, using environments in which performance measured on short tasks. Performance on such tasks remains unresponsive when it comes to the incentive scheme. After this paper studied the relative performance of men to that of women it discovered that depending on incentives scheme at hand, an observation lead to erroneous inferences when deciding whether to encourage competition or not. If a competitive pressure of a longer-term task can affect performance, then we need to be cautious when recommending that women who are highly non-competitive in their performance tend to enter competitions.

The first paper is vein Basov, & Basov, (1992). They conducted an experiment at the Teknion in Israel in which men and women solved questions on the Internet for twenty minutes under different compensation schemes. Four men and three women participated in each session of the experiment. Although gender failed to explicitly mention, participants could see each other and then determine the gender composition of the group. Each treatment had 31 men and 31women, and no one participated twice; that is, each participant performed under one incentive scheme. Gender, place and culture: A journal of feminist geography, (1994).

At the end of this experiment, all participants were informed what they had earned. Under a piece-rate payment that had a compensation of about $0.7 per every completed maze, the average performance of all men was 14.0 points, whereas it was 12.0 for women. The difference of 2.0 points is not very significant. Comparing the gap with that in a competitive pay treatment the later has the highest-performing participant, paid six times the usual payment rate, that is, approximately $4 per point. The remaining members of the group received nothing as a pay. In the case of ties, winners shared their payment equally. The average competitive performance of men of 15points was higher than in the piece rate, whereas production by women of 12 points was not significantly different from a piece rate. The gender gap in the performance of 4.2 points under a competitive pay is significantly higher than the difference of 2.0 under the piece rate.

Increased gender gap in performance was attributed to gender differences in competitiveness as well as in risk attitudes. The tournament payment is both uncertain and competitive. In the previous section above, we show that gender differences in risk aversion have no robust effect on entering a competition, and in general fail to eliminate the gender gap. However, deciding whether to perform highly in a competition, gender differences in risk aversion may have a significant effect. In a random pay event, one participant is selected and paid $3 per maze while other remaining members did not receive pay for their performance. The uncertainty of this payment scheme is no different from that in a tournament.

In a random pay treat, the aggregate performance of men to women is the same to those in the piece rate. Moreover, when comparing tournament performance, the end results are the similar whether the piece-rate performance or random pay used. It, therefore, seems that men and women differ in terms of response to competitive payment schemes. The results explained by earlier authors in three ways.

Firstly, women may not perform well in competitions since they cannot solve more questions without incurring high costs. Secondly, females may compete, but not against men. The fact could be because women feel that they can only perform somewhat less in this task than men and hence they may choose not to exert efforts to increase their performances. Finally, it may not be the performance of female that needs explaining, but the performance of males (Basow & Basow, 1992).

Sports

There are major reasons why significant gender differences in sports competitions do not exist. Firstly, sports competitions are typically within gender. Evidence from previous studies suggests that the gender gap in competitiveness is smaller or not at all in single-sex competitions. Second, the performances in a sports competition are rather precisely measured, and therefore it may be argued that elite athletes have a good sense of how their performance ranks in relation to that of others. Hence, gender differences in overconfidence get smaller in such environments, which result in a smaller gender gap in competitiveness. (Allan, 1992) used data from Grand Slam volleyball tournaments to investigate the response to competition. Allan examined the data and found out that, an increase in stakes decreases the quality of the game for both women and men. Although the reduction is greater for women indecisive set, gender gap in performance is not significant at all. Each point ranked following its probability to winning the game. Thus the effect of competition on the general performance usually differs by gender, with females likely to make unforced mistakes at crucial points in the match (Allan, 1992).

Current status of gender and competition

To stamp International Women's Day the OECD discharged a significant new investigation on sexual orientation and instruction.

What are a percentage of alternate courses in which sex is imperative in training? A just discharged Trends Shaping Education Spotlight begins with the self-evident: The lion's share of instructors is female over the OECD. This is most stamped in preprimary and essential instruction, where give or take 8 out of 10 instructors are ladies. In auxiliary education, 68% of lower optional educators in TALIS nations are female, and in countries such as Slovak Republic and Estonia and the, more than 90% of instructors are all ladies.

Is this critical? Among columnists and approach producers, there is an affinity to join the lower execution of young men (especially in perusing) to the way that most instructors are female. On the other hand, while the contention is instinctive, examination proof does not propose that bringing men into the showing calling would enhance young men's accomplishment, as measured by test results.

