CAPS Blog #6

One intercultural relationship I am currently in is with my good friend from high school Greg. Greg and I are practically identical, having almost entirely the same interests except for one thing: I'm sexually interested in women, and he is sexually interested in men. He first came out about a year ago, saying that he waited so long because he was afraid of how people would react. It didn't change our friendship at all though, as we still regularly hang out and enjoy each others company just as much as always. To this day, Greg still remains one of my closest friends despite us living in different cities.

There are a lot of benefits that come with being friends with Greg from an intercultural relations standpoint, as it's given me a view what it is like to be a gay male in America. Growing up in West Omaha, diversity was difficult to come by, especially when it came to diversity of sexual orientation, so I made it all the way through high school without having ever (at least to my knowledge) met someone who identified as gay. Once Greg came out, however, I was able to see first hand what it is like to identify as a minority group like that, and my worldview has broadened and been refined, and as a result I am now a staunch supporter of gay rights. I've only encountered one challenge of my friendship with Greg, and that is the unacceptance others have for both homosexuals and even those who are sympathetic towards homosexuals. Bigotry is still very prevalent within today's society, and often times, at least in my experience, it is heard from people who are close to you. I have experience my own family members and friends disapprove of my friendship with Greg just because of his sexuality, which is a difficult thing to encounter, especially when the disapproval is coming from people you care about. However while it was a challenging experience to go through, it only strengthened my friendship with Greg.

My friendship with Greg exemplifies the relational dialectics of both Differences-Similarities and Personal-Contextual dialectics. The Differences-Similarities dialectic argues that we are simultaneously attracted to people who are both different and similar to us, therefore we try to find a balance between the two (Martin & Nakayama, 398-399). In the case of my friendship with Greg, we are such close friends because we have so many similarities, yet at the same time our differences, mainly sexual preferences, have exposed me to a different lifestyle and helped me grow as a person, which I value greatly. The Personal-Contextual dialectic posits that some aspects of relationships are defined strictly on a personal basis, whereas others are defined by the context, be it social or cultural, that a relationship presides in. For example, on a personal level Greg and I get along perfectly well, however as I mentioned earlier, within the context of friends or family members who disagree with Greg's lifestyle, there is strain put on our relationship as not everyone in our socio-cultural group agree with both his lifestyle and my support of it. 

References

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.