Culture Shock

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

This poem has not appeared on the blog since 2010 so now seems as good a time as any to give it an airing. I am posting it on both blogs today as it addresses the less enlightened among the heterosexual majority as well as regular gay readers who may well identify with the sentiments expressed.

Most people here in the UK (including myself) have no problem with immigration; our problem arises in the significant number of immigrants who persistently condemn various aspects of western culture including its general acceptance of LGBT human rights. People from cultures that are gay-unfriendly (to say the least) will have know this before they chose to come here so they should either stay away or keep a respectful silence, and agree to differ. The same has to be said , of course, for thoe borm here who feel much the same antipathy towards the LGBT ethic for whatever reason.

  

CULTURE SHOCK

‘Bigotry Rules OK,’

read graffiti on a factory wall,

‘Better off dead than Gay’

It was high noon

for a boyfriend and I, appalled

by sentiments so obscene

He held my hand

as we explored a shopping mall,

negotiating quicksand

We paused for a kiss

in the doorway of a supermarket,

caused a bit of a fuss

One man called the police,

another hauled curious kids away,

a third yelled abuse

A crowd gathered

not wanting to miss out on a show

(violence preferred)

‘You do know,’ said someone,

‘Shakespeare wrote his love sonnets

for a young man...?’

No one said a word,

not wishing to be labelled a philistine

for the world

We went on our way

(if the cops came we were long gone)

and Will won the day

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010