2) The public library. The one in my county is so good. It has a great selection of books (including things that have just been published) and I can just log on to their website, select something from the catalog, put it on hold, and then I get an e-mail when it's waiting for me at the library. To think you used to have to go to the library and search for books and hope that they were available. Now I just walk in, pick up my books from the hold shelf, use the self-checkout, and I'm back on the subway five minutes later. I love it! I still browse the shelves sometimes just for fun, but I love the time-saving aspect of the hold system.
3) It feels like spring is coming. I've really enjoyed this snowy winter. It was exciting. However, there's something so nice about being able to feel the heat from the sun through the biting cold wind and knowing that spring is on its way. I never understood the appeal of spring until I moved here. Spring in the desert is kind of awful. It's already starting to get too hot and it's windy and there are dust storms that turn the sky red and make it feel like you're living on Mars. Here, though, spring means daffodils and then tulips popping up randomly in the middle of highway medians, and all sorts of blossoms on the trees and lots of days that are perfect for bike riding. I'll still always prefer the autumn, but I'm starting to understand why people appreciate spring.
4) The training class I took on Friday. It's my university's training for people who want to formally serve as advocates for the LGBT community. I've always considered myself a friend to the gay community and an advocate for gay rights, but even so, I'm learning so much I didn't know. I didn't know how much I didn't know, if that makes sense. While I'm a friend and supporter, I'm not actually a part of the community in a very active way, so there is just a lot I didn't realize. For example, I feel like an idiot for not knowing that "homosexual" is not at all a neutral term, but a term used these days mostly by the religious right who are fighting against gay rights. Here I've been using "homosexual" occasionally in conversation thinking I was being politically correct, when in fact I'm being offensive. I take the second half of the workshop on Monday, but already I feel so informed and so inspired to make sure that I really am a true advocate for what I believe in, which is that being gay is no different than being left-handed or blonde. It's just the way you are, and why you are that way doesn't matter AT ALL. Nobody is going around lobbying to keep left-handed people from adopting children, or spending millions to figure out why left-handed people are left-handed. It's just considered a natural variation. And that's how society needs to think of people with sexual orientations other than straight. Some people are big-boned, some people have green eyes, some people have freckles, some people are gay. That's just the way it is. There's absolutely no reason to be against gay rights or to treat gay or bisexual or transgendered people any differently than any other people in the world, and no one will ever be able to convince me otherwise. I feel strongly about this (obviously) and I'm feeling ashamed for not being more of a vocal, visible advocate.
That's the whole issue: the straight people who are against gays are so loud and ridiculous (and wrong) about it, while us straight people who understand that gay people are just people like the rest of us who deserve equal rights don't speak out nearly enough. We just mind our own business. Which, incidentally, is what makes us capable of supporting gay rights in the first place. My opinion is and always has been: how does anyone else's sexual preference have anything to do with me? My feeling on the topic of sex in general is that as long as it's consentual, anything goes. That rules out rape, and it rules out sex with children (since children don't know enough about sex to be able to rationally give their consent). And rape and sex with children are the only sexual acts that I think of as "wrong". Anything else goes, as far as I'm concerned. As long as sex is between two parties who both agree that they want to do it, they can do whatever they want and it makes absolutely no difference to me or to anyone else.
But anyway, my point is, we straight people who support gay rights are far too complacent and willing to just mind our own business. We need to be better advocates, though. Here's a story: I have received information before (on the internet or in real life) about gay rights rallies or other forms of gay support, and I've always been reticent about posting it because I was afraid people might mistake me for a gay person. Sitting in my training on Friday I realized SO WHAT? So what if people think I'm gay? There are way, WAY worse things to be mistaken for than a lesbian. And if for some reason someone gets confused and thinks I'm a lesbian or a transgendered person, I can quickly clarify that no, I'm not actually gay, but a supporter of equal rights. Because I am a human being and believe that all human beings deserve equal rights. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that viewpoint. What on earth am I nervous about? So I'm going to finish my training and get my rainbow badge and post it proudly above my desk in my office so that everyone knows I am an advocate and a friend and a supporter. So I'm excited about my new resolve, but slightly ashamed that it took me so long to get to this active point when I have so many gay friends whom I love.
That's the whole issue: the straight people who are against gays are so loud and ridiculous (and wrong) about it, while us straight people who understand that gay people are just people like the rest of us who deserve equal rights don't speak out nearly enough. We just mind our own business. Which, incidentally, is what makes us capable of supporting gay rights in the first place. My opinion is and always has been: how does anyone else's sexual preference have anything to do with me? My feeling on the topic of sex in general is that as long as it's consentual, anything goes. That rules out rape, and it rules out sex with children (since children don't know enough about sex to be able to rationally give their consent). And rape and sex with children are the only sexual acts that I think of as "wrong". Anything else goes, as far as I'm concerned. As long as sex is between two parties who both agree that they want to do it, they can do whatever they want and it makes absolutely no difference to me or to anyone else.
But anyway, my point is, we straight people who support gay rights are far too complacent and willing to just mind our own business. We need to be better advocates, though. Here's a story: I have received information before (on the internet or in real life) about gay rights rallies or other forms of gay support, and I've always been reticent about posting it because I was afraid people might mistake me for a gay person. Sitting in my training on Friday I realized SO WHAT? So what if people think I'm gay? There are way, WAY worse things to be mistaken for than a lesbian. And if for some reason someone gets confused and thinks I'm a lesbian or a transgendered person, I can quickly clarify that no, I'm not actually gay, but a supporter of equal rights. Because I am a human being and believe that all human beings deserve equal rights. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that viewpoint. What on earth am I nervous about? So I'm going to finish my training and get my rainbow badge and post it proudly above my desk in my office so that everyone knows I am an advocate and a friend and a supporter. So I'm excited about my new resolve, but slightly ashamed that it took me so long to get to this active point when I have so many gay friends whom I love.
No comments:
Post a Comment