Joshua Anderson Intercultural Communications

Project #1

Overview

The culture that I decided to investigate was the LGBTQ+ community. It is an

interesting group and movement going on in the world today and one that deserves some

attention. As part of my investigation, I checked out the pride festival in downtown Salt Lake

City and took a gander at part of the pride rally and march held at the capitol in Salt Lake City. I

wanted to go ahead and take the knowledge about this faction that I have acquired and share a

few thoughts and ideas about how this group can be classified using the value theory created by

Geert Hofstede. After that I will simply reflect on the experience as a whole and how it has

changed my outlook broadly.

Religion or Culture

The LGBTQ+ community is certainly a widely known culture in the United States today.

There are marches, festivals, parades, etc. all across the states raising awareness and helping

people understand their position. If you are not familiar with them, LGBTQ+ is actually an

acronym. According to OK2BME (n.d.), it stands for, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,

Queer or Questioning, etc. The plus is simply an extension into a whole bunch of other terms, but

I think it’s safe to say that it covers just about every base out there as far as gender, sexual

orientation, and identification goes. In short if you classify yourself as anything other than the

average sexual identity, this group will take you in whole heartedly. They are a group that wants

to be as inclusive as possible. They don’t care how weird or different you are from the cultural
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norm; they want you all. One of their rallying cries is, “born this way.” They believe that people

are born different and sometimes don’t fit into the way society wants them to, and that is OK.

Their culture is one that seems to be lively and fun. They like to be themselves and push for

change in their communities. A lot of different religions and organizations have fought against

them for a long time because of their seemingly radical way of thinking but they have persisted

and are stronger than ever in communities all across America.

Religious or Cultural Function

To further understand this culture of people, l went out to their annual pride festival in

downtown Salt Lake City as well as a march and rally they happened to be holding the same day.

I didn’t stay for too long at either one because I wanted to make it to both, but from what I

experienced, it was a real hoot to be among them. There were tons and tons of people that

showed up at the festival. The lines to get in stretched down the pavement for blocks at times.

There were tents and booths set up all across the park that it was held at where all different kinds

of things were taking place. Games, dancing, music, food, you name it and it was there. One

thing that was interesting was that the crowd for the most part, seemed to be a younger one.

There were definitely people of all ages there but the bulk of the audience in attendance seemed

to be younger people. The people were dressed in bright and fun colors. They were lively and

loud, and you could tell they were just happy to be having fun and celebrating their togetherness.

The music was newer, upbeat, contemporary and mostly American. Flags were all over the

place. Mostly rainbow flags, but they also had different country flags from around the world on

display, which I think speaks to their openness.

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After I spent some time checking out the festival, I went up to the capitol where I heard

there was supposed to be a rally and march. I drove up to the capitol and got close to the steps

where the crowd was gathered. I was there just in time to hear the last little bit of what the last

speaker had to say. It was Shireen Ghorbani, who happens to be a Salt Lake County council

member and a democratic candidate for Utah’s 2nd congressional district seat in the U.S. House

of Representatives. She said a few words about equality and fairness for people of all types and

then really got the crowd going. The crowd would hear a phrase or two that they liked and then

would cheer really loudly and jump up and down. It was my first time at a rally, but I have seen

a few on TV and it seemed pretty similar as far as the crowd interaction goes. After a few

minutes the crowd started to move and began their march right down state street. There were

officers there to block off side roads and ensure everyone was safe. People were dressing in loud

colorful things. Others held signs with messages of peace and acceptance on them. It was an

electric thing to behold.

Value Theory

List and explain the Value Theory that can be applied to your religious or cultural

experience. You should explain the basic concepts and assumptions of the theory. You should

use quotes and citations in this section from the text, Reading Packet, or online lecture.

