14 Questions about Privilege

Hey friends, Justin here.

Are you privileged?  In thinking about your response, you may wish to consider the following list of questions:

1. Have you ever worried that you or your partner will be harmed if you express affection in public?
2. Is it legal for you and your partner to adopt children in your home state or country?
3. Do schools in your state or country teach children about families like yours?
4. Have you ever been denied entrance to your partner’s hospital visiting hours because your state or country will not allow you and your partner to marry?
5. Do you hide your sexuality from potential employers for fear of discrimination?
6. Do people assume your gender or sexual identity are different than what they are?
7. Do your family and friends ever tell you that they love you, but not the lifestyle you have chosen—of pursing relationships where you are actually attracted to the other person?  Do they tell you this often?
8. Have you ever been singled out in class and asked not to disclose or discuss your gender or sexual identity?
9. Have you ever read letters to the editor of your college newspaper by fellow students expressing disapproval of who you choose to date?
10. Have you ever been afraid that you might be kicked out of an apartment or harassed if your sexual or gender identity is discovered?  Or has this ever actually happened to you?  Have you ever been kicked out of your home for similar reasons?
11. Have you ever been instructed by your school to avoid contact with homosexual members of the same sex “even for non-sexual purposes”?  (Or, if you are straight, have you even been instructed by your school to avoid contact with heterosexual members of the opposite sex “even for non-sexual purposes”?
12. Have your parents or friends ever donated money or time to political campaigns seeking to prevent you from marrying an appropriate person you’re attracted to?
13. Have you ever been encouraged, either explicitly or implicitly, to pursue relationships and even marriage with a gender to whom you are not attracted for religious, social, or other purposes?
14. If you have had sex, can you donate blood in your state or country?

 Image source: http://endtheban.cfs-fcee.ca/en/section/6

Can you add any of your own questions to the list?

This list was inspired by a training run by Robin Parry of Qmunity, BC’s Queer Resource Center in Vancouver.  The original idea seems to have stemmed from writing by Peggy McIntosh, including this article: http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf .