But It IS Normal! ~ Part I

GAY or LGBTQI+

Liverpool

But it IS Normal! ~ Part I

But it IS Normal!

I

WHEN THE whispers of self-righteousness bounce out from darkened corners of rooms it is within my nature to urge debate.

First published in 2013, I attach great importance to this article.

I have spent a lifetime being a lie to myself and therefore a lie to others. This last decade I have been trying to make amends for that and in the process have found myself able to write and publish.. But from the start there has always been that distancing... what I call that leprous feel in cosy circles... and it still pervades our society. 

Working things through the other day found me arriving at the old position...the position that kept me firmly in the closet through three careers and a sense of emptiness that is difficult to describe.

II

And that position was this - and despite the support I receive from some friends and like-minded people, and family, and of course the incredible friends here on Facebook. 

Friendship, acceptance and support brings the tut-tutters to my door, gradually weakening resolve and breaking one's will to resist, to carry on, to fight our corner.

It is very easy - in the mind's eye - in such circumstances to slip back into the cosiness of a darkened room, that closet where people must be kept out of public gaze because...well, you know... the neighbours might not like it.

III

Chatting to a friend earlier today [2013] riled me, when he explained how his neighbours had come round to apologise to him for the fact that the builders working on their extension had removed their shirts and two were bearing exposed pierced nipples and tattoos. "Disgusting!" Frankly, it upset my day. 

It has been building up all week from the negative feedback and pronunciations I get about how I must act responsibly and deny what 'in God's Name you consider to be your true self.' 

And whilst I am very much a ‘back against the walls brit’, no pun intended, when it comes to standing my ground and then striking back, a certain weariness has been creeping in and I emailed one of my friends on various matters and then, as we sometimes do with those closest to us, lobbed one comment in - a quick request for advice.

I'd decided that I was after all abnormal (and with that came all the horrors of those terrible years in the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s, where it was made clear that I was abnormal unless I got married, had kids and thereby proved that I was normal. I hasten to add, none of that came from my family. It came from that especially narrow-minded section of the wider church.

So my last line to my mate was just a simple statement: "I wish I was frigging normal!"

Ignoring all the main items in our discussion by email, this guy - totally straight, moreover - did what I call a right hook and upper cut! I know how he thinks, and I know when he gets truly pissed off. And boy am I glad he did. For in his reply came this one simple statement:

Ken. Gay IS normal! When you forget that, hope is lost!! Idiot!!!

Yep - there it all is. In those twelve simple words, those three sentences that have the power of the Universe behind them, and enlightened readers will get just What or Who I'm referring to here.

IV

This page (the book's Facebook page www.facebook.com/BGBBW) is all about being gay, being bi, whatever. It is all about inclusive sexuality. It is all about living, and letting others live too. 

We DO have a very long way to go.

On the one hand, I am greatly heartened by the massive supports and 'shares' of that lovely image of the two American footballers in full kit and with their team numbers 2 and 8, a lovely kick back at the old Section 28 UK Law that forbade promotion of homosexuality by teachers in schools in sex education lessons.

On the other hand, I am alarmed at the Leader Article in The Independent (August 19, 2013) in which it reports that schools are - through the backdoor - keeping very much alive Section 28. Granted, the Government has acted swiftly and set up an inquiry, but we are dealing with people's lives here, young people's lives in their formative years. And they need substance answers to substance questions and they have a right to expect truth, honesty and transparency from their teachers.

V

To conclude, you know what? I say to those who've scoffed at the book Being Gay Being Bi Whatever, to those who feel it would be better if it was called Being Whatever, to those who won't put it on their book shelves for fear of offending their customers - accept the fact that being LGBTQ, GLBTQ is perfectly normal and natural, always has been, and always will be.

The apparent ‘abnormality’ emanates solely from the minds that prefer superstition and myth, to reality, scientific explanation and truth.

Thank goodness, I am still very attached to Liverpool, and as soon as the restrictions ease, and it is regarded as safe for my age group to do so, I will enjoy those regular returns and city breaks.

31 May 2022
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LIVERPOOL

© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb

First Written and Published 21 August 2013