The value theory created by Geert Hofstede is an extension of the value orientation theory

created by Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck in a lot of ways. There are key differences and additions

to Hofstede’s value orientation theory that I think make it a little bit better for explaining why the

LGBTQ+ culture is the way it is. To quote the textbook a little bit, “Hofstede identified five
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areas of common problems…Although the problems were shared b different cultural groups, -

solutions varied form culture to culture.” (Martin & Nakayama, 2012, pp. 107-108) The

problems he identified were as follows, Power Distance, Femininity vs. Masculinity, Uncertainty

avoidance, Long term vs. Short term, and Individualism vs. Collectivism. With these five

problems in mind we can identify what any given culture’s value orientation is based on how

they respond. Are they more likely to view life in a short-term way or in a long-term way? Are

they close nit or more of a closed off and single community? In answering these questions and

obtaining value orientation information we are then able to understand a culture in a deeper way

and we can predict behavior and possibly possible communication barriers. (Martin &

Nakayama, 2012, pp. 107-110)

Analysis

I don’t want to dive to deep into the understanding and theory behind why the LGBTQ+

community does what it does, but I will go ahead and write a few thoughts that I had about the

main value orientations that I view as crucial in understanding the ways that their culture is

different from mine. One thing that really stood out to me was the femininity of their culture. If

you remember, femininity vs. masculinity is one of the problems that Hofstede identified to help

us understand value orientations of cultures. Femininity means that a culture leans to fewer

gender specific roles and a value for the quality of life for all people. Masculinity leans in the

opposite way with more gender specific roles, a focus on achievement and acquisition of

material goods with less of a focus on the quality of life for all people. (Martin & Nakayama,

2012, pp. 109) I would say that from my observations at the rally and at the festival, this

LGBTQ+ culture is quite feminine in Hofstedes eyes. I listened to Shireen at the rally get up and
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speak all about equality for all and a quality for life of those less fortunate or in the minority. I

beheld people of all different types and flavors walking around wearing bright colors and

essentially what ever they felt like with no regard for tradition. A man could wear and do what

he pleased and a woman the same. Another value orientation concept from the theory that stood

out to me as being critical to understanding the culture was long term orientation. Again, if you

remember, long term vs. short term was another one of the problems that Hofstede identified to

gain insight into a cultures value orientation and thus their behavior. Long term orientation

believes that good and evil depends on circumstances, they aren’t as concerned with having all of

the answers at once and they value perseverance and tenacity while short term orientation

believes that there are universal guidelines to good and evil and they prefer quick results and

instant understanding. (Martin & Nakayama, 2012, pp. 107-110) I say that the LGBTQ+ culture

seems to be more long term oriented because they believe that good and evil does depend on

circumstance. They believe that people are born the way that they are and that they shouldn’t be

forced into any kind of role and that what is right for them might not be right for someone else.

They are also generally accepting of everyone and everything and want to be part of a larger

purpose in helping everyone just exist the way they are. In a lot of ways, they don’t need their

answers right now, they just want to live and be happy in the moment. I saw this in action at the

rally as people from all different spectrums of existence marched together as one. They were

willing to be part of something bigger. I also witness people dressed in costumes, not sure of

what box they fit in but simply willing to exist and love life anyway. Nobody was blaming

anyone else for who or what they were and not a soul was forced in anyway to conform to any

thing different than what they were. Nobody told anyone else how to live or what was right or
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wrong and I think that is clear evidence of a long-term orientation view of good and evil being

totally dependent on circumstance.

Reflection

Now let me reflect on my experience in completing this project. When I first found out

that I would have to do this particular project, I was nervous. I didn’t quite know what I was

going to do and what culture I was going to investigate. As time went on I decided to look into

something that would make me stretch. I wanted to look into something that was super different

compared to my own culture, so I decided to go with the LGBTQ+ community. As I attended

the events and researched a little bit about the community, I came to realize that there wasn’t

anything to be nervous about. They are people just like me trying to find meaning and purpose

in this life. Trying to exist in a way that makes them happy. I learned a lot about who these

people were and what they stood for. Honestly, I didn’t quite know what all of the letter in the

acronym stood for until I looked into it. As I applied the theory I really started to understand and

break down what makes them different from me and that was helpful. I realized that it was a

quantifiable difference, as I applied the theory. One that could be understood and worked

through. Now, as I go from class to class, job to job, and experience life, I will be able to look at

other cultures in a whole new light. I will be able to understand better why they do the thing they

do and I will be able to communicate on a deeper level with them. Again, I think the thing that

stuck home for me was that people are people and we are all just trying to exist and be happy in

the best way we know how. We search for answers and end up doing things just a little bit

differently but in the end that is OK. We can still get along and push past the differences we

may have.
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References

 Martin, Judith N., and Nakayama, Thomas K. Intercultural Communication in

Contexts (6th Ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, 2012.

 What Does LGBTQ+ Mean? (n.d.). Retrieved June, 1 2019, from

https://ok2bme.ca/resources/kids-teens/what-does-lgbtq-mean/