Break from Amish & Breaking Out As LGBT
Gregory Mason
Social • Jun 20th, 13
Something that has become popular in our reality world of television has been the Amish society and the community members who have escaped the life of Amish simplicity to discover the outside world of complexity.
However, this isn’t the first time that Amish individuals decided to take the chance on leaving their life for another. Before reality television hit the Amish community, adolescents have always been given the opportunity to explore the world around them with the experience of what the Amish call, “Rumspringa”. This has been a tradition in the Amish community to give teens a chance to figure out if they really want the simple life of being Amish long term or if they find the grass is greener on the other side.
In the past few years, reality television has found an opportunity to bring more awareness of the Amish community while giving individuals an opportunity to find what they truly want out of life. However, this has made the Amish population upset regarding the American exposure to the community.
Even though these few affiliates of the Amish community have the courage to leave their families and really the only community they have known their whole lives, there is wonder of how much more difficult it can be for Amish who leave because they are LGBT.
It may feel like the same situation, however, as a very religious community it may be even more of an already difficult situation if you decide as a person that identifies as LGBT to tell your family and friends you are LGBT. As an Amish family, they may just kick you out so you have no choice but to leave the community.
The Amish population with very strict beliefs and way of life may very well shun and disapprove of the LGBT member who decides to come out, because it is something that may be a major issue for the community. However, this type of story and representation has yet to be seen in the mainstream programming that has since been shown of Amish individuals leaving the Amish community for various reasons, but hopefully we will be able to learn about those stories as well.
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