'Coming Out? Some thoughts...' timothy r gates, 10/13/2010
I've closed my eyes at the dying of my favorite uncle;
couldn't take it when Grandpa died either.
Cold to the bone on my Grandmother's day;
was happy to help my brother say goodbye.
I've watched friends die of
Cancer, Heart failure, Alzheimers, and AIDS, as well as extreme sadness.
Sat next to friends who didn't understand
why their baby died, their husband wasn't healed, and why no one stopped a knife from being pushed so deep.
I've listened to people speak of hell
for the bad, the evil, the Devil and his angels, as well as those queers, as well as those who believe correctly.
Known those who speak of heaven
for the good, bad and ugly, for the hopeless, even devils, even Judas, even for people without any belief.
I've watched hatred
I've watched love
I prefer knowing the latter.
I am grateful for love lived out wherever it is lived out. I've known and I know people who do so, in their own estimation
more often than not only a little well (it's a big club, those of us who try to love purely). Where I've seen 'straight' people live together,
love together, live their lives in sadnesses and happinesses, - it's more than cool. I've seen the same know the dread of sorrowful
degeneration into ugly hatred and divorce, and worse the same without divorce. I've known the same with those of my friends who happen to
be 'gay.'
Over the years I've heard the refrain, when speaking of 'Gay people,' that, 'It's all about SEX!' Yes, of coure it is, at first. Show me where
it's different for 'Straight people' when SEX is first discovered.
I can hear, I've heard it before, someone quote this passage and that one, from
the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Koran, and more, all pronouncing Gay or Homosexual living as sin and abomination. And? Make sure to read the other items that are listed too, and see if you'd like them to be still enforced: Women as property of their spouses, and children the same. Those not of your Faith seen as 'strangers,' that you should show kindness, but never mingle. Those not of your Faith called 'dogs' or 'pigs,' unworthy unless you convert and leave your unbelieving families. There's a list of forbidden foods and mixtures of clothing, too, that at different times are called abominations. To eat meat with any blood in it, if you eat meat, was seen as sinful even in the first century of Christianity. These are only a few observations.
When I was a boy races, as well as religions in many places still, did not mix. It wasn't the sort of informed racism of today, since we weren't allowed to know each other enough to be good (sic) racists. When I was a boy, most mothers stayed home, and most jumped at any 'request' of their husbands, and when they were married and a text about 'wives obey their husbands' was read, it was expected to be followed. When I was a boy, if you disobeyed a parent, a teacher, or someone in authority, you could be beat. (Yes, some will protest that we were spanked out of love, but with boards, belts, and switches. Irony, this sort of loving discipline stopped as soon as you were big enough to hit back. B.S.)
When I was a boy, a beloved family member, of whom I looked up to, felt it necessary to take his own life merely because he prefered those of his own gender, but lived at the wrong time to live with the embarassment. -----I am glad for all I learned through love as a boy. I am, also, glad for all I learned by misapprehended love, though perhaps unintended, hatred. This is where my choice comes: Do I choose to love my neighbor who does not violate another's choice, or do I choose to impose my choice?
1st by Tom Waits, the last by Bono & Pavarotti Ava Maria (in between, only for those without thin skin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wfamPW3Eaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_cOkWjYEiE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTOffYj5TxU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYDcfDpeQA
