Gay in Japan OR Rainbows over Tokyo

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

A reader from Japan has encouraging news for those of us continuing to fight hate crime and socio-cultural hostility worldwide, not to mention hate crime and aggressive legal/political opposition in some countries; while we in the western world are not immune to either, - especially in areas where certain immigrant groups express strong opposition from a one cultural perspective or another

Japan's culture and major religions do not have a history of hostility towards homosexuality. A majority of Japanese citizens are reportedly in favour of accepting homosexuality; a 2013 poll indicated that 54 percent agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, while 36 percent disagreed, with a large age gap.

Apparently, Japan has no laws against homosexual activity and has some legal protections for gay people; there is also some legal protection for transgender individuals. Consensual sex between adults of the same sex is legal, but some prefectures set the age of consent for same-sex sexual activity higher than for opposite-sex sexual activity.

While civil rights laws do not extend to protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation, some governments have enacted such laws. The government of Tokyo has passed laws that ban discrimination in employment based on sexual identity. Despite recommendations from the Council for Human Rights Promotion, the major political parties express little public support for LGBT rights. Some political figures, however, have spoken publicly about their being gay. Kanako Otsuji, an assemblywoman from Osaka, came out as a lesbian in 2005. Two years earlier, in 2003, Aya Kamikawa became the first openly transgender person elected official in Tokyo.

While same-sex marriage is not legalised at the national level, the Shibuya District in Tokyo passed a same-sex partnership certificate bill in 2015 to "issue certificates to same-sex couples that recognize them as partners equivalent to those married under the law."

GAY IN JAPAN or RAINBOWS OVER TOKYO 

Came LGBT, its first laurels to lay

(at Yanagi, Shimbashi, after the war)

respite from life’s cares of the day

Subsequently, it was good to be gay

(no one banging on some closet door);

came LGBT, its first laurels to lay

Colour, that dark skies kept at bay

(where the world’s tears gone before);

respite from life's cares of the day

LGBT rainbows were here to stay

(no world-imposing shame any more);

came LGBT, its first laurels to lay

Stage set for others to win the day

(wherever dogma’s worst sure to score)

respite from life’s cares of the day

Here, LGBT given the voice to say

“Pax” on any calls for its guts and gore;

came LGBT, its first laurels to lay,

respite from life’s cares of the day

Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

Homing in on The 'I' in Diversity OR Gay in Ghana

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

Now and again, readers from Ghana appear among Google statistics relating to my gay-interest poetry as well as its general counterpart. Comments cannot be viewed although I always reply to any left in the Comments Box if people care to include an email address; understandably readers from those countries where gay relationships remain a criminal offence rarely do so. Some readers contact me at my home e-address [rogertab@aol.com] and ‘Poetry’ in the subject field guarantees a reply if clearly not spam.

I am in my 70's now, but well recall meeting a young man from Ghana in a local gay bar here in London UK some years ago; we were drawn to each other, although not sexually, and enjoyed a long chat. He left with someone else, but paused to give me a hug before disappearing from my life if not my memory. He was, he told me, feeling suffocated at home in Ghana, having to act a part he neither related to and hated, but felt he had no choice. As I had been in much the same situation here in the UK at his age, we had a lot in common, and hopefully his life, as mine (eventually) did, has worked out all the better for him; he may still need to act a part in the world’s eye, but hopefully he can be himself as time, place, people and circumstances permit.

Doesn't everyone deserve the basic Human Right, to be themselves?

This poem is a villanelle.

HOMING IN ON THE 'I' IN DIVERSITY or GAY IN GHANA

For years I kept home truths at bay,

even tried to make out I was straight

too scared to tell the world I’m gay

I met an old friend in Accra one day,

only to find myself engaging with fate

(for years I kept home truths at bay)

We went to a bar, and stayed all day,

catching up, as you would with a mate,

too scared to tell the world I’m gay

I liked him more than I had dared say,

even envied pretty girls he used to date

(for years I kept home truths at bay)

That day, I let the pito have its way,

yet, close as I came to flirting with fate,

too scared to tell the world I'm gay

His knowing grin gave the game away,

our body language talking love, no hate;

for years I kept home truths at bay

too scared to tell the world I’m gay

Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

Note: My friend Graham is visiting Ghana in October. You may like some of his his videos over which I read poems: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSdhLgPQOsng2Xz8n5m0ViQ  OR simply enter 'Roger Taber You Tube' in any browser. Unfortunately, I cannot accompany him as I have serious health problems, although, as always, I continue to look on the bright(er) side of life.

