| I have never, ever been anti-gay. I graduated from high school in 1972, and everybody "knew" that several of the male teachers were gay, as well as a couple of my classmates, although nobody was "out" about it, at least to me. In college (Yale), the "Gay Alliance at Yale" (GAY, of course) was already in existence, but it had very few out members. I had one close male friend who was clearly gay, although he never actually said so for a couple of years. He is still my friend, 35 years later. Since then, I have had a number of GLBT friends (all components of the alphabet!). I knew a couple of people who, unfortunately, died of AIDS in the 1980's. Including one boy I was friends with in college, who was completely closeted at the time.
And I promised myself when I was very young that I would never be silent in the face of expressions of homophobia (or racism, or misogyny, or, in more recent years, transphobia, etc.) I've tried not to be. There wasn't much open homophobia when I was in college, but there were a number of guys in law school who would rant and rave about homosexuals (I couldn't help wondering why they cared so much!), and I had many an argument.
Now, I try to avoid people like that as much as possible.
Perhaps needless to say, when my son came out to me when he was 12, I was completely supportive and accepting. The idea of being anything else is incomprehensible to me. Although I do still expect some grandchildren!
Donna |