I was not always openly gay, having grown up as a youth and young man at a time when gay relationships were a criminal offence and considered a sin but most religions.
Now, thankfully, the broader-thinking West at least has learned to accept that being gay is genetic and no more unnatural than being born. Sadly, though, not everyone among the heterosexual majority shares this enlightened view. Across the world, even in the so-called ‘liberal’ West, gay boys and girls, men and women, are growing up in a gay-unfriendly environment, encouraged to believe they are the lowest of the low for being gay.
It took me some time to stop feeling self-conscious about being gay, to understand (and act on it) that we must never let anyone put us down for our sexuality, least of all ourselves.
For whatever reason (whatever our colour, creed, sex or sexuality) many of us are often made to feel slaves to that fickle creature, 'Convention'; the inner self deserves better.
For whatever reason (whatever our colour, creed, sex or sexuality) many of us are often made to feel slaves to that fickle creature, 'Convention'; the inner self deserves better.
FINDING FREEDOM
I once walked narrow streets
in the bitter cold and dark of winter,
body, mind and spirit
crying out to be heard, trusted,
loved, and free
No one in those narrow streets
gave me a second look or seemed
to care that I was in crisis,
duped into believing I had no right
to even be there
I paused at a bright shop window
whose lights and colours turned me
into a patched-up clown
(minus wide smile) in a circus ring,
raining sawdust
Suddenly, a burst of wild applause
for my doppelganger clowning it up
in the window and loving
every minute, soaking up applause
like spring rain
I raised a smile, a chuckle, a laugh,
and continued along the narrow streets
that seemed broader now,
people nodding and smiling at me,
a common humanity
Apollo peeped from behind a cloud
as if to complement a metamorphosis,
welcome a lonely gay man
into the human race, its prejudices
melting away
Now, as I walk those same streets
in the bitter cold and dark of winter,
body, mind and spirit
rejoice for having found a voice, love,
and freedom
Copyright R. N. Taber 2014
