My high school class reunion is coming up in
October....class of 1962. Jeeze.
My friend Ray and I are on the planning committee and a
surprisingly high number of our former classmates are sending in their
deposits. The list of deceased members of the class is sobering as well...those
were also the Vietnam years...with the war just beginning to crank up. My
handsome locker mate died early on over in that miserable conflict.
Our team leader in the planning group sent out
questionnaires last week for some basic info from all of the class members, and
I completed mine last night.
I was impressed that he'd handled the marriage question by
asking for our "spouse/partner"s name. I wondered if he had spent some time
pondering the wording on that...or if he had assumed that I was obviously not
married, or gay, or that his wife had suggested the choice. Since South
Catholic was an all boys school, I would have expected a "wife's name" kinda
thing.
Funny that it took me a little while to type in my answer.
There is this internal homophobia that doesn't go away...maybe it never does.
Once I typed in my partner's name, I breathed a sigh of relief and then came out
like a rocket when I answered the next question " Can you share a few thoughts
about your high school days." .....to which I responded.
" LITTLE DID YOU GUYS KNOW THAT WHEN I CONVINCED OUR SENIOR
CLASS TO DRESS IN DRAG AND SING " THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A GUY " THAT YOU'D ALL
ACTUALLY BE THE CATALYST FOR ME TO COME SPRINGING OUT OF THE CLOSET A FEW YEARS
LATER...THANK GOD I GOT OUT OF GYM CLASS."
So when people think that eventually being able to say " I'm Gay" is the
final moment of hesitation and the grand finale to accepting and embracing who
they really are..they just might still have a little surprise or two
coming...fifty years later.
No comments:
Post a Comment