I find it rather strange that gay men & women somehow have to go through this process of accepting themselves with respect to their own sexuality, but in order to lead as close to a normal life, they must COME OUT to family and friends. Lord knows if you don't come out, then your spend your life constantly being guarded about everything you say, suppressing your feelings, how you act, and who you spend your time with. Living in the closet is a miserable place to be since it suffocates your soul and the spirit of who you are. Living in a closet robs you of life!
So how come heterosexuals don't have to "come out?" Does someone who is left-handed need to "come out." Although it was once believed that the "devil was in you" if you were left-handed. When an woman is expecting a child, the happy expectant couple wonders whether it will a boy or a girl, who he/she will look like, and even whether the child will be right or left handed. Now you cannot tell whether a baby will be right or left handed at birth, nor can you tell what the sexual orientation of the child will be at birth. These are issues that become apparent with age. OK, so you are asking, what's your point? My point is, why is it that parents, and society as a whole, makes this outrageous assumption that this newborn baby will be heterosexual.
Did we assume the child would be right-handed, even if we know that only about 1 in 10 individuals will be left-handed. So although the odds are stacked that the child will be right-handed, we don't simply make that assumption. Yet, we seem to make this crazy assumption that the child will be straight! Isn't that kind of foolish when you come right down to it. In other words, if children are raised with the concept that we are a diverse species, that some of us are boys or girls, right-handed or left-handed, brown eyes or blue eyes, gay or straight. We need to STOP making this assumption that all children will grow up to be straight. Cause let me tell you folks, they ain't all going to be straight. Children need to be exposed to couples of different orientations, thus they will internalize that being gay or straight is nothing more than another version of what it is to be human.
Yes, I also know that the world is full of homophobic idiots who somehow believe that if we expose our children to differences in sexual orientation, that they might "choose" to be gay. OK...so all you heterosexuals out there, can you just now make the switch, and choose to be gay? Go ahead, I dare you to try. Just force yourself to be attracted to the same sex now. What's a matter, you say you can't do that. Well why not, if gay people "choose to be that way," why can't you make the opposite choice?
Children are one of our most precious gifts to have, and yet children that are gay are brought up in a world whereby they are made to feel "different." If we as a society raise our children to just see that being gay or straight is no different than being right or left handed, then none of our children will ever feel that they have to "come out." Rather, they will understand that sexual orientation is nothing more than another variety of being human.
Readers of this article are welcome to stop by my blog at http://aboutgaymen.com. I really would like to hear about your thoughts, comments, and feelings about the gay community.
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