There’s been a lot of nonsense from various quarters about “tolerating the gay person” but not the lifestyle, and supporting gay people who “accept the status quo and don’t push their agenda.”
Let’s not even get into whatever-the-bejeezus a “gay agenda” or “gay lifestyle is”. Hello, do you even know any gay people? No, Dick Lee doesn’t count.
I don’t have a single gay friend who doesn’t wish to settle down, get married, own his/her own home, and have dinner with his/her in-laws. Some want children, some don’t. Exactly like my straight friends.
I know this may come as a shock to some of you. I also know that my perspective is different because I went to college in the Bay Area, and came to know many friends around me who struggled with their sexuality and eventually came out.
I know what happens when society rejects its LGBT population. The ones you see fighting in the courts, speaking out online for their rights, these are the minority who have learnt to be comfortable with who they are. But it doesn’t mean that the majority “accept the status quo.”
Want to know how they feel? They’re all around you, you’ve just never noticed them. They lead double lives: playing straight at work, even pretending they have “wives”, taking it ‘like a man’ in the boardroom. Some of them break up with long-term lovers, date women, get married, have children. Others remain single for a lifetime. But every single one of them desires love, a family, and to be accepted.
Just think about that. How does it feel to lead that double life? To pretend to be someone you’re not? To know that you can never show your real self, because everything you’ve ever had could be taken away in a second? How does it feel to know society rejects the real you? How would you feel?