Going for a superior offset of men and ladies among educators can by the by have beneficial outcomes. Male teachers can serve as good examples, especially for those understudies who don't have numerous positive male impacts in their lives. A few nations are effectively looking to expand the quantities of male instructors.

So what could be possible? The Scottish government has endeavored endeavors to lessen sex based word related isolation with its "Be what you need" crusade.

These sorts of little steps could be imperative. Sexual orientation fairness does not imply that men and ladies ought to turn into the same, but instead that an individual's chances ought not to rely on upon whether they are conceived female or male. Instruction can, and ought to, assume a part in forming the state of mind and changing practices to enhance sexual orientation value. A world with more female PC researchers and in addition more male instructors and health awareness specialists? Sounds great to me.

The studies presented above are excellent examples of how researchers, based on evidence, have identified environments that are nonetheless possible to tell gender differences in competitiveness today. In several instances, evidence confirms the findings of the study. In situations with gender differences in confidence, many studies have confirmed that, the performance gap between women and men is rises with competitive pressure. The performance of men is also growing in response to competition while that of women does not.

Although the research on competing willingness in the field is limited, initial studies remain consistent with women choosing not to join competitions for which they feel qualified. Hence many results have explained what appears to be a reasonable ad hoc assumption of the underlying beliefs of a participant. In future, it will be a matter of future studies in combined field observations with assurance measures on relative performances (Worell, 2001).

Conclusion and discussion

Over the past decade, most economists have increasingly expressed interest in determining whether a potential explanation for persistent gender differences in the labor market may result from women and men differing in their attitude towards competition. What has been of particular interest is whether such differences can help explain why men hold jobs in which competition is required either to satisfy daily demands or to secure the job. In a stereotypical-males task, there exists a consensus that women and men with the similar ability differ to participate in a competition.

Whereas men preferred compensation under a tournament scheme, women prefer a non-competitive piece-rate system. Perhaps this is the most robust explanation for this difference in which men tend to be confident in their abilities than women differing in their attitudes toward competition.

Whereas men are more eager to compete, women seem to shy from competitions. The differential response to competitive pressure seems influenced to join sports, as well as performance in the game. The study evidence shows that there are environments with growing competitive pressure that causes gender gap in performance to increase, with men's performance increasing relative to that of women Gender, change & society. (1995).

Although studies have begun documenting gender differences in competitiveness, more work is required to assess the weight of such effects. From a societal perception, it is disconcerting that high-ability women chose not to participate in competitions that they feel they can easily win. The aggregate cost associated with having the best talent among applicants may be substantial. Research has, therefore, begun questioning whether and how high-ability women can be encouraged to join competitions. Firstly they opt thoroughly to change the organizations that select winners of the tournament. Although only a limited number of institutions investigated so far, it is apparent that systems that focus on an individual's confidence and attitude toward competition are likely to be particularly successful. An example of such examined body is an affirmative action quota.

Another option is to influence preferences and confidence for competition directly. Evidence suggests that preferences in games are not innate, and even may even be influenced through means in which females grow. It then becomes possible to nurture women to make them competitive. An option that is less explored but related is instead used to confront gender differences confidently. Although eagerness and overconfidence to compete may help one secure promotion, such factors may present a demerit in other settings. They may be carrying detrimental effect in cooperative settings in which one have to sacrifice resources to achieve the success of a team rather than oneself. Eagerness to win games may also negatively influence the ability of an individual to reach beneficial agreements with others.

Indeed, the literature suggests that male-to-male negotiations may result in inferior outcomes to those seen in male-to-female negotiations.

Related evidence field is found by Allan (1992) who investigated how male professional taxi drivers in Lima, Peru, respond to female and male clients who use the same aggressive negotiation script. Despite the use of bargaining scenarios, women frequently achieve superior outcomes than men do. Women obtain a better final and initial prices and frequently rejected than men.

Overall, in the recent decade, a new avenue of work in studying the differences in gender in terms of competitiveness. Although the phenomenon was robustly established, more work is needed to assess the importance attached to gender differences in competitiveness in career and educational outcomes. A new and vibrant literature has already made substantial strides while asking when competitiveness is harmful and if it is useful, then how valuable is it? How can it be changed? However, many open questions remain Taylor, (January 01, 2005).

References

Basow, S. A., & Basow, S. A. (1992). Gender: Stereotypes and roles. Pacific Grove, Caliph: Brooks/Cole Pub. Co

Dolan, K. A. (2014). When does gender matter? Women candidates and gender stereotypes in American elections.