Making Good Time

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

Update June 11th 2019]: A reader, Max, who regularly emails me and appears to enjoy all three blogs, has kindly said  he misses my Google + site since Google recently deleted personal G+ sites, but goes on to say “Whenever I find a poem I really like, I make a note of any search words or phrases in the labels column and use them to find more poems …” Well, thank you Max, and I'm sure some readers will find the tip useful and time-saving. For the record, search words and phrases include: communication, culture, death, dreams, guilt, innocence, history, human nature, human spirit, imagination, love, mind-body-spirit, memory, mortality, nature, past-present-future, personal space, posthumous consciousness, prejudice, religion, relationships, sexuality, society, and time... among others. [Another reader has asked why I often hyphenate several nouns to imply they are one; it's because I see them as inseparable one from the other, a continuum in which we human beings are pivotal, for better or worse...]

Meanwhile...

As regular readers will know, I stayed in the proverbial closet for years; well, it was real enough, and I was in and out of it for years although few people were in the know; the stress was excruciating. A nervous breakdown in the late 1970’s, awful experience though it was, came as no surprise to the few, least of all to me. Mental illness can be a messy affair and mine was no exception. I even attempted suicide, remained unconscious for a good thirty-five hours and escaped death by a whisker, thanks to the efforts of hospital staff and staff at my nearby local surgery where I managed to stagger before passing out. It was a wake-up call and the next few years found me re-appraising mind-body-spirit, warts ‘n’ all.

I was forty-one years old before I finally Came Out to stay; incredible, and not a little sad given that I’d known I was gay from the age of fourteen. My only excuse is cowardice; homosexuality was not well received just about anywhere in the UK throughout the 1950’s - 1990’s, and even now among some families, peers and communities. Old stigma die hard where human nature is concerned.

The evening prior to my finally Coming Out to the world, at work as it so happened, I confided in an old friend who had known about my sexuality for years, being one of my earliest encounters with that species of heterosexual who was confident enough in his own sexuality not to give a damn about anyone else’s. I explained that I felt a pressing need to  come out of that awful closet, but continued to doubt the wisdom of it; it was the early days of Equal Opportunities, but the fickle public was still divided on the issue and various socio-cultural-religious influences prevailed for the most part, as I suspect they still do albeit less obviously so than in certain other countries.

 “Let me put it this way,” said my friend,” Fools may well rush in where angels fear to tread, but do you really want to side with angels or are you saying to yourself, to hell with all that, I just want to be ME, and if that’s a fool’s game I’ll make damn sure I have the time of my life playing it …”

Needless to say, I had already made my choice, just needed someone to spell it out for me. Moreover, I suspect that moment in time is also when I finally, and consciously turned my back on religion to embrace not only nature, but the kinder, more discerning side of human nature as well.

This poem is a villanelle.

MAKING GOOD TIME

We’ll make time for us, just you and I,
where some (still) refuse us the time of day,
but two among millions under the sky

But two among millions under the sky,
wannabe free spirits with a mortgage to pay,
loving life by living for love till we die

We’ll make time for us, just you and I
to live, let live, letting love light up every day,
no matter any dogma raising hue and cry

But two among millions under the sky,
an ordinary couple, contrary to what bigots say
(that same sex relationships prove the lie)

We’ll make time for us, just you and I,
despite needs must discreetly since we’re gay,
and it may (still) matter to passers-by

Hear race, creed, culture having their say,
only, trust the human spirit to find its own way;
we’ll make time for us, just you and I,
but two among millions under the sky


Copyright R N Taber 2019

Tuning into Nature

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

A reader has asked why I often hyphenate several nouns to imply they are one; for example,  mind-body-spirit, past-present-future. It is because I see them as inseparable one from the other, a continuum in which we human beings are pivotal, for better, for worse ...

Someone else has contacted me with a very uplifting story which he suggests I may like to record as a poem. Well, always up for a challenge, me, and I hope you will enjoy the poem below. It appears this reader belongs to a culture that is not gay-friendly, to say the least. He came out to family and friends a few years ago when he met his first love. Sadly, many of the former rejected him for it. After a few years, the relationship ended, not least due to the reader's being estranged from most family members and friends. In recent years, though, he has found love again with another man. By now, it appears many who previously rejected him have come to terms with and are reconciled to his being gay.

