Colour Me Blue -- A Pride Question

Not a very productive day. I lazed about. My day began with my mom’s friend calling around ten and yelling at me when I answered the phone.

Friend: Did I wake you up?

Lauren: As a matter of fact you did.

Friend: How is it that you’re up with the bloody birds when we go camping and you’re still in bed..!!!!!”

Lauren: That would be true if this wasn’t Lauren.

Friend: Oh, well in that case, you should be getting up.

She’s a goofball and in her defence, she is not the only person to mix me up with my mom on the phone. It happens all the time.

Later I just watched some movies with friends while my parents played cards with their friends. Random tidbit, if you point at an energetic Yorkshire terrier and say very firmly: “Dance puppy, dance!” it will get up on its hind legs and jump about. I tried it. It really does work.

And aside from all that, I think my thought of the day will be on the notion of ‘coming out’. It doesn’t really bother me anymore to tell people that I’m gay. I don’t introduce myself, ‘hi, I’m Lauren and I’m gay’ mind you but if the topic comes up, I can and do tell people. What kind of gets... I don’t even know the word... is coming out over and over and over and over again. Every time I meet a new person I have to come out. Repetitive? Sometimes I feel like my sexuality is some weird growth on some part of my body that I have to explain. I don’t mind exactly, but why do people assume I’m straight? Why do we assume anyone is straight or gay or whatever? If I’m not hitting on you, why is it important?

This may sound silly, but sometimes I wish gay was just obvious. Like... skin colour. I dunno what colour gay people’s skin would be, but it would save us a lot of time and energy. People would understand from the beginning that “yup, this is just the way you were born”. There would be no coming out and therefore no fear, no anxiety or depression around coming out. I’d be able to look at a woman and know before I fell for her if she’s gay or not. And maybe if it was a skin colour, we’d be recognized in government and schools because there wouldn’t be any bullshit about no one in the room being gay, no one in the school is gay, no one in the country is gay. We all recognize racism as being wrong but somehow homosexuality is a controversial issue. Colour me blue and take the issue off the table.

Well... that turned into an unexpected rant. I hope this didn’t somehow sound racist... not what I meant if it did. I guess I would rather be a visible minority than an invisible one. Shall I wrap this up on the note of “Food for thought”?

Lauren.