How I spent my 17th birthday (all too many years ago)

I was so excited. I was sure it would be the day I was praying for. In health class the year before we studied homosexuality and the teacher told us that it was a phase and would go away by the time a boy was 17. So I circled that day on my calander. I was sure my prayers would be answered. I didn't want a car. I didn't want new clothes. I wanted one thing for that birthday. I wanted to be normal. Of course it didn't happen. It also didn't happen a few months later when I was on a harrowing trip from NYC to West Point (don't ask) and I promised I would swear off men forever if I only didn't get killed.

I went so far as to look into an ex gay treatment center but my parent's insurance wouldn't pay. They called it quackery. Decades later I am an adult who is comfortable with myself. It took a very, very long time and I took a side trip down many a bottle getting there.

Let me be blunt here. What is happening today is odious. A group of citizens are being used for political fodder, and folks, if it can happen to us don't think it can't happen to you. Turning marriage from a right to a priviledge is frought with danger not just for us, but for you. Someone, somewhere, at some point in time hated you. Don't be so sure it won't happen again.

Maybe we will eventually win this war. Maybe we won't. I honestly don't know. But this isn't just our battle no matter how much some of you might wish it to be. The people behind this have other rules too. They don't like divorce. They don't like marriages where the woman is an equal partner. They don't like sex that isn't linked to procreation. Do you honestly think that they will be sated by throwing us under the bus? I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

gone through and what is happening now.

...think that they will be sated by throwing us under the bus?"

No. I'm quite certain they would not. Bigoted boneheads like these people fought the abolition of slavery, railed against a woman's right to vote, and were vehemently opposed to the Civil Rights Act.

They will ALWAYS be among us, they will ALWAYS identify subsets of society for vilification and persecution, and we must ALWAYS stand together and fight them.

:grr:

What IS normal?? I'm a white married female and have NEVER EVER felt gay or lesbian persons would want to intentionally choose to be this way.

In fact, I'm even uncomfortable putting "labels" of this type on people. Granted, some people do go through "phases" and think they are one way or another, but for the most part I think you are born the way you are! That's all there is to it and I'm so sick of this crap!

The reason I say some go through a phase is because I can think of some "high profile" personalities who seemed to have switched a time ot two. One name comes to mind, Ann Heche. But while I admit that I don't know what her stance is right now, I do know she was the long time partner of the OMG, I love her and can't think of her name... comedian, who has her own show and I can see perfectly in my mind! But you know who I mean! What IS wrong with me.... she's just a great person!

Anyway, from me to you, I can only hope ONE day this harassment STOPS!

ELLEN DEGENERAS... got it!

I so much wanted for it to be true that I probably changed a reasonable statement such as for many it is a phase into it always is a phase.

:hug:

I listened to CSPAN radio all day as I was cleaning the barn (from a different thread but it also applies here...an appropriate thing to be doing while listening to this).

The one thing I heard from each and every one of the speakers who were pro amendment was that they knew what it was like to be discriminated against therefore they could not allow you the same constitutional rights they have. It confused the hell out of me and I consider that I have done enough work on this that I should be able to figure them out pretty easily.

There will be a lot of people in this country who will hear this kind of arguement and have a :wtf: moment.

We will win this. It may not be soon but we will win this. This country works painfully slowly on these issues and we are just getting started. From where I sit I think we are doing pretty well but then I am not GLBT and do not feel the immediate effects of this discrimination.

You should have had a wonderful 17th. Odd that I just spoke with a friend who was told something very similar, you will grow out of it he was told so he married. Once his children were both over 16 he left and is now transitioning. I think in most cases (correct me if I am wrong) physicians and teachers are now better able to deal with this and make less mistakes like the one that made your birthday so bad.

Edit to add....when I say we are just getting started I know that is not true but the issues are out there now and there is no going back, that is what I meant. We will not go away, you will not go back to the closet it is just too out there now.

I was looking through the Health books my school uses (the Health teacher uses my room during my plan period) and it contains pretty much nothing about homosexuality at all. I hope he suppliments the text. But I sure know a heck of a lot more about being gay now than I or my teachers, did then.

... such entitlements to anyone. It's unjust, discriminatory, and hate-filled. Let the various cults recognize whatever sacrament floats their boats. It'd be better ignored at the civil level than restricted.

Inheritance? Abolish it and confiscate all estates not distributed (and taxed) before death.
Income taxes? Make everyone 'single.'
Next of kin? Make it meaningless.

It is still applicable, and it applies to more than merely Communists and Socialists, etc. It applies to all of us, whatever we are. If we don't speak up for everyone, there will be no one left to speak for us.



:grouphug:

:hug: :-)

And a :hug: to the OP as well.
What did they say, the musketeers? All for one, one for all.

And no Bryan Adams playing in the background..

Thanks for posting that, I keep that one in the front of my mind always. I never get tired of it because it is an important truth.

http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/

1912 (23 June): Birth, Paddington, London
1926-31: Sherborne School
1930: Death of friend Christopher Morcom
1931-34: Undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge University
1932-35: Quantum mechanics, probability, logic
1935: Elected fellow of King's College, Cambridge
1936: The Turing machine, computability, universal machine
1936-38: Princeton University. Ph.D. Logic, algebra, number theory
1938-39: Return to Cambridge. Introduced to German Enigma cipher machine
1939-40: The Bombe, machine for Enigma decryption
1939-42: Breaking of U-boat Enigma, saving battle of the Atlantic
1943-45: Chief Anglo-American crypto consultant. Electronic work.
1945: National Physical Laboratory, London
1946: Computer and software design leading the world.
1947-48: Programming, neural nets, and artificial intelligence
1948: Manchester University
1949: First serious mathematical use of a computer
1950: The Turing Test for machine intelligence
1951: Elected FRS. Non-linear theory of biological growth
1952: Arrested as a homosexual, loss of security clearance
1953-54: Unfinished work in biology and physics
1954 (7 June): Death (suicide) by cyanide poisoning, Wilmslow, Cheshire

A few years ago, when two of my sons came home from school in the 6 to 8 grade and began tossing around insults to one another and to their friends by calling them "gay", it made me mad. Mad that a group of people who are so persecuted, reviled, and abused were able to fight their way through life and society and still excel in ways that have literally saved the very societies that repudiate them.


I sat with them as they watched a documentary on Alan Turing. It became evident after watching that documentary that if it weren't for that 'gay guy' we would likely be speaking German and wearing swastikas on our sleeves.

Not meaning to hijack your thread, but I salute you for putting up with fuckwads like Bush* and his evangelical cretin minions, and I apologize to you on behalf of our country for the abuse heaped upon you and yours by the nitwits who are encouraging discrimination based on sexual preference to maintain their grip on this country.

I literally knew nothing of gay culture or history upon leaving high school. I am not in his league mathematically but I actually am a gay man with a BA in math and teach math. Maybe one of my students will do for us in the future what he did for us back then.

That was my 17th birthday, 1968, great stuff. Just an aside. You are not alone; the tide of history is on your side, and I for one will not go quietly into the night when it comes to basic human rights. Including the right to love whoever you wish to love. What is more basic than that?

I loved someone who was sure her "prayers would be answered."