Homophobic bullying is........it's just so, well, gay!

This must be stamped out!

Those of you who have enjoyed my Gordy's Rants page to this point will know that I like to have a wee joke or two. 

I like to try to get people thinking and suggest that perhaps there are other views out there that might, just might not necessarily be your own. 

But I like to do it with a touch of humour mixed with a, 'for cryin out loud don't take things so seriously' approach! 

This time though, I have some serious matters to attend to. 

There are many 'isms' and 'phobias' in this world that are perfectly acceptable and even understandable. 

Buddhism for example is a noble belief system that originated some 2500 years ago and has the ultimate goal of attaining 'Nirvana'. No not the band, but as Wikipedia describes it, "a sublime state".  

Now frankly I have no need of meditating for days on end and can quite readily achieve a 'sublime state' with the aid of Mr Kilkenny and Mr Cragganmore, no better a mixture of Celtic cultures has there ever been. 

Beheading of Mancunians

However rarely does one hear of Buddhists threatening to start World War Three. 

Rarely does one hear of a Buddhist's threat to behead some unfortunate Mancunian truck driver who took it upon himself to feed the many. 

As a result I'm delighted that those who believe in the large golden fat one should do so in the knowledge that Messrs Bush and Cheney are unlikely to suggest any form of 'shock and awe' in their general direction. 

Arachnophobia, being of course a fear of spiders is an entirely understandable 'phobia' as those nasty little merchants of death trigger the human brain's natural fight or flight response. 

You see, some people find themselves frozen with fear at the very thought there might be a spider in the room with them no matter how big or small that spider might be. 

Conversely some aren't remotely concerned by the presence of these vermin of the insect world. Moreover, in their cavalier attitude towards their own lack of fear, they are likely responsible for having placed the spider in the room that caused the first person to have eight heart attacks, thirty five strokes and the immediate requirement for several truckloads of Dia-Stop and a spade.

There are of course many hideously unacceptable behaviours associated with other 'isms' and 'phobia'. 

Definition of homophobia

Fascism for example rarely ends with an infectious smile, and the normal desire of the fascist to murder several billion people could most certainly never be described as 'enlightenment'.

But the 'phobia' that I encountered today and in my view one of the most appalling, is 'homophobia'.

Now the dear folks at Wikipedia define homophobia as...

"encompassing a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). It can be expressed as antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, or hatred, may be based on irrational fear, and is sometimes related to religious beliefs." 

Now as utterly appalling as direct insults and open prejudice are, the most vile forms of homophobia for me, are those that people may not even intend. Those that are based on generational views and formed perhaps in childhood. 

I detest those forms of hate as they are the most likely to be excused with "oh, it's just old Ted and how he was brought up". 

Likely even bored the deceased

Now I'll let you in to the source of this little missive. 

I went to a funeral today for the partner of a dear friend who had passed on after a particularly harrowing period in hospital. 

The funeral was the normal affair where grieving relatives manage to compose themselves enough to tell some stories involving the deceased that meant something to them in an attempt to celebrate the life now gone. 

Up to the lectern toddled the old friend, the life-long fishing buddy. He was a fairly typical old sort, thought himself more entertaining than in reality he was and trundled on for far too long in a manner that I'm sure likely bored even the deceased. 

But then he told a story of how he and his now departed friend had been away on a drinking/fishing/sporting weekend and had ended up fast asleep in the same room on two separate single beds aligned straight along opposite walls, you know, with a narrow path in between. 

They both apparently awoke with horror at one point during the night as in their slumber, the storyteller's right, and the now deceased's left arm had flopped out of bed and had come together in a holding hands kind of way. 

It seems they were shocked. Moreover the disgust with which they awoke, we were told, made them both immediately sober. 

Fearing that their world will fall apart

Now this was a story told to a friendly audience by an old duffer not long for the dark lonely road himself and it would be so easy to offer the excuse "oh it's just old Ted and how he was brought up".

But and here's the thing, think of the young person in earshot of that story, the young person who was already deeply troubled with their own feelings of not being 'normal', worrying very much that their parents would not love them anymore when they found out they were gay. Fearing that their world will fall apart as their friends will surely disown them. 

But courageously they'd fought through that emotional turmoil and were at the point of considering telling their nearest and dearest of their innermost feelings, their deepest admission of who they actually were. 

Then they hear this guy, old Ted, explaining his story, with the perhaps inadvertent message that the merest suggestion of being attracted to your own sex is so hideous, so unnatural, that you awake with shock and are apparently immediately horrified into sobriety at the slightest touch of someone of the same sex. 

Imagine too the number of times you may have said "that's gay", or heard your children describe something, a manner of dressing, or a TV show they didn't like as "that's so gay". The use of the word 'gay' is used in disparaging terms and it's wrong. 

Sometimes homophobia is so innocently perpetrated it's left unseen by all except the one who feels the pain. 

How often have you asked a young person "have you got a boyfriend/girlfriend yet"? 

It's a really innocent and likely well meaning question. But if that young person is gay, the implied suggestion is that they are not normal. 

If you're a chap, you should have a girlfriend. That is what is heard. And if you don't want a girlfriend, then you're quite clearly a raving bender with no more right to breathe on this earth than a sex-offender. 

Can you imagine the pain that causes, can you imagine the emotional turmoil and depression associated with believing that those closest to you may believe you something abhorrent and that you absolutely can't ever talk to anyone about it, ever. 

Bakery refused to make a cake for a same sex wedding

There was the case recently in Northern Ireland, you may have read about it, where a bakery refused to make a cake for a same sex wedding. Their argument was that their religious beliefs prevented them from doing so. 

The couple who owned the bakery were prosecuted under the UK's anti discrimination laws and quite rightly lost the case. They likened the issue to one of religious freedoms. Fortunately those with a brain suggested human rights were more important. 

But for me what was far more important was what message was sent to all those people in the world who are not yet comfortable with themselves. Those folks who don't yet feel able to tell the world who they really are for fear of persecution and homophobia. 

They likely all took six steps back into the closet because of those twats! Someone with a heart, a soul and a right to live how they want and to love who they choose, likely felt vilified and attacked and that is just not right. 

15 year old jumping off a bridge

So please folks, next time you excuse some old person for vicious homophobia on the basis that it's how they were brought up, stop yourself and think of the 15 year old jumping off a bridge because they believed no-one will love them. 

Next time you hear your kids explain that they believe something to be 'gay', stop them and explain to them why using that word is so inexcusable. 

Seriously, what would you do if you caught them using the 'N' word, it's the same thing. 

And for crying out loud what is normal in this world, please don't use terminology, nor ask questions in a way that is likely to make anyone feel that they should be ashamed of who they are. 

I believe, and call me a big lefty poofter if you like, believe me I'm comfortable with who I am. But I believe that we are one as a people. 

We all, black, white, Asian, gay, straight, whatever should be here to support each other and to ensure that we all live as happily together as we can. 

It doesn't matter who you love or who you want to sleep with, as long as they're human and of age you're alright by me. 

It's about being comfortable in your own skin and anyone who unintentionally, or deliberately, suggests that their view is 'normal' and as a result someone else is 'abnormal' should be shunned by the rest of us until such times as they understand how unacceptable their views are. 

So there you go, that blinkin well was a rant. 

But it ends as it started and I can right heartily say that homophobic bullying....it's just so, well gay!

Thanks for reading. If you support these words please comment and come back for more rants next week. If you do not support these words, then please fuck off! You are not deserving of my words nor the air in your lungs. 

Till next time, 

Gordy