This is it!
I'm done with people constantly asking me whether I'm gay.
Dude are you gay? Are you interested in me in that sense? Obviously not! you
are just surprised by all the LGBTQ posts that keep cropping up in my wall. I
mean my friend posts cute cat videos...so she must be a cat in disguise! (Or
maybe she has a cat fetish of sorts...)
There are people who are just difficult to communicate with.
I generally just avoid explain this to them cause obviously they are just too
flabbergasted by the "irony" of it all: she's straight and she posts
all those gay stuffs, all the time on fb! Like, how is it even possible!
But then there are people who are like, stop making a hue and cry about it! by making such a hullabaloo you
are not allowing the gays to "blend" well with our society! What exactly
do you mean with "blend"? Cause although you intentions are but good,
your "blend" sounds more like "conform". And while you are
doing your bit by not raping people, not judging folks on the basis of their
sexual orientation, you really are not making any difference. And you are also
not doing any favour on society either!
And in case you have not noticed, gays are already paying
shit to "blend" with society. They are cases of ragging in colleges
which leads to suicides. And it's all because some seniors have "found
out" that the kid is a "gay". The LGBTQ population in India, at least
are suffering from a severe identity crisis. And maybe some gays do not want to
"blend" in with the society! They like cross dressing which might
come across as too loud for your taste. They like screaming out that they are
gay. Big Deal! And maybe they do not like having to spell it out to every other
person. Maybe they like to keep their gender-identity discreet. But they
definitely do not like to be silenced out! Nobody does! To pretend that
everything is okay when it clearly isn't. And
the thing that is not okay is not their sexuality, but other's reactions
to their being gay.
Has it ever occurred to you why we do not have
"straight" fb pages? Cause we do not freaking need them. And why do
we not just introduce ourselves as straights? Because we do not need them. A
guy looks at you and assumes you are straight. It's not even like , he/she bypasses
your gender. Whenever you meet someone,
you are actually assessing his gender along with his other character traits and
you might not even realise this, but you are! Have you ever felt the need to
introduce yourself as ,"hello, I'm straight!"? For you, your name was
enough. Well, then imagine how much a person has to have gone through to have
to introduce himself/herself as "gay" no matter how proudly he/she
does so. That pride is something that he has to choose. And although you might
not cringe when you see an apparent gay, others do! and those
"others" out-number you by a huge , really huge number. And more than
half the folks in LGBTQ fb groups are still living incognito. So there you are
__they are blending with the society
at the cost of gender-identity crisis.
When you like a "Dexter" Fb page, you do not have to hide that fact
from most people in the non-virtual world.
I am not gay , and I do not know the terms and sometimes I
do not even know the science behind it. But do I really need a special pass to
be able to speak for them? and when I speak for LGBTQ rights, I am in no way
trying to segregate them or section them. You know every time I use the word
them , I am not implying a me-against-them thing. And neither am I implying
that they are a different species altogether. But they need to be heard!
If every white person during the apartheid days felt that it
was none of their business, then there would never have been a anti- apartheid movement. Women empowerment in a all-female
society does not exist just like Black liberation in an all black society does
not exist! LGBTQ movement is not just theirs. They are already in terms with
their sexuality. Those that are yet to come out of the closet will eventually
do! but that closet is built by us! We
are part and parcel of the same society! Pretending that everything is okay in
the LGBTQ scene and that they deliberately exaggerate things, coz you are okay
with their sexuality and do not want to hear of it, is just turning a deaf ear
to their plight.
Remember when AIDS awareness was on, how parents and people
in general would cringe at the S-word? Well, you do not have unprotected sex,
so you do need to talk about AIDS. You are just very happy minding your own
business and criticizing those that voice their opinions against the obvious
injustice that prevails around your cocooned sanctuary . And before some of
you jump into conclusions of me
comparing homosexuality to a sexually transmitted disease, NO I'm not! But
ignoring the social plight of LGBTQ people is like a socially transmitted disease!
But then they say ignorance is bliss after all!
I know and I sincerely admit that I am fortunate enough to
never have to go into a closet or come out of it. And I'll never know what it
feels like no matter how much empathise with my LGBTQ folks. But that those not
mean that I just overlook the closet! And the truth is that it is only too
easy, with all my straight privileges, to pretend LGBTQ away.
And if by posting this I come across as a "liberal wannabe
show-off", so be it!
