Saturday, June 6, 2020

A 9 Year Old Boy's Thoughts About Gay Rights During the 90's

     This a reminesance about my  perplexity as a child about gay people's lot in society. Even as a child it made no sense to me that homophobia existed. It made absolutely NO sense to me. My preadolescent mind figured you should marry or be with whoever it is you have fallen in love for. To me, same gender relationships were the same as hetero except they both have the same gender I couldn't grasp the concept of why that is threatning to so many people.
      In school I remember President Clinton passing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gay people enlisting in the military. It BLEW MY MIND. I was nine years old and I'm like "what?! Why is this even an issue? How is it possible in 90s America that this is even an unresolved bias?"
     And then when I heard about people (I'm still a kid) fighting for the legalization of gay marriage, I was like "WHAT?! They can't get married?! I already thought they have been doing that since desegregation and the civil rights movement in 60s. Is this America?!" Because sure don't seem like it. I said "I assumed we already had those rights for gay people for 30 or 40 years. Is this America? I don't care whether my G.I. Joe is gay or not. Maybe he is gay. With the sailor. And they go in to battle protecting one another like a husband would his wife." Romantic.

     I was 9 years old and still more enlightened than a large fraction of the adult American population.

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