No Standard Template

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

I have never made a big issue of being gay. If people ask me, I tell them, If they just want to wonder, well, I let them.

A person’s sexuality is nobody’s business but his or her own.

While I have often been told by other gay people that I should be more upfront about being gay in everyday life, why should I?   Yes, I ‘go public’ in my blog posts and poems, but that doesn’t mean I either want or need to thrust my sexuality in everyone’s face. No one has to read my blogs.

I hate it when religious-minded people shove their religion in my face all the time as if I am in the wrong for not sharing their faith. If I were straight, I certainly would not want a gay person banging on about being gay. Besides, there are plenty of other topics of conversation, and what possible interest can anyone have in another person’s sexuality…unless he or she wants to go to bed with them, of course…in which case, yes, being upfront is more than just OK.

We are all different, and everyone has his or her own way of going about their lives. We have no right to criticise simply because we would do things differently; just because someone is 'different' doesn't mean he or she is less worthy of our respect. (Oh, yes, most people would agree, but how many practise what they preach?) 

I have said before on the blogs, and will say again, our differences don't make us different, only human. As for repeating myself, well, as my old English teacher, Jock Rankin, used to say, if a thing is worth saying, it is always worth repeating.

NO STANDARD TEMPLATE 

Can I be gay, school pals debated,

when I don't strike a pose like gay folks

we see on TV who stick out a mile,
am nothing out of the ordinary at all?

Can I be gay, neighbours gossiped,

when it's plain to more or less anyone

I’m a pretty normal human being?
(Well, yes, sometimes a drama queen)

Can I be gay, work mates wondered,

although don’t fit any better-for-ratings

media script for doing my damnedest

to promote the everyday stereotypical?

I can't be gay, school pals insisted,

when I don’t dress the part or even strut

the local Gay Scene for...whatever
(but let's be clear, and never say never)

I can't be gay, neighbours decided,

as I’m rarely if ever seen camping it up,

would rather knock back real ales

than sip cocktails on a boys' night out

I can't be gay, work mates agreed,

as we’ve often chatted in the staff room,
even touched upon the latest gossip,

and never a hint of sexual persuasion

Whenever I hear on the grapevine

that my sexuality is cause for speculation, 
I reflect how small, narrow minds  

have no feeling for good conversation

Ah, but we are as we are, and that's it;
as for our being gay or not, so what...?

  

Copyright R. N. Taber 2001; rev. 2018