{"id":473,"date":"2016-02-17T16:25:50","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/17\/ferreira-on-being-gay-black-and-jewish\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:22:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:22:51","slug":"ferreira-on-being-gay-black-and-jewish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/ferreira-on-being-gay-black-and-jewish\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferreira on being \u201cGay, Black and Jewish\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

APRIL 6, 2012
\nby Shannice Singletary ’14, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I was different, I just didn\u2019t know how different I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aneesa Ferreira, of MTV\u2019s “Real World Chicago,” introduced herself as \u201cgay, black and Jewish.\u201d And she addressed the crowd Tuesday night with a wit, candor and honesty that spoke volumes. From her childhood, where she was tormented relentlessly for simply being who she was, to her relationship drama and the discovery of her own sexuality, Ferreira held nothing back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever kissed a girl before? I don\u2019t know where the hell I got this idea from,\u201d she quipped with a straight face, as the crowd exploded into laughter.<\/p>\n

Ferreira spoke to an audience of about 90, a blend of generally curious students, hardcore reality\u00a0television fans, and representatives from both SLBC and EROS, who sponsored the event. She talked\u00a0about growing up multiracial and the stereotypes and struggles she encountered.<\/p>\n

Despite her frank and easygoing nature, Ferreira\u00a0addressed many of the fears, issues and negativity that are associated with coming out. Ferreira is an activist in the LGBT community, and she also works toward raising AIDS awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came out, it was like I had a disease. . . . [People were like], \u2018How can you be gay, what\u2019s wrong with you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the talk, Ferreira urged the crowd to be open about their sexuality\u00a0and to respect the choices of others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what you look like. Whether you like girls or guys, you\u2019re beautiful, you don\u2019t have to answer to anyone . . . . People need to know that it\u2019s not important who you sleep with or who you love. You shouldn\u2019t be hated for either of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferreira was introduced by English professor Vincent Hausmann, whose lecture addressed the growing diversity of reality TV and how \u201cthe issue of representing minority groups cannot be limited to calling solely for positive Hollywood representations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through her\u00a0story of dealing with adversity, both on and off screen, Ferreira\u00a0urged many to rethink the way they view sexuality and the sexuality of others. In a way that only she could, Ferreira entertained and enlightened the crowd with an enduring wit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never said that I\u2019m a man-hating lesbian wearing rainbows saying, \u2018Watch your wife, I\u2019m going to take her.\u2019 Now I identify as queer.\u00a0I like what I like. . . . I\u2019m so comfortable with who Aneesa is right now that I don\u2019t need to label it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/a><\/a>APRIL 6, 2012<\/div>\n
by Shannice Singletary ’14, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I was different, I just didn\u2019t know how different I was.\u201d\u00a0Aneesa Ferreira, of MTV\u2019s “Real World Chicago,” introduced herself as \u201cgay, black and Jewish.\u201d And she addressed the crowd Tuesday night with a wit, candor and honesty that spoke volumes. From her childhood, where she was tormented relentlessly for simply being who she was, to her relationship drama and the discovery of her own sexuality, Ferreira held nothing back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,26,31,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-administrative","category-english","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}