Equality Has To Happen Soon

-Sometimes I just get upset, and fed up with life.

I often wonder if straight people think about being straight as often as I think about being gay. How about the Asians or Blacks … do they constantly ponder their lifestyle or their race … wondering about the effect they have on the daily relations with other people?  I would guess probably not.

There’s a fundamental difference, of course, between being black or asian and being gay … like Steve and I are. One’s racial makeup can’t be hidden … very easily at least.  But on the other hand, our homosexuality can.  Hey if your gay – who the heck knows … unless you walk around in a dress with a beard.  Here I live in a major city of nearly 100,000 people – I’m gay – but if people knew I was gay ( Steve and I are not out ) would we be treated better or worse than we are now.  Would people treat me differently if they knew I was gay?

That’s the scary question.

There’s still a lot of hate out there in the big wide world, and right here in the United States and even here in northern Minnesota. Hate crimes happen all the time. Lots of people believe that homosexuals should not be entitled to the same basic rights and privileges enjoyed by heterosexuals.  Now that kind of thinking is lame, but it is real.

If your a guy, living right here in the United States of America … the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy requires you – as a gay man in the military to repress your personality and way of life, sometimes to their own detriment.  How much of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” have you heard on the news lately?  Lots!

Sure I get upset … at my fellow citizens because all of us as gay men struggle for equal rights.  You know how you were raised … “land of the free and home of the brave” … ya right – that’s a bunch of baloney!  Yep, as I said up above … sometimes I just get upset, and fed up with life.

As a result, I often wonder: how often do straight people think about being straight?  They are never made to feel like a stranger in their own city or neighborhood like I sometimes do … as a result of the hatred that people have for gay men.  I don’t think they have the feeling of being the only gay at the church or the job or where ever it may be … that I have.

Just think how much better our nation would be, if gay men – like you and me – were accepted and not rejected.  It’s so sad, and so hurtful that in many places across this great country of ours – we are not liked.

I have to tell you – I look forward to a day where the entire world is like Minneapolis or Chicago or San Francisco or Amsterdam – not because there would be a high gay population (although quite frankly I wouldn’t be complaining), but because in cities like those that I just mentioned …  “sexual orientation” is a non-issue – it doesn’t mean a darn thing to anyone.  Why?  Simply because everyone is treated and considered to be “equal” and people love you no matter what your sexual preference is or whether or not your a man who loves another man … like Steve loves me and I love him.

Will this change happen in my lifetime?   I don’t know … after all I just turned 63 two days ago and as far as I can tell things are changing ever so slowly in this country, but who knows – nothing is impossible.  Maybe under this President – Barack Obama … we will see “equality” for all gay men.  I still believe in miracles.

I look forward to the day of reality when “Brokeback Mountain” is just as popular as the rest of Heath Ledger’s movies were.  I look forward to gay men being able to freely love other men and having true equality, like heterosexuals in their relationships.  I’m not saying that I want everyone to hold hands and skip along down the street like a bunch of idiots and fools, but we would be so lucky to live in an equality based society – right here in Minnesota and right here in the good old United States of America.

Can you imagine it … real equality and true freedom to be who you are?

Wow!