¿WHAT IF GAY WAS "NORMAL"?

I remember when I first learned what “gay” was, almost like it was yesterday. I was in the grocery store with my aunt and cousins while my parents were out of town for a weekend getaway, and I saw a middle-aged white man in cut-off denim shorts and a t-shirt that was at least three times too small; it couldn’t have been any more stereotypical. I was at a very impressionable age (no older than six or seven years) and had never seen anyone dressed like that – not a man, at least. I asked my aunt why was he dressed like that.

“Because he’s a faggot,” she said. “He and all the other gay people like him are going straight to hell.”

“What is gay?” I continued, still not sure of what was going on.

“‘Gay means a man liking other men, or a woman liking other women,” she answered quickly. “And God doesn’t like that.”

From that point and for a long time afterward, I felt very uncomfortable around anyone who “looked gay.” I didn’t want to be near someone who God didn’t like, for the fear of Him not liking me as well.

A few years later, I became that someone.

It was extremely difficult for me to shake that idea my aunt put into my head: that being gay was wrong and that I’d go to hell for it. I didn’t understand how I could be punished for something over which I had no control. I reflected on other groups who’d been discriminated against for similar, uncontrollable circumstances: Africans enslaved because of the color of their skin, Jews because of their ancestry, etc. It all led me to wonder, what if “we” (African Americans, gays) were the majority?

I presented the question to my circle of friends, and none of them could answer immediately – much to my surprise. After the initial jokes about everything being much better organized and having extremely well-decorated homes and offices, we thought about how “gay” is portrayed in the media. When an individual who happens to be gay achieves some sort of milestone (i.e., being elected to public office), media instantly jumps on the fact that said individual is gay. If gay was “normal,” would it be as important? The individual could be a terrible politician with the qualifications of a penguin in a desert, but none of that matters – he (or she) is gay, and that is the biggest issue. What if, starting today, mentioning that someone is gay for personal description was banned in the media? Would Barney Frank be just another congressman? Would Frank Oceanbe just another R&B singer?

Now, many people refer to The Bible to point out how homosexuality is not normal and is, in fact, a sin. The term ‘sodomy’ is a direct reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, which God destroyed for “detestable things.” However, in this particular passage, The Bible never explicitly mentions homosexuality as a reason for the fall of these cities, although it does in others. Some argue that The Bible is corrupted from its original form due to numerous translations by different groups with their own political and moral agendas, and used the text to influence people by way of religion. So what if homosexuality was never referenced in The Bible? Would preachers and priests still condemn it? Would so many of us still turn away from our respective churches because we aren’t accepted in them?

I long for a day when “the gay agenda” no longer has to be differentiated from “the human agenda,” and for the day when there’s no need to separate “men” from “gay men.” No one is to blame for this; yet, everyone is to blame. True, LGBT Americans have different priorities than non-LGBTs, but that’s because we’ve been deprived of rights simply because of our sexuality – something we cannot control. As odd as it may sound, I look forward to the day when organizations like GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign are no longer civil rights groups, but true groups of human interest.

One day.

SOURCE: MUSED MAG