High Noon, an Epic Confrontation
This post/poem appears in my gay-interest blog's archives for March 2013.Such confrontations are still going on around the world; not only LGBT people either, anxiously debating within themselves whether or not to follow their nature /instincts or continue to struggle within the socio-cultural-religious framework in which they were raised. Will loved ones understand, even support us? Have we the inner strength to go it alone if we must? Is it all really worth it, maybe best to leave well alone and carry on pretending? These are questions it is hard and painful enough for any adult to face - as many do - so imagine what it must be like for a girl or boy still at school and not yet fully matured? It is a living hell, believe you me. For me, though, it was some 60 years ago, yet time and again I have included gay-interest poetry at readings around the country and someone has emailed me the next day to say it is the same for them in this supposedly positive thinking 21st Century.
How do many among the heterosexual majority justify putting anyone through this, but especially a young person? Where is the morality in it, I ask of those who whose prejudices are such that they even support hate crime against anyone who happens to be 'different' from some academic 'norm'? Are we not one human race, and should be supporting each other? If climate change progresses as expected, there will come a time when we will all need each other to stand any chance of survival.
We should never forget that in some countries, same-sex relationships are still a criminal offence, punishable by long prison sentences or even death.
A reader in the UK but whose family live in Nigeria has been in touch on several occasions to say he has a gay relation there who is suicidal. I can relate to that. Gay relationships were a criminal offence here in the UK all through my teenage years into early manhood. I did not feel I could confide in anyone, least of all my family, and found it hard to get on top of my struggle with an emerging sexuality that contradicted everything I had been told and taught.
As regular readers know, I won my battle, but it contributed hugely to a severe nervous breakdown in my early 30s during which I contemplated suicide more than once; on one occasion, I took an overdose that was no cry for help but a serious attempt to end my life. Thankfully, I came through all that, and am all the stronger for it. Even so, it was a living nightmare that haunts me even to this day. Whenever I hear about people brought to the edge of suicide or have taken that final step, my heart goes out to them.
I am fortunate enough to live in a country that now permits me to be openly gay, but even here in the UK there are young gay people growing up in a gay-unfriendly environment and facing much the same inner struggle with their sexuality as I did all those years ago. (I am in my 70's now.)
What can I say? I can only reassure gay people worldwide that they have nothing to be ashamed of although, yes, in some countries and within some families of various cultural origins they may well have reasons to be scared.
The freedom to be ourselves and not as others - even if not especially those closest to us - would prefer us to be is one of life’s greater gifts; we may well have to wait, even fight for it (emotionally if not physically) but it is my personal experience that either is well worth the effort.
To those gay boys, girls, men and women who live under repressive regimes that continue to fan the flames of homophobia I can only repeat, never feel ashamed of your sexuality or believe you are a less of a human being for it. Whether or not our circumstances allow us to be openly gay, there is an inner freedom that no one can take away from us.
Regular readers will also know that I support euthanasia in certain circumstances. More often than not, though, suicide is a temptation that is our enemy, Surrender to it, and we let the enemy win. It has to be better, surely, to live to fight our corner, each in our own way?
Yes, I am gay, but each to his or her own personal battles, whether it be with the homophobes among us or certain other socio-cultural-religious bigots bent upon giving this early 21st century of ours not only a poor start around the world but also a bad name.
We hear much talk of ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ but even here in the West, there is too much rhetoric and not nearly enough done to ensure that, within reason, we are left safe and free to be ourselves rather than puppets of someone else’s convention, morality, politics, culture, religion, whatever…
Taken for a fool by world, ghosts and Muse
[Note: This poem takes its title from the classic western 'High Noon' (1952)]
Labels: bigotry, division, human nature, human spirit, hypocrisy, loved-ones, mind-body-spirit, personal space, poetry, positive thinking, reconciliation, relationships, self-awareness, self-confidence, sexuality, society