DIVERSITY IN CANADA

Diversity in Canada

Diversity in Canada

Introduction

Canada is known for being one of the multicultural nations in the world. It is illogical to believe that there are not any biases or discrimination within Canadian borders. It is important for everyone to be aware of their individual bias, but it is vital for those who are in the helping professions such as social work. As this bias come to the professional's attention, they can make wise choices concerning who they can help. For instance, a person who has had a negative experience with Italian youth may not be able to work with this population and this experience can have an impact their work. All the individuals who are associated with NGO's should have enough knowledge about all the vulnerable individuals in the country. For these research paper, I am going to discuss four vulnerable groups in Canada that are: homosexuality; extreme feminism; Italian men and prochoice attitudes.

Homosexuality

The science of biology and particularly genetics has provided a critical perspective on understanding the complexity of human sexuality. While the history of scientific research on homosexuality in Canada dates back to the ninth century, the 1990s marked a period of great interest within scientific communities in the biological origins of homosexuality. The fundamentalist Christian world-view may effectively promote a rigid definition of gender roles with heterosexuality as the norm. For example, Rhodes (2004) found that Christian participants reported having more traditional gender role beliefs which in turn were associated with negative views towards gay men and lesbians. As the link between status and competence has the function of legitimizing the power-prestige rankings in the society (Berger, Rosenholtz, & Zeldith, 1980; Ridgeway, & Berger, 1986), attribution of lower status may serve to preserve hetero-normativity. To the extent that a group is experiencing a negative outcome that could have been controlled, lower status and thus low competence attributions should be expected. Thus, when the Christian world-view is activated, participants may be particularly likely to attribute low status to gay men, which in turn may lower perceived competence.

A variety of research has studied factors such as genes (heritability), hormone levels, and anatomical differences in the brain to argue for a biological basis of homosexuality(Tsai 2006). This research has affected public opinion in the form of increase in support for the “born that way” argument which argues for the biologically-determined origin of homosexuality and some decline in the “upbringing or environment” argument about the causes of homosexuality (Rhodes 2004). This is where my struggle begins as I have many friends both straight and gay and I would not like to see any of them mistreated in any way.

This bias has two components to it. Firstly; I have been raised in a conservative Christian family and taught that homosexuality is wrong in the eyes of God. My faith teaches me the bible is the word of God, and this is a fact I have chosen to accept for ...