Someone on my Facebook list posted a thing about how they are Proud to be Straight. The blurb under the picture had some snide comments about how people will probably get angry about that and how they didn't care because they were proud about and the rest of us straight people should be too. The blurb complimented everyone who did post it for being 'brave' enough to stand up for their straightness. I hope it made them all feel really damned brave.
Because let's face it, it is so hard to be straight in our society. Every day, we face people rejecting us for it. We face possibly beatings from random strangers or even from people we love. We live under the constant threat of being fired from our jobs. People vote to where we can't get married. People make up laws to where they can deny us service because they feel morally inclined to reject straight people. Some of us have been kicked out of our homes for being straight. Some of us have been sent out of our churches or our circle of friends for being straight. Many of us who love Jesus have been told we can't really love him because we're straight.
Oh no wait.......we never face that. We never face any of that. Society is based around straight people as the accepted default. No one is trying to pass laws to stop straight marriage. No one will fire you for being straight. No one will prevent you from going to church or say you shouldn't adopt a baby. If someone is going to not be your friend because you're straight.......that's kind of odd and either they are crazy or maybe you're reading the situation wrong. For the most part, straight people have it easy.
Being proud of being straight is about as brave or difficult as being proud of being right handed. Being right handed makes life easier because almost everything is designed for you. Is it really so horrible that some people out there are lefties? Does it threaten you so much? Does it cause you to some how doubt the importance of your own existence? Are you really going to go so far as to pass laws to prevent people from making left-handed scissors? Does that somehow oppress you because you can't use them?
I'm straight. I'm not ashamed of the fact, but I don't see it as so remarkable that I feel I have to be proud of it. It's never put me in a position to where I had to defend my right to be straight. I've never once felt like anyone would love me less because of it. I've never lost a job and wondered if it was because I like men. If I decided to get married, people would be supportive. They would make sure I got gifts and cake and all the goodies. No one would refuse to come to my wedding on grounds of them hating my straightness.
You know, back to the left/right handed analogy, I'm right-handed, but due to a growth on my arm, there are some things that are very difficult for me to try and accomplish with my right hand these days. So I have to try and do them with my left hand, and it is the most difficult, backwards, awkward, and unnatural feeling in the world. It makes me think about how people would try to force lefties to fit in with everyone else and use their right hand as their dominant hand. It probably felt just as unnatural and wrong for them as this does for me.
Trying to force yourself to straight when you're not is probably a lot like that. Sure, you can go through the motions. You can even perform the tasks....but it will always feel wrong, because it isn't the way you were designed to be. Why force people to do that? Just give them the scissors and coffee cups that work for them. Let everyone live the way they were intended to live and be happy. That's something to be proud of.
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