A friend stopped by the office today. She's a work-a-holic and has just taken her first real vacation . . . to celebrate her 30th birthday. She went on a cruise with a guy-pal who was also celebrating his 30th. They became fast friends at a former job where they were two of the rare, liberally minded type peoples.
Just before boarding the ship, he turned to my friend and said "I need to tell you something, I'm gay." And she was all like, um, yeah?
Which reminded me of the first time a human told me he was gay. It was my first year of college. We worked on the newspaper staff together and formed a bond made of all night sessions putting the paper to bed and the stresses of being away from home for the first time. (Well, him . . . I had a bit more experience in that matter.) We'd gone into the town that bordered the college for pizza. While waiting for our food to arrive, he leaned over the table and very nervously whispered as fast as he could "I'm gay." With out missing a beat, I said "Good, what do you think of the guy who just walked in?"
He was floored I didn't react more, well, insanely. It's not like everyone didn't already assume, dude. I guess the difference between me and most of the humans he'd encountered was that I didn't use this information to tease, taunt, bully, or harm him. It just was a part of who he was, just as much as he had sandy brown hair.
Being gay or straight or any of the other ways humans label their sexuality doesn't MAKE you a good or bad person. It's what you do, the decisions you make, how you treat others, and yourself that matter so much more.
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