Worell, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of women and gender: Sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender. San Diego, Calif: Academic Press

Kleppinger, A. (1995). Gender differences in sport orientation and goal orientation.

Allan, D. E. (1992). Gender differences in sport centrality.

Gender & psychoanalysis. (1996). Madison, CT: International Universities Press.

DeBoer, K. J. (2003). Gender and competition: How men and women approach work and play differently. Monterey, CA: Coaches Choice.

Afshar, H., & Eade, D. (2004). Development, women, and war: Feminist perspectives. Oxford: Oxfam.

Gender, place and culture: A journal of feminist geography. (1994). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Carfax International Publishers.

Gender, change & society. (1995). London: Taylor & Francis.

Taylor, J. (January 01, 2005). Who Manages Feminist-Inspired Reform? An In-Depth Look at Title IX Coordinators in the United States. Gender & Society, 19, 3, 358-375.

3. Martin Luther King Jr. speech Analysis: COMM 200

Kenneth Burke a language expert develops a method of examining motivation through a five – part dramatic pentad as written in his book “A Grammar of Motives” (Burke, 1969). Burke (1969) records that the choice of words is based on their dramatic potential and that each individual prioritizes a specific part of the pentad. The five elements of dramatic pentad are scene, act, purpose, agent, and agency. In the task I seek to analyze Martin Luther King Jr’s speech “I have a dream” with a focus on how he used the five elements of the dramatic pentad.

Martin Luther King Jr is the agent. He is the man who delivers the speech and being an individual of strong personality there was no one in a better position as at that time to deliver the speech more than he was. He was a great orator and his ability to capture the audience with his repetition approach to his speech was so seamless. He delivered the point of his hope for a better America by starting each sentence with the phrase “I have a dream” and” we cannot be satisfied” to state the injustices that were taking place. He had before this speech delivered others that made him a famous and an outstanding personality. He was also a scholar, he held a doctorate and his level of information, and knowledge that blended well with his deliver skills was unmatched. According to Kenneth Burke people who focus on the agent part of dramatic pentad believe that you need a strong individual to make things happen and in this case none suited the role than Martin Luther King Jr.

Agency involves the technique used by the agent to achieve their purpose (Burke, 1969). This pentad is associated to pragmatic persons. Martin Luther King Jr. Based on his wanted to deal with the matter at hand sensibly and realistically. His approach was more practical than theoretical. He did not promise the people that the war against discrimination will take a day. He says he dreamt that his children would not be judged by their color but the content of their character, that each American would have equal opportunity. This shows that his focus was in the future. He further referred to an earlier emancipation proclamation that shows that the course had long began and it will take time to reach the ultimate goal but that should not deter the progress it should encourage them that even if they don’t harvest the success of their efforts their children and the nation will. Martin Luther King Jr. uses hope as a tool to drive his purpose, he makes the people believe that there is only better ahead of them. And he reminds them that Country’s forefathers who had foreseen the better America 100 years ago put the words down in the constitution this invoked the believe of a better America thus faith as a tool.

This speech was delivered at the capital. The capital is viewed as a central place, where people from different parts of the country would meet. The capital is a fair ground to all and a message from the capital has a more serious meaning yet it keeps it in the mind of the people that this is a war that is being fought across the country not by a skewed section. Martin Luther King Jr further chooses a time when the Negros had grown tired of the discrimination, a revolution and fight for freedom was imminent and his timing could not be better. According to Burke, changing of the scene changes everything else. Had Martin Luther King Jr delivered the speech away from the capital its effect would have had the monstrous impact it had. People from all over the country may not have come. Therefore, the choice of place and the timing of the speech both largely contributed to its success

should be considered as a religious right. DeLaet, D. L., & Caufield, R. P. (2008, July). A study has been conducted which shows the different life spans amongst gay men and women who live their life as a homosexual. Many reports have showed that gay men have been infected with HIV or are living with AIDS. (Frisch, M., & Brønnum-Hansen, H. (2009, January). This study tends to show that a lot of this epidemic happened after a same sex couple has decided to get married. (Frisch, M., & Brønnum-Hansen, H. (2009, January). Studies have shown that some men were 35 years old or younger, as well as over 35 years old when they had their first same sex marriage. (Frisch, M., & Brønnum-Hansen, H. (2009, January). Studies have also shown that women getting married to the same sex was less, when they were 35 years or younger or over 35 years old when they had their first same sex marriage. (Frisch, M., & Brønnum-Hansen, H. (2009, January).   

