The world changes and we must be willing to accept change. For example, in 1979 my best friend and I made our first tractor-trailer trip to Oakland, California. We arrived at the customer's loading docks late Friday evening only to discover that a gay rights demonstration was going on all weekend long in the very same Oakland neighborhood where we were stuck for the weekend. For two young redneck biker tramps from Greensboro, North Carolina who had never met an openly gay man or woman the culture shock was a bit more that we could bear. We spent the weekend locked in our motel room eating delivery pizza, drinking beer and watching the drag queens from a 3rd story window afraid to go out on the street.
Yes, we were very much homophobic. It was all we knew back then.
Today I have a number of gay friends. They're not my best friends but then I don't make friends easy so just being counted among my friends gets you a leg up on the rest of the world. Fact is: I'm difficult to get along with so my best friends are often forced to go out of their way to be my best friends. I have less in common with my gay friends so it makes sense that we might not be as close as I am with a handful of others who are for the most part, miserable old white dudes like myself.
And while it's true that I write a lot about the injustices that have taken place in