In the 50’s I remember being told there are bachelors and then there are BACHELORS. The fore being a man who was dating and most likely any month might get married, someone who was introduced to your sister. The latter was a man, say the older uncle, cousin neighbor who NEVER ever was married and someone you should NEVER ever ask if he intends to be married. Everyone had a best friend who was a bachelor, but nobody ever wanted to be associated with a BACHELOR.
In the 60’s I remember learning that homosexuals were like having termites in the wooden frame of your house, once they invaded your private space, they gnawed away at the foundation leaving destruction in its wake. Homosexuality was like having Cancer, in the 60’s you only whispered the word for fear it would hear you and reek vengeance. You knew Cancer existed but always wished it away.
In the 70’s there was pride and it was called Gay. It was never a pride everyone embraced but somehow if you did the disco, wore the latest in fashion trends, and believed in sexual freedoms being Gay was cool. Until, in the latter end of the 70’s, when Gay began to mean irresponsible, unnatural and death. And ALL those who identified as Gay and those who others deemed as Gay like became public enemy number one.
In the 80’s it was the Queers that decided power was everything, and exerting power and pronouncing you being different and loving it provided even more notice. Take back the streets, stop the bullies by becoming a bully yourself, ignore the the rules handed to you by the standard bears and make your own kind of regulations. Let them know you hate them more then they hate you.
In the 90’s a new demographic was identified calling themselves LGBT. It was a more inclusive group who tried to showcase the wide variety of Americans. It was a demographic with hope of showcasing the commonalities between all of us and trying to educate all of us on what makes each of us unique. The LGBT community discovered the power of politics and lobbing and thought if you can’t fight the force, join them.
From the 50‘s to the 90‘s the names may have changed, BACHELORS, Homosexuals, Gay, Queer, LGBT but the fear, loathing, phobia, hate for anyone non heterosexual has never stopped. And somehow those ignorant of facts and the purveyors of fiction somehow think that non heterosexuals are stronger then their own God, mightier than the Constitution.
In the 2000’s there is a word which originally was muttered by men in white robes and masks, preachers filled with only fire and brimstone not grace and good, and bigots who find anyone not like them the reason for their own ills. The word is the F-word. It is a word which has more power as it is played out rather then said. It is insinuated slyly but forcibly placed into action. No same-Sex-Marriage...No Gay adoptions... if there is religious cause bullying of Gays is okay...no hospital visitations by Gay partners...revoke Don’t Ask Don’t Tell...Gays are sinners...no Gay boys or Gay parents of boys in the Boy Scouts...Don’t buy Girl Scout Cookies because it is an inclusive organization...
I was fearful of coming out and lied about my identity way too long. I even joined in the chorus of self hate by calling others Gay as a youth. I lost some friends (guess they never were friends) in coming out, I felt like I never fit in or fit in queerly. I thought I had no power as a Gay man. But now it seems that the BACHELORS, Homosexuals, Gays, Queers, LGBT, F-words, have so much power. We have the power to dissolve the Institution of Marriage to wreck the Catholic Church, to create the End of Days for the Evangelicals, to have the Torah turn into fire...to recruit heterosexuals into homosexuals...to turn Girl scouts into Lesbians and Boy Scouts into Queens. We can even start a nuclear holocaust if we so desire.
Call us a name, except our first name and send the word out the Devil has descended.
“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. (Ayn Rand)
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