Bee In the Bonnet: Gays and Dikes and Other Little Tikes

By Bernie Bates

Gay people give me the creeps. The way they walk, the way they talk, it’s just too, weird for words. They just go against the word of God.” I can’t believe I once uttered words like that, it makes me shutter to my core to think how ignorant I was. But, I at least I now know where it came from.

Prejudice feelings are a tutored emotion. My dad, a Native, was prejudiced against Africans, Orientals even ‘East’ Indians. He’d curl his lip at city folks, people with accents, but, the one group of scum that he and his friends detested the most were those: “damned fagots.” And of course I grew up to think just like him; I hated without reason or a second thought. And just like a real train – it took a long time to stop that train of thought. The reason I came to see people for what they where and not what they looked like was a very simple thing: communication. It was only after talking with these un-fit-folk, that I came to realize that they too, had feelings, dreams and love in their hearts.

Picture this scenario in your mind: two toddlers are placed in a room, one child is from Africa and the other child is from Canada. Now picture them as they’re playing, one child becomes aggressive and makes the other child cry. Which country is the aggressive child from and what color is that toddler? The truth is it could be either child, from either country. Do you see how easy it is for us to color even the most innocent of situations?

Do you know why most Nazi sympathizers are young? The answer is in the question itself: young. Unfortunately, youth, doesn’t take time to reason, just react. Their emotions rule their thinking processes – it’s like a polluted stream – it takes a long time before the water runs clear again. If you want your children to live a free and happy life, raise them to walk a mile in his moccasins before they judge.

The whole World is holding their breath as we’re about to find out whether or not the new president of the United States will be applauded like J.F.K. or assassinated like J.F.K.? Will a coward’s trigger finger once again postpone the tide of understanding? Acceptance and understanding reminds me of drinking and driving – it was once joked about in public, but now the subject is now met with disgust. Do you, personally, think that the World has matured enough to accept a person at face value, without bias? Personally, I carry hope in one pocket and caution in the other.

Now, back to the reason that first made me write this bit of nit-wit-lit: gay people and the way they walk and talk – “Oh, my stars!” They’re not the norm, nor are they one of us heterosexual – “For heaven’s sake.” You’ve heard these people, they’re so ‘gay’ with their oral communications. Most people have what’s become known as gay-dar, and can spot one a mile away. Has it occurred to you that maybe that’s how they can reach out of the closet in search of someone to love? After all, who among us doesn’t need love? Furthermore, I think it’s one of those basic human rights that a person is born with.

Can you believe that in this day and age there are still those who think that they are blessed with the right to deny other human beings their right to pursue happiness? If two people love one another and want to spend the rest of their lives together – it’s their damned business. If they want to be recognized by the state, with all appropriate benefits, under the protection of a marriage license, again, it’s their damned business!

“Hell’s bells!” If gay people want to get married, then I say: “I do.” But, they should also know the perils what goes along with that document of matrimony; divorce, lawyers, maintenance, alimony, even the custody of the family cat. If the gay at heart really want to be married, they should be aware that the bed of roses has thorns, too.

THE END

Dear reader: Please feel free to contact, B. H. Bates at: beeinthebonnet@shaw.ca