THE SHRINKING CLOSET

I read the other day about the murder of a young man by the name Lawrence King and it quickly became reminded me that we live in a society that is NOT prepared to deal with HOMOSEXUALITY @ any stage. Nonetheless, there are COUNTLESS of young males AND females who are trying on their sexuality AND displaying it for the world to see. Children are coming out younger in a society that cannot handle the complex issues of identity and sexuality. This situation has DIRE implications as we see with the murder of Larry. Even though homosexuality has become more accepted, the prospect of being openly gay @ a tender age raises a troubling set of issues. Kids may want to express who they are, but they are playing grown-up without fully knowing what that means. @ The same time, society is uncomfortable dealing with sexual issues in children. And young gay men AND women are caught in between. How do you protect legitimate, personal expression while preventing inappropriate, sometimes harmful, behavior? Larry King was, admittedly, a problematical test case: he was a troubled child who flaunted his sexuality and wielded it like a weapon—it was often his first line of defense. But his story sheds light on the difficulty of defining the limits of tolerance. Though his murder was horrible, the reason for it is not clear. Moreover, the fact that it was done by a male that was his age it makes it harder to deal with. Nevertheless, his life was taken and someone has to try and wash the blood off their hands, I just don’t think that person is entirely Brandon McIerney. In a tragedy such as this, the natural impulse is to try to understand why it happened and to look for someone to blame. But in my opinion EVERYONE of us are @ fault; I say this because we live in this world AND pretend that certain things aren’t happening OR that they will just somehow disappear. This just shows how wrong we are AND how bad things are in this world. Clearly the world would rather that we do NOT express OUR appearant SEXUALITY in the face of others. This is well understood, but what do you say to a child that does NOT know of this hatred AND ignorance? How do they balance their right to self-expression while preventing it from disrupting others? I FIND IT AMAZING HOW HATRED IS PASSED DOWN FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION; & IT IS OBVIOUS THAT COMING OUT @ A YOUNG AGE CAN PROVED TO BE A FRAUGHT PROCESS. THE SAD THING IS THAT FOR MOST YOUNG PERSONS TALKING ABOUT BEING GAY ISN’T REALLY ABOUT SEX; SEXUAL FEELINGS ARE TOO VAGUE & UNFAMILIAR TO BE ANY SORT OF MOTIVATION. IT IS MORE ABOUT EXPLORING THEIR IDENTITY IN A WORLD THAT DOES NOT WANT TO BE EQUIPPED IN HANDLING CHILDREN WHO QUESTION THEIR SEXUALITY. SO THIS SHRINKING CLOSET PLACES US IN A WEIRD PLACE BECAUSE WITH NO GAY COMMUNITY TO SPEAK OF, HOW CAN WE HELP THESE YOUNGSTERS? THE OBVIOUS QUESTION ISN’T WHETHER LARRY’S DEATH COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED. THE REAL QUESTION SHOULD BE HOW COULD WE LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THESE TWO YOUNG MEN COLLIDED & PRODUCED SUCH TRAGIC RESULTS?