Why are we gay? This poses quite a dilemma. I
think there are
many reasons why people are gay, most people, I think, are born
that way. But, this reason automatically flies in the face of true
freedom of choice within our society. If we are really in "The Land
Of The Free", we, as consenting adults, should be perfectly within
our rights to take up a relationship with whomever we please, for
whatever reason.
Also, the "born like this" approach causes
some to feel the need
for a cure. I don't even want to get into how many people's lives are
utterly destroyed in an attempt to rid them of the "homosexual defect".
For me, being gay is just a natural variation of human life. If most
people were born with brown eyes, would you want to cure people with
blue eyes? When I was a teenager, I thought it was the worst thing that
could happen to me. Now, I see it as a ticket to elitism. I'm special
because I'm gay, and I love it.
As gay people, we are supposed to be different
from straights;
more open minded, more sexually liberated, less quick to judge than
the average person, because we've all been on the receiving end of
such negativity.
Using gay sexual iconography is just as sexist
as straight society's
use of the "perfect" skinny legged Barbie doll model. Every straight
man is supposed to be infatuated with her image, and every straight
woman is supposed to want to look just like her. It doesn't work.
It isn't fair. It causes some real identity problems with individuals who
do not, and can not, fit the form. It is justification for some people
to
be sexually harassing. How, or why could we make the same stupid
mistake?
Eroticism has its place, on the shelves of adult
book and video shops
and on the Internet --where people can make their own choices as to
what they want to see. I like my share of naughty pictures, but I don't
like the idea of having this sort of thing shoved at me by an advertiser.
It's much more of a personal thing to me.
Being gay means so much more than how we have sex.
It's all about
the fact the we have spent our lives not fitting into the categories that
straight society has created for us. It's about how we take everyday
information and imagery and shape it in our own ways to make it work
for us. Our minds work differently. We see everything from a point of
view that is not accounted for in straight society. We have all had to
make ourselves over to be who we are. We illuminate every culture
on Earth. We think Gay, therefore we are Gay. We should be the last
to want to categorize ourselves within our own ranks.
Let's rejoice in our diversity and take pride in
what we all share.
Smile everybody. We're all beautiful!
JL :o)
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