If I’m to interest and embrace all types of readers from diverse backgrounds and with different desires, I must stick my pen out there and write about sensitive subjects that might make some people squirm, wince and even deny that such things exist.
When you’ve had eight produced plays, one even landing on off-off Broadway, you’re exposed to things that might make small-town America blush. I doubt it though — unfortunately. Even TV commercials have stripped all things sexual of its secrecy and sacredness. So please, no attitude, intolerance or ‘oh geez’ when I say that in the arts I’ve met many homosexuals who are so bright, so caring, so funny. I can’t understand how people can be homophobic when a person’s sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with them — the ‘offended.’ Look, I don’t want to know either what goes on behind closed doors, be it homosexuals or heterosexuals. We’ve all seen ourselves naked in the mirror and deep down we all know why the Titanic really sank. Nothing was meant to hold up all that blubber. But because our images can be downright scary, we sort of make allowances for our imperfections. Funny, how it’s so much harder to make exceptions when it comes to others who may be ‘different?’
“But the Bible says deviant sexual behaviors are doomed for eternal damnation,” religious zealots tell me.
“But if you’re born that way, how can you be held responsible?” I ask.
“Born?! God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” they’ll rant. “You’re nothing but a misguided fool.”
This is when I get moderately vicious and defend a segment of society that, for the grace of God, I wasn’t born into. “Recent studies claim that a gland situated close to the pituitary gland determines one’s sexuality,” I quickly point out. “I’m convinced people are born that way; they can change those tendencies about as much as we can change our height or our eye color.”
“But people can change their height with hormone injections and turn their brown eyes into blue with colored contacts,” they’ll argue.
Can you stand it when jackasses challenge your every statement? Nothing short of a lobotomy will ‘kill’ their staunch beliefs — myself included. But I’m always praying that I’m open and compassionate enough to look and try to see down ‘the road less traveled.’ This is when I get all huffy and try to stump them on the heated debate of the homosexual’s sense of morality.
“Tell me, why would anyone intentionally put themselves in a position of being ostracized, ridiculed, and clinging to the fringes of society? Only a moron would, and by the way, there seems to be a correlation between brilliancy and homosexuality.”
“I’d rather be dumb, ugly and ‘straight’ than brilliant, beautiful and gay,” they’ll insist.
“Then you should be very happy with your present state in life,” I’ll smile.
Just read, my faithful following, the biographies of those strongly rumored to be gay, and then try to imagine history without them — Aristotle, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Julius Caesar, Whitman, Melville, Emerson, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Cole Porter and a man assisting me with my trip. We met via e-mail because he’s assisting me with making reservations in Europe. I complimented him on his efficiency and breezy personality. His last e-mail read: “Thanks for your nice words that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside — can’t wait to meet you.” Teasingly I told a male somebody who lives in my home that the e-mail was for him. One day you have the Internet and e-mail, the next day it’s gone.
Karen White-Walker is a Wilson resident. Her column appears every Tuesday.
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WHITE-WALKER: Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve
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