	Some may question whether or not the debate over gay marriage is really over. Gay marriage became legal in the state of Connecticut in November 2008. (Galli, M. (2009, July). Marriage certificates were also granted doing this year in certain states. (Galli, M. (2009, July). The state of Vermont legalize gay marriage in April 2009 and in May of the same year, the state of New Hampshire and Maine decided to legalize same sex marriage as well. (Galli, M. (2009, July). A lot of the other states did not decide to legalize same sex marriage until later, some states today, still have not legalize same sex marriage. Some people may be concerned with legalizing same sex marriage and how same sex parenting can possibly have an effect on children. A study has been conducted to show how same sex parenting could possibly affect children. A study has also been conducted on some children who are being raised by same sex parents, which they have found out that the children are still being raised as normal children who are being raised by a man and a woman. This study basically shows that same sex parenting does not have any mental effect on how their children will be raised. 

	The rights for gay marriage have been recently supported by the United States President Barack Obama. In 2007, President Obama was not a big supporter of gay marriage. The President decided to support gay marriage at a private fundraising, in which he had some people who was concerned and supported gay marriage. The president stated that he wants equality and wants full rights and benefits for same sex couples, but he felt that religious beliefs would cause some serious issues. (Sullivan, A. (2012, May 21).  President Obama than changed his mind earlier this year in 2012 and decided to become a full supporter of gay marriage.  

	Homosexuality is and always will be a lifestyle which may cause a huge debate regarding where it comes from and what makes people want to live in such a lifestyle. Many people from the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered community may still continue to face several issues that are brought upon them but hopefully will put an end to many stereotypes and discrimination. Hopefully, this will also put an end to suicides amongst many teens, as well as allow the media to promote and expose the world to being more accepting of same sex relationships which develop in different cultures. The coming out process has become very important to the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender community because this not a way for learning to accept their sexuality but to become more comfortable with themselves as well as gain full support from people who matter the most to them such as their family and their friends. When society learns to be more accepting of this lifestyle, hopefully the stereotypes and discrimination will finally be deceased and allow each and every individual the right opportunity to live their lives the way they choose too. A lot of religious people at times often tend to judge homosexuals as living their life full of sins and automatically assume that they will not be able to enter heaven at the time when they leave earth but will suffer in hell. Regardless to what some people may think about homosexuality and religion, they should know and believe that God and his son Jesus Christ are loving men who loves, cares and accepts everyone for who they are, as well as for what they are regardless to their sexual preference. 

Reference:

· BRAMLETT, B. H. (2012, February).  The cross-pressures of religion and contact with gays and lesbians, and their impact on same-sex marriage opinion. . Retrieved from 
     http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=7&hid=102&sid=1b668c19

· Brumbaugh, S. M., Sanchez, L. A., Nock, S. L., & Wright, J. D. (2008, May). HTML Full Text Attitudes Toward Gay Marriage in States Undergoing Marriage Law Transformation. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=7&hid=102&sid=26079283

· Cook-Daniels, L. (2004, July/August). Why gay marriage is an issue for abuse professionals. 
Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=4&hid=102&sid=1b668c19

· DeLaet, D. L., & Caufield, R. P. (2008, July). Gay Marriage as a Religious Right: Reframing the Legal Debate over Gay Marriage in the United States. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/


· Frisch, M., & Brønnum-Hansen, H. (2009, January).  Mortality Among Men and Women in Same-Sex ]Marriage: A National Cohort Study of 8333 Danes. . Retrieved from 
     http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=5&hid=102&sid=1b668c19


· Galli, M. (2009, July).  IS THEY GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE OVER? Retrieved from 
     http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=6&hid=102&sid=1b668c19-4bb7

· Holz Ivory, A., Gibson, R., & Ivory, J. D. (n.d.). Gendered relationships on television: Portrayals of same-sex and heterosexual couples. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=2&hid=6&sid=00106038-ed36-4e14-908a-ecccb2714f7e%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUm  
· Meezan, W., & Rauch, J. (2005).  Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Parenting, and America's Children. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=5&hid=102&sid=1b668c19-4bb7

· Sullivan, A. (2012, May 21). THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SHIFTED THE MAINSTREAM IN ONE INTERVIEW. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=4&hid=102&sid=26079283-6c2c-4cd8-8ab7-72f8bfd5828e