Journalism / Acceptance, is it ours to demand?

Acceptance….Is it really ours to demand???

We demand acceptance and equal rights under the Constitution of the United States and we accuse organized religion of brainwashing the world against us; but what is the underlying reason for these demands?  We chant, protest and demand justice when an unknown homosexual, such as Matthew Shepherd, is killed for being who he or she is.  This is a kid who was murdered in his youth, before he had a chance to become the man he was to be.  Nobody knew him or knew anything about his life, but he prompted an outcry for justice from the “Gay Community”.  

Why do we persecute our own, but turn on a frightened world that doesn’t understand?  We chastise each other, we use each other for sex, we cut each other deep with our words and actions, but we don’t see the harm in this.  When someone is just “coming out of the closet” we see them as fresh meat, not the frightened child they really are.

We have become a community known for the abuse of sex, drugs and alcohol.  We retaliate against these allegations, but at the same time we frequent bath houses, have after parties where drugs are consumed like candy, and we spend our weekends at the local gay bar getting drunk and hoping to get laid, condoms may be used or maybe not, depends on our mood or if we “trust” the total stranger we just met a few hours ago or less.

We have become what everyone in society fears; we have become predators and turned our lifestyle into a pursuit of sex and drugs.  Before being gay was “legal”, we used bath houses as an excuse to meet other gay men; it was their fault we had to resort to underground bath houses because they would not accept us.  We are now accepted as human beings in mainstream society, but yet we continue to live in this lifestyle.

I would like to see the acceptance of gay marriages and gay rights within my lifetime.  We now have laws against hate crimes; this is a step in the right direction.  However, we cannot continue on the path we are on and expect America to embrace “trouble makers” and “promiscuous sex addicts” who have no morals or standards.  We have been portrayed in the movies and prime time television as the perfect best friend and even the perfect man.  The television networks and the stars of Hollywood have tried to portray us in a positive light to win the acceptance of mainstream society, but every time we go to a bath house or participate in random promiscuous sex we take 10 steps back from our goal.

The Trojans won the war by hiding in the Trojan horse; the community was proud of the great gift and gladly accepted it in the city.  The Trojans were able to penetrate the city without violence because the city did not recognize them or feel threatened by a horse.  I’m not saying we should hide who we are, but we should try to fit-in.  We are well-educated and intelligent people as a whole, we know how to fit-in and still keep our identity.  

In “coming out” I found it most difficult to tell my closest group of best friends that I had been friends with for 10 years.  I never told them I was gay or even hinted at it.  I found myself in-love with a man and lived a double life to keep it hidden from my friends.  I longed to share my “real life” with my friends and it was tearing me apart inside.  After more than a year of living the double life and being in a relationship with Thomas I couldn’t take it anymore and came out to my friends.  One of my friends was upset and somewhat disturbed because he and I had always had to share a bed when we would all go on road trips or vacations.  He later admitted to me that if he had known that I was homosexual he may not have been my friend, but he had grown to love me as a friend and it was too late, he loved me and couldn’t pretend he never knew me.

I never really pretended to be anything I wasn’t; I just didn’t share my whole life with my friends or anyone else.  Society as a whole has no reason to know what goes on in my personal life, whether I’m gay or straight, or if I’m married or single.  It is my life to live as I choose; nobody can ever take that away from me.  If I should decide to have a ceremony to announce my love for someone to my friends and family or to celebrate my love for that person the world cannot stop me.  There are legal ways of sharing financial responsibility with someone outside the bounds of “legal marriage”.  I can leave my estate to whomever I please.  A lot of business offer benefits to significant others of their employees.  The world has come a long way and will continue to change if it is not provoked into a defensive position.  It is a grand gesture and a great cause to speak your opinion and demand your equal rights under the Constitution, but it’s the way that we ask that needs to be reviewed and revised.  We complain about suffering at the hands of the government, but no group has suffered as much as African-Americans years ago, they suffered at our hands as a whole, they could not blend with mainstream society, they could not fight the white man alone, it was when they proved themselves to be more intelligent than the government gave them credit for and when they stood together as one that the change began.  Martin Luther King told his “people” not to rise up in anger and violence against the white man because violence and anger could never solve anything and would put the white man on the defensive and cause him to attack with more velocity.

We, as a “Gay Community”, must come together as one and stand strong without violence and offensiveness.  We must silently enter into the mainstream of society with strength to overcome any obstacles.

Reviews

There are no reviews of this item.