Ode to a School Cap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

There is probably at least one gay/transgender boy or girl in every school, struggling with their personal identity while unable to articulate on it and/or no one with whom they can share a growing 
sense of personal crisis. Yet, LGBT issues are rarely (if ever) openly discussed as part of a structured programme embracing social issues. 

Few schools approach teaching and class discussion about sex and relationships very well; among even among those that do, little (if anything) is said that is meaningful to a young person, probably struggling with an emerging sense of sexuality along with various other anxieties and frustrations every teenager has to endure.

Time and again, young gay people have contacted me to say there is no one they can talk to about gay issues. Yes, I can (and do) recommend support groups while offering as much reassurance and support myself as I can, also answering their questions with frankness and sensitivity. Even so, I am a stranger and, yes, it can be easier to talk to a stranger but it is better still to talk to a close friend or family member who can be there for you with advice and a hug 24/7.

It is absurd that in the 21st century, many gay people still feel there is a stigma attached to being gay that prevents them openly discussing it with family, peers or teachers. Meanwhile, homophobia persists among those who continue to take outdated, misleading and often offensive stereotypes that plague gay people - especially gay men - as read. [Leaders of the world's religions, please note.]

Yes, I know the less enlightened members of a predominantly heterosexual society continue to give lesbians a hard time. Even so, gay women are less likely to be accused a paedophilia than gay men (even though most paedophiles are heterosexual); they are less likely to be physically abused for their sexuality or verbally abused for spreading the HIV-AIDS virus (as happened to me only recently).

I guess the bottom line is that many if not most heterosexual men and women (especially men) still feel they should be appalled by sexual acts between two men. This has always been a mystery to me as I know straight couples who get up to all sorts in bed...

Is it any wonder that a significant number of gay boys choose to stay in the closet? Not only in the southern hemisphere either. I read not so long ago about two girls at a church school in the US who were excluded for being in a lesbian relationship.Faith schools need to get real about gay issues! Being gay doesn't make us any less of a human being, for goodness sake.

Male or female, it may be a lot easier to be gay than when I was young…but it sure ain’t easy, even now, half a century on…

I recorded this poem for my YouTube channel some time ago so am repeating the video here today as well (see below); especially for 'Joe' who asked why I never read poems on a gay theme there. [I have read several, but I don't think of myself as a 'gay poet', just a poet who also happens to be gay and will tackle any theme. You can access my YouTube channel at: 

http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber

and this poem at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgU0lpyCQcs  read and posted on my 65th birthday, December 21st 2010.

ODE TO A SCHOOL CAP

On a pebbly shore observing the sea

about to snatch an abandoned deckchair,

I wonder…do you ever think of me,

snatching at my cap, fingers in my hair?

A breeze, come evening, laughing at us,

shadow fingers masturbating, a bliss

sure to catch us out under summer skies,

a passing cloud witnessing our first kiss

No one ever guessed why you went away

across a sea that calls me with your voice;

much as I loved you, implored you to stay,

each kiss but postponing a time of choice

Not ready then to tell the world I’m gay,

left letting its tides snatch my cap away

[From: Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]