Heterosexual Privilege

Heterosexuals have the privilege of... 

• Living without ever having to think twice, face, confront, engage, or cope with anything on this page. Heterosexuals can address these phenomena but social/political forces do not require you do so.

• Marrying...which includes the following privileges:

• Public recognition and support for an intimate relationship.

• Receiving cards or phone calls celebrating your commitment to another person.

• Supporting activities and social expectations of longevity and stability for your committed relationships.

• Paid leave from employment and condolences when grieving the death of your partner/lover (i.e. legal members designed by marriage and descendants from marriages).

• Inheriting from your partner/lover/companion automatically under probate laws.

• Sharing health, auto, and homeowners' insurance policies at reduced rates.

• Immediate access to your loved ones in cases of accident or emergency.

• Family-of-origin support for a life partner/lover/companion.

• Increased possibilities for getting a job, receiving on the job training, and promotion.

• Kissing, hugging, and being affectionate in public without treat or punishment.

• Talking about your relationship or what projects, vacations, family planning you and your partner/lover/companion are creating.

• Not questioning your normalcy, sexually and culturally.

• Expressing pain when a relationship ends and having other people notice and attend to your pain.

• Adopting children, foster-parenting children.

• Being employed as a teacher in a pre-school through high school without fear of being fired any day because you are assumed to corrupt children.

• Raising children without threats of state intervention, without children having to be worried which of their friends might reject them because of their parent's sexuality and culture.

• Dating the person of your desire in your teen years.

• Living with your partner and doing so openly to all.

• Receiving validation from your religious community. 

• Receiving social acceptance by neighbors, colleagues, and new friends.

• Not having to hide and lie about same-sex social events.

Source: 365-Day Odyssey through Sexual Orientation handbook.