There
are lots of things that I find difficult to understand about people
and their behaviour. Even as a young child, I couldn't work out why
Christians hated Jews, because Jesus was a Jew. When I asked a teacher
at my junior school why the Jewish people were so persecuted she told
me (an eight year old boy) that the Jews killed Jesus. I thought it
was the Romans, yet you don't see the Italians getting the same treatment!
Even if this were true, which it isn't, even if there was a person
called Jesus (Joshua originally) why would you persecute people who
were not there for over two thousand years? What makes it even more
ludicrous is that the Torah, the holy book of Judaism, is actually the
old testament in the Christian bible!
Now
before lots of Christians get hot under the collar with me and tell
me that they are not all the same and most are quite passive and
tolerant (which is not true) I know not all Christians are the same.
But the thing about religion is, the less you know about it, the more
bigoted you become.
It
seems that gay men, though, strangely, not gay women, get the same treatment. I
cannot understand why gay men are so hated! It is just a sexual
preference, no more no less, that's it? We all have our likes and
dislikes when it comes to sex.
Lets
get the religious bit out of the way, shall we? I know all about if a
man lays with another blah, blah stuff. But why would a God, a being
of vastly superior intellect, a being capable of conjuring up
billions of galaxies, of creating all life, be bothered who slept
with who? And if the Bible is to be taken literally, then Jesus didn't
marry, he hung around with twelve disciples (actually many more than
twelve, if you read the Bible). He was betrayed by a kiss from another
man: think about it.
But it
seems that its not just religious bigots that hate gay men. I watched
a programme the other evening about gay men in Russia who are beaten
and intimidated: why? Is the masculinity of these bullies threatened
by a show of love for their fellow men? Do they see something deep
inside their own psyche when they are faced with a gay person? The
same men seem to be turned on by the thought of lesbian sex. I cannot
see why they have so much hatred.
I
really don't care what two consenting adults get up to in the privacy
of their own homes, or anywhere else, as long as it's in private. I
remember years ago when I worked as a carpenter (Jesus would have
been so proud) working on building sites. While working on one site and having a lot of light-hearted banter while eating our lunch, one
of the bricklayers mentioned that he was gay. At first, the others thought
that he was kidding, but when he told them he had a male partner who
he loved deeply, the whole mood of the hut where we were eating
changed. People became quite hostile to him. Soon, as with all mobs,
they had worked themselves into a frenzy over such an innocent irrelevant
comment. Then the whole room became quite threatening, so I thought
enough was enough and I told the ringleaders of the bigoted bile
what I thought of them. Needless to say, they all turned on me then,
claiming that I was gay too. They asked me outright if I was gay, and
I told them that my sex life was no person's business but mine! For
the rest of the time I worked on that site people gave me a wide
berth, and I had lots of fun flirting with the gay bricklayer every
meal-time, to wind the rest of the imbeciles up! The guy who I had
originally defended asked me one day if I was gay, and I told him to
mind his own business.
Many
years later while having a drink in a well-known gay bar where I
live, I met this man again. He was with his partner and I was with my
wife and a couple of good friends. The man came over to me looked at
my wife and laughed saying, “That answers my question then.” I
told him "Can you not tell she is a man in drag?” pointing to my
wife ,who then promptly hit me! He sat with us for a while as he also
knew the couple that we were with and I was shocked to hear of the
abuse he had received because he was so open about being gay. One of
our friends (who is gay) said he, too, had received the same treatment.
I was shocked and saddened that we, in this age, still treat people in
such a way.
I
remember a friend of mine telling me years ago that he didn't want to
go to a night club in the Lancashire town of Bolton. When I asked him
why, he told me that he had been before and had to fight his way out
of the club. The reason for this? Was he some sort of pervert? Had he
knocked over a table full of drinks? Had he chatted up someone's
wife? No, the reason he had to fight for his life was because he's
black! I am concerned by people's ideologies, behaviour and
fanaticism, but I really don't give a toss about their skin colour! Why
the colour of your skin reflects on you as a person is beyond me!
I
thought that we had moved on from the dismal bigoted days of the
seventies, that was until a trip to the south Yorkshire town of
Barnsley a few months ago. On the main street was a group of morons
called the National Front. The NF, as they like to be called, are a
Neo-Nazi organisation of knob heads (technical term!). As we walked
past these thugs they all stopped and stared with menace at my
family. The reason for this being that my son's partner is of mixed
race (whatever that means) - she is black. What's more my beautiful
granddaughter was with us. I told my wife and my son's partner to keep
on walking with our granddaughter, while my son and myself stopped
behind, just in case of any trouble. I looked at my son who looked
back at me and for a split second we were both overcome with rage
because of these mindless oafs. Luckily they did nothing but mutter
to each other.
It
seems that bigotry is part of the psyche of humans!
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