The last item, homo choko (homo chocolates), is probably meant to be a play on the item above it, tomo choko (friend chocolates). But in what way are they using the word “homo”? If a gay person were to see this sort of thing, I wonder how they'd feel about it.
Statistics suggest that 1 in every 10-15 people is either gay or bisexual. That would mean that in a class of 40 students, 3 or 4 of them would be gay.
Despite this, being gay still continues to be treated as being “other” and there are many societies where gays are targets of discrimination. How hard it must be to have to continue to hide who you are, even from your friends and your family.
I heard that there are lots of cases of depression within the gay community. But I guess it's no wonder that that's the case when you have to hide away and deny your sexual orientation, something which is at the very core of who you are. Now, it's still baby steps as people get to understand more about homosexuality but we're definitely getting there.
Last week, a bill was passed in the French National Assembly allowing same sex marriage. It's such a fantastic achievement for France, particularly in light of the number of Catholics there. But here in a country as free as ours, New Zealand, gays still aren't allowed to get married.
I really can't believe that there are people still here in the 21st Century who are still harping on about how “Marriage is between a man and a woman”. People should be able to love freely and without restriction, regardless of their partner' gender.
In the old days, the kind of shallow thinking that disallowed marriage between people who were different and prohibited marriage on the basis of race and nationality and the colour of someone's skin went unchallenged, but don't you think it's an embarrassment for us now to be falling back in time by who knows how many decades and prohibiting gay marriage?
Here in this country, there are of course still people who don't want people to know that they're gay. But it's pretty common now to see photos of a gay couple's house in glossy interior design mags and lesbian kissing scenes in TV and movies don't cause quite the scandal they used to. We're starting to get to a point where being gay isn't really anything special.
Recently in Japan, courageous people have been coming forward, out and proud, declaring that they're gay and writing about their experiences. But, as I'm sure you can guess, Japan's also full of people for whom being able to “come out” is still a long way off.
You’re single, but you can't go out with the person you like
Even if you are with someone, no-one is happy for you
And as icing on the cake, you get forced into a sham marriage...
And so we have people who feel like this and flee these sorts of countries, moving to some place that's more free and never looking back.
I happen to know a Japanese woman who is living together with a Kiwi woman and they appear for all intents and purposes to be free and happy. Working with a gay male friend of theirs, the two of them ended up being blessed with two children. Their children have two mothers, but they call one Mummy and the other one Mama and there doesn't seem to be any confusion for them.
A student of mine from two years ago contacted me once completely out of the blue. I hadn't seen him for a long time and he looked so different – he was so alive and it seemed like a world of weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He told me “That year, I was really struggling with the fact that I was gay. But I've finally managed to accept that for myself and recently, I've even found myself a boyfriend and...”
Whenever I'm taking a class, I make sure not to forget that there's likely to be some gay students there. If the topic of boys and girls dating comes up, I make sure that I emphasise that a guy's partner might be his boyfriend. Some students will giggle, but to them I say “What's so funny? Gay people exist too, don't they?”
If you're gay, you've got at least one person right here who is genuinely happy for you and who accepts you as you are – that's the one message I hope really gets out to you.
[You can find the original post in Japanese｢男と男、女と女」 here.]
From Organic Green Roots
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