Gay is (not) OK, Says Who?

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

]Update (August 11th 2019: Several readers worldwide have suggested I create another gay-interest blog with fewer poems as he or she thinks there are ‘too many to browse’ here while others have said they cannot often access this blog at all.  Regarding any searches, , I can only suggest readers use the search field located in the top right hand corner by entering a keyword; e.g. culture, dogma, family, human spirit, human nature, life forces, love, personal space, positive thinking, relationships, religion, self-awareness, stereotypes etc.

Now, today's poem last appeared on the blog in 2010 so will be new to some of you who don't have time to browse the archives. It was written in 2007 and I still get fed-up with people telling me that ‘being gay is just so OK now’ and ‘gays have never had it so good.’ True, life is much easier for many gay men and women now than it was when I was a young man, but sadly not for all … and easy? I don’t think so.

For a start, gay relationships remain a criminal offence in some countries, and even in the so-called ‘liberal’ West, it is as tough as it ever was to be gay if you happen to be living in a gay-unfriendly home-school-work environment.

Moreover, it has been my experience that far too many people pay lip service to political correctness, saying one thing in public and the opposite in private when it comes to all manner of issues, including sexuality.

There is still much work to be done worldwide (no exceptions) when it comes to  getting societies to realise and accept that LGBT people have as much to offer as anyone else, often more because we know what it’s like to feel marginalised, criminalised and victimised.

We all need to think positive, feel positive and BE positive about making the world a kinder if not better place.

GAY IS NOT OK, SAYS WHO?

If the world is, oh, so politically correct,

why should it matter if people suspect we’re gay?

(How many fathers, how many mothers

ask if their sons, daughters, have same sex lovers?)

Whatever happened to just being straight

about who it is we are and what it is we stand for?

(Aren’t we protected now by legislation?)

Gay, we’re told, is OK - so why any hesitation?

Yes, I know it was in the news today,

about someone brutally killed for being openly gay,

but that was a cultural, ethnic blip or flaw,

all tied up with old religion-speak and tribal law,

nothing to do with the likes of us trying
to rationalise a twenty-first century equality of sorts.

We can legislate for a common humanity.

but that doesn’t mean to say its bigots will keep

an open mind so, no, we shouldn’t wait

to tell the whole world we’re gay…or how else

this world, its way, expect to find?

Come a time, we'll yet hear human voices worldwide

ceasing to pause at a three-letter word?

Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2019

[Note: Slightly revised from the version that appears in Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]