08-07-2008, 11:37 PM
I thought I'd give a quick take on this issue by drawing a parallel betwen the gay community and ethnic minorities...
Gay/bi people = a minority.
Black people from where I'm from = an even bigger minority
(I come from a village near a small town called Buckingham. It is a very typical home county rural market town. There was not a single black person in my primary school - a shame, i might point out)
By the way, as an aside, before you all jump at me in one big angry mob of political correctness I am most certainly not being racist, and I will come to a valid point eventually.....
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that for the first 10 years of childhood I did not come across very many black people at all. When we went away, shopping for example, I can distinctly remember staring at black people I saw. From my very young naive perspective, I saw black people as being different, and as such I stared, in much the same way as you describe people staring at a gay couple in the street.
Now, luckily for me, my parents are both from Barnet, North London, where the situation regarding racial groups is far from sleepy old Buckingham. They taught me in those very young years all about equality and how very rude it was to stare or single people out as being different.
Indeed, having spent two months volunteering in Africa, I no longer even bat an eyelid at black people. Now onto my point:
In the same way that I, having met and made friends with numerous black people, no longer see them as being anything other than just fellow human beings, I believe that people would no longer stare at, or single out, gay people if they were to just see more of them. If people regularly saw gay people holding each other's hands it would not be a big deal, and they would not stare with the child-like naivety I can so relate to.
Now I realise that I have only very recently "come over" as it were, and as such I have not experienced the kind of things you guys talk about (not looking forward to it). But, I suppose the moral of my story is..... if you are so lucky as to have a boyfriend, hold his hand in pride, as the naive people who observe you doing so will become that tiny bit closer towards not batting an eyelid.
Gay/bi people = a minority.
Black people from where I'm from = an even bigger minority
(I come from a village near a small town called Buckingham. It is a very typical home county rural market town. There was not a single black person in my primary school - a shame, i might point out)
By the way, as an aside, before you all jump at me in one big angry mob of political correctness I am most certainly not being racist, and I will come to a valid point eventually.....
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that for the first 10 years of childhood I did not come across very many black people at all. When we went away, shopping for example, I can distinctly remember staring at black people I saw. From my very young naive perspective, I saw black people as being different, and as such I stared, in much the same way as you describe people staring at a gay couple in the street.
Now, luckily for me, my parents are both from Barnet, North London, where the situation regarding racial groups is far from sleepy old Buckingham. They taught me in those very young years all about equality and how very rude it was to stare or single people out as being different.
Indeed, having spent two months volunteering in Africa, I no longer even bat an eyelid at black people. Now onto my point:
In the same way that I, having met and made friends with numerous black people, no longer see them as being anything other than just fellow human beings, I believe that people would no longer stare at, or single out, gay people if they were to just see more of them. If people regularly saw gay people holding each other's hands it would not be a big deal, and they would not stare with the child-like naivety I can so relate to.
Now I realise that I have only very recently "come over" as it were, and as such I have not experienced the kind of things you guys talk about (not looking forward to it). But, I suppose the moral of my story is..... if you are so lucky as to have a boyfriend, hold his hand in pride, as the naive people who observe you doing so will become that tiny bit closer towards not batting an eyelid.
![[-]](https://gayspeak.com/images/duende_v3_local/collapse.png)
