Fairy
When I was quite young, in grade school, homosexuality was invisible and mute and shrouded in a cloak of secrecy. Most children my age understood it not at all. Only very rarely, would an adult refer to a putative "not-quite-right" character as a “Fairy.” In my mind at the time, fairies frolicked with the brownies and the leprechauns through verdant forests and meadows.
Later, when I attended middle school, at which time sexual awareness became manifest, homosexuals were heartily reviled, the objects of scorn and hostility--the “other.” If a child of that era were mentally defective--labelled at the time as retarded--he was often subject not only to bullying, but to malice and isolation as well, and was called “Queer,” which was a catchall word for the disaffected.
When at last I reached high school, during the 1960s, the term “fag” came into vogue and was levied by boys and girls, athletes and non-athletes (the freaks) alike. Girls who would not put out were lumped into the “Lezzy” dustbin of life. Clearly, it was thought, there must be something very wrong with these sexually stunted young girls.
In college, (the 1970s) the liberal, enlightened teachers and their student acolytes often advocated for these alienated persons and heralded the newly christened “Gays” as quite upstanding men and the “Lesbians,” their female counterparts, as exemplary as well. This was not the mainstream attitude toward these individuals; to many, both outside and inside the walls of academia, homosexuals remained queer or faggot or even worse. Little attention was paid to the gradations of sexual reality; everything was still discussed in terms of male and female. Cis and dysphoria were far in the future. Which of course left many people out. A presumptive intellectualism was bestowed upon them. “Rubyfruit Jungle” found itself on college reading lists in 1973, followed by “Tales of the City,” “Dream of a Common Language” and others.
But one time, at my university, a wide spectrum of sexual “others” gave a public forum on their sexual identities and the undercurrent of discrimination against them. It was a courageous effort. The panel was heatedly assailed by an array of mostly African American women who discounted any bias the others had suffered, as just. When a transsexual said that he was in a homosexual relationship, one woman screamed, “Why don’t you make up your mind?” Another shouted, “I like dick!” to thunderous applause from the audience. Okay, so not everyone at university was enlightened.
After graduation, now free of the regimentation and bureaucracy of school, I explored the regimentation and bureaucracy of the world of employment. I witnessed discrimination, by both management and labor, against both male and female non-heterosexuals. Homosexuality was not generally given as the reason for the discharge, though everyone knew the truth. It was not until well into the 21st century that it became illegal to fire an employee based on the issue of sexual identity (June, 2020). Like any other segment of society, sex-based minorities have had to fight for their rights.
I have had many LGBTQ associates, acquaintances and friends, housemates, fellow students and colleagues over the course of the last 60 years. And I admit that my own attitudes toward LGBTQ individuals, in terms of their rights, responsibilities and merit, have evolved. Society at long last has embraced the efforts of LGBTQ people to attain the rights and recognition so long denied them. My experience, by definition, has been only anecdotal, but I likewise stand behind the LGBTQ community in attaining their long overdue respect and self-actualization.
