Freedom to Love

I think of all the groups and all the things I've supported with this blog the one I've been quietest about is one I probably haven't been all that comfortable with. I grew up in a small town and as open minded as I try to be about things I haven't been exposed to everything yet. I have always been a supporter of the gay community but until recently they weirded me out a lil bit.


I just hadn't been around them a lot or maybe they hadn't come out to me yet. I remember in junior high there was one effeminate boy in school that everyone believed to be gay. There were a few masculine girls that everyone thought were lesbians. I don't know if they were but I doubt everyone treated them nicely. Nobody's very nice in junior high or high school.



Junior high wasn't a pleasant place for anybody. Everybody's at an awkward stage. Some more awkward than others. Some people try dyin' their hair, others wear odd clothing, some sulk in the belief that no one understands them. Everybody goes through this and for generations we just keep sayin' "Oh, they'll get over it." or "It's just those hormones."

Yeah, it's a biological fact that your body goes through a change. Doesn't mean your kid isn't without some issues. They need people to listen to 'em. They need help figurin' their bodies and everybody else out. They need to know that what's happenin' to them is natural. It's awfully depressin' to think that in all our generations, in the years that we got to the moon, that the Internet provided us with infinite amounts of information, the best we can do with a teenager's problems is go, "meh."

Society puts pressure on people to be a certain way. Whether it's the right or wrong way is to say the least debatable. In fact, I'll just go ahead and say it's wrong. Society says people should grow up and be normal functioning members of society. But the minute we surrender to normality we become barely functioning members of society.



We are all weird and strange creatures when compared to one another. How the hell do you make the strange normal? Put it in a restricting, bland suit, give it a short hair cut, and force it to act in a way that's unnatural to it through medication or threats? Yeah, that seems perfectly natural to me.



We are not machines to be programmed. We are who and what we are. We can learn to be better or worse. We can change our thinkin'. But never, never should we allow ourselves to be what we are not. But in this critical stage of adolescence we're told there's no room for fresh ideas or strange looks. There's no room for different cultures. There's no room for homosexuality. Be like us or be shunned.



All of us have given up a lil bit of that freedom to be "normal." We hold onto as much of it as we can but we can't keep all of it. We should hold those people who have chosen to be themselves despite society's shunning of them. They've been true to themselves for the thing that matters most, love.



If you can't be free to love who you love then why bother takin' your next breath? The gays and lesbians are a bold group and even now in 2010 society still says "You guys gross me out." That's not the best idea to have, in my opinion, because I will kiss, hug, and love whoever my heart and I choose.



The issue is not with him, it's with you. It's not a problem that two gay men love each other or that they are attracted to each other it's that you, the third party that has nothing to do with the situation, have an issue with it.