The reader writes, “It is wonderful that my new partner and I can enjoy an almost normal life among those we love, although not everyone. We cannot pray as we would like, my partner and I, but prayer does not need four walls, neither does whatever divinity with whom we identify as God … Your poems are very clear on this, and we are grateful for your support even though you are not a religious person …” He goes on to ask  that “poem or no poem” I bring his story to the attention of readers on both blogs on the grounds that “ … too many people reject gays because they do not understand us and it is human nature to be wary of what we do not understand …” (So, true!)

So, here we go, with a poem I plan to post on my general blog tomorrow. I do post gay-interest poems there from time to time although feedback - and audience figures - suggests they are not well received by the majority of readers. Feedback also suggests that relatively few readers of this blog often dip into my general poetry blog, which I find very sad. After all  - as I have said before on the blogs, and probably will again -  a poem is a poem is a poem just as a person is a person is a person, regardless of gender or socio-cultural-religious persuasion.

“When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.” ― Kahlil Gibrán, Sand and Foam

" Your head is a living forest full of songbirds." - e.e.Cummings

TUNING IN TO NATURE

Trying the door, but it slams

in my face as if to say I’ve no right

to enter here, where you are,

no matter if pulse and heartbeat set

on breaking the record

for breaking the time barrier

in the wink of an eye,

catching yours on a late tube train,

devil take the hindmost

Curtains at the window closed,

shutting me out, a cold wind siding

with you against me,

pulse racing, heart beating faster,

and faster, like competitors

in a race, running for running’s sake,

doesn’t matter where or why

nor that blue skies are poised to fall

at destination Endgame 

Shut out, yelling to be let in,

pulse and heartbeat at fever pitch,

a voice ringing in my ears,

telling me to ease up, enjoy the sun

on my face, wind in my hair,

embrace nature and human nature

just as we’d embrace each other

in a home we made with loving care,

meant to stay open all hours

Turning away, tears falling

like acid rain, somewhere a bird

trying to tell me I’ll love again,

not what I wanted or needed to hear,

after a gay love affair ended

and brought me low, but brought

here today, all the more 

happy-proud for having (eventually)

taken a songbird at its word

Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

Ditching the Glitch

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

Being a closet gay person is not only sexually frustrating, it can (and often does) affect our mental health. I, for one, suffered a BAD nervous breakdown 40 years ago that resulted in a (fortunately) botched suicide attempt.

Much as we may be in denial, anything that affects our mental wellbeing is likely to have detrimental effect on all aspects of our everyday life. Oh, closet gays appear to function as well as anyone, but we are fooling ourselves. Looking back, I see now that moving from place to place, job to job, unable to settle at anything or with anyone for long prior to my breakdown was directly linked to my being unable to confront my sexuality, embrace it and be openly gay for all manner of reasons. (Okay, excuses if you like.) It wasn’t being gay that was to blame for a long line of mistakes I made until my mid-30’s, but being stuck in that damn closet.

Once I flung open the closet door, everything changed, not always for the better (Well, that’s life) but at least I was now running the show, master of my destiny, not some puppet on a string being manipulated by a flawed mindset that I saw was flawed but could not bring myself to face those flaws head-on. Now, the homophobic and bigoted folks among us, in all walks of life, argue that the greater flaw is being gay. More fool me for being duped during gay-unfriendly formative years into believing that was true.

As it happens, I never met the man of my dreams a second time after my one-and-only died abroad after but a short time together. Even so, since coming out, I have enjoyed sexual encounters all the more for my being honest with myself about them. Besides, love comes in all shapes and forms and is no more dependent on sex than it is answerable to either culture or religion. Love, has a mind of its own, and no one but no one should ever feel ashamed of it, whatever others might say; if it feels right, it is right. Nor should anyone feel that their sexuality puts them at odds with whatever religion they choose to follow. I may not be a religious person, but religion is meant to be about peace and love, right?  I defy anyone to tell me that a God of Love could conceivably be homophobic.

DITCHING THE GLITCH

I make decisions every day,
some good, some bad,

although the latter might easily

have gone the other way

but for a glitch in the works insisting

on having its say,

the more fool, me, for listening

instead of to reservations expressed

by a closet alter ego

I nurture opinions every day,

for better, for worse

although the latter might easily

have gone the other way

but for a Glitch in the works insisting

on having its say,
the more fool, me, for listening

instead of to reservations expressed

by a closet alter ego

I make judgements every day,

some good, some bad,

although the latter might easily

have gone the other way,

but for a Glitch in the works insisting

on having its say,

the more fool, me, for listening

instead of to reservations expressed

by a closet alter ego

Gay lovers have come my way,

for better, for worse,

although the latter might easily

have gone the other way,

but for a glitch in the works insisting

on having its say,
the more fool, me, for listening

instead of to reservations expressed

by a closet alter ego

I met a man (seems like yesterday)

for better, for worse,

although the former might easily

have gone the other way

but for an alter ego on my side insisting

on having its say,

and the wiser, me, for listening

instead of to reservations expressed

by a glitch in the works

Copyright R N Taber 2019

Whatever Happened to Religion? OR Gay in Brunei

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

Now, regular readers of my blogs will know that I subscribe to no religion although I have every respect for anyone who does not see religion as an exclusive club. Fortunately, I have met many religious people who do not simply pay lip service to open heartedness and free spiritedness but take people as they find them whatever their race, religion or socio-economic standing in a world where, increasingly, it is not only wealth and power that can corrupt the free spirit and generous heart, but religious dogma too.

In my 70’s now, I take heart from our young people around the world who take good people as they find them, not as either any stereotyping or dogma paints them.

As for going along with and respecting our so-called, betters in this world, actions will always speak louder than words and respect is no one’s by any given right (divine or otherwise) but something earned by those setting a good example none of us would hesitate to follow …

Our differences do not make us different, only human; we need to respect each other’s differences, not see them as an excuse for alienation.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Brunei face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Homosexuality is illegal in Brunei. Sexual relations between men can be punished with death by stoning while those between women are punished by caning or imprisonment.

A (straight) Muslim friend was once asked why he had anything to do with a gay man given that his religion is intrinsically hostile to homosexuality. My friend replied that he felt secure enough in his own identity to let anyone have a say from all walks of life. "Religion is more than a point of view," he pointed out, "it is a way of life. "Other points of view are always interesting, and no threat to anyone who feels secure in their own faith." The same (surely?) can be said for sexuality.

This poem is a villanelle.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO RELIGION? or GAY IN BRUNEI

Faith is not all about selectivity
(no stoning to death for sexuality);
no God would condemn diversity

No God would condemn diversity
of race, thought nor sexual identity;
Faith is not all about selectivity

Brunei, a bloody stain on humanity
for its denying sexuality its integrity;
no God would condemn diversity

Religion is about love, not bigotry,
or so it teaches the world community;
Faith is not all about selectivity

Where love lends us its spirituality,
may culture-creed show us humanity;
no God would condemn diversity

Where religion embraces hypocrisy
dogma stands accused of inhumanity;
Faith is not all about selectivity;
no God would condemn diversity

Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

Looking for a Good Result OR Gay in Kyrgyzstan

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

It is always very rewarding for any poet, but especially a gay poet like myself to get positive feedback from readers suggesting that at least some of my poems help to keep the flames of LGBT human rights alive where they currently give out little more than a show of light, let alone any comforting warmth. 

Same sex relationships are not illegal in Kyrgyzstan (Yes, I had to look it up on Wikipedia too!) but gay and transgender men and women are invariably given a hard time if they ‘go public’ in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 Sadly, it is not an uncommon story worldwide, even in (too) many parts of the supposedly ‘civilised’ West as demonstrated only too often by the less discerning among us (if discreetly) on a daily basis. 

“What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be a human. One would be a monster.” ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

LOOKING FOR A GOOD RESULT or GAY IN KYRGYZSTAN

More mountains to climb, seeds to sow,

self-styled ‘betters’ needing to do (far) better

at listening to LGBT voices worldwide

If no human life meant to be lived alone,

trust love will find a way into any lonely heart

come in from the cold, the better to survive

Mind-body-spirit, towering above its critics

wherever needs must love be kept under wraps,

keyword, freedom, but a ghost on the street

In a world seeking to keeping up appearances,

hope springs eternal, likely to expose any enemy,

demand it cut and share keys to locked doors

Where wolves ever prowling flocks for a feed,

find a good shepherd on high alert night and day,

Earth Mother sharing watches, keeping faith

If the world is a jigsaw, may its pieces yet fall

into place, no self-interested powers-that-be trying

to make any wrong pieces pass for a good result

 Copyright R. N. Taber 2019