Queer-y

Oxford English dictionary describes a Homosexual as: a person who is sexually attracted to people of their own sex. Notice how the definition does not mention anything about it being an abomination or a cardinal sin? That should be our first clue that it isn't. But of course for the most of us, its in the subtext.

I am not an out-and-out supporter or condemner of homosexuality. I believe that its in freedom of choice. Everybody without exception has the right to be happy. It is not up to us to decide who or what makes them happy. So by that logic I guess I am a supporter of homosexuality.

When the majority of us are heterosexual we don't stop and think what it must be for someone to feel like they are different and that its a bad difference, because it makes them an outcast. We hear enough about homophobia and bullying to know that there is a problem. Many straight people still view homosexuality as a state of mind or disability.

Without thinking about it, we violate a person's most fundamental right. The right to be yourself. And the problem is we never really think about what it means to be different from what is socially acceptable. For many of us we are the definition of stereotypical girls or boys, and we never think, for one second what being different would be like. Are ideas of difference, our little rebellions in life are limited to sporting a tattoo or going goth or heaven forbid wearing  uncoordinated colours.

Yesterday I saw a short film on YouTube. The movie explored a world where being gay was the norm and being straight made you an outcast. The end of the movie was predictable, and the storyline cliched. Girl has existential crisis over being different, girl is picked on at school, girl is hit and ridiculed, girl kills herself from the pressure. However, despite all this I could not understand why the movie had impacted me so.

After a lot of soul searching I realized what it was. The film connects on a baser level to every heterosexual person. It makes you, for the first time, feel like you are on the periphery looking in to a world that terms YOU different.

Sitting alone and watching the movie makes you feel like the only heterosexual out there and the gross unfairness of what is being done to the poor girl for just being different. And suddenly it hits you. Is this how a homosexual person feels all the time? Its one of those aha moments that makes you realize how sickening it is to be discriminated against for being different. For being you.

The Cliched storyline and distressful end are ingenious. They put you in the other persons shoes. The point is not wether being homosexual is right or wrong, the point is being punished for being different hurts. For being something you cannot change, impulses that are so inherently you, is wrong.

So here I am writing this post. I am not preaching about the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality. I am talking about the wrongness of discluding someone for being different. The fact is, it really does not matter if someone is straight or gay, if you are comfortable with them being straight or gay, it matters that by virtue of them being humans you need to respect and accept them. Look at the movie and put yourself in the girl's shoes, it hurts everybody to be teased, bullied and HATED, regardless of whether you are straight or gay. The next time you feel like this towards anybody, think about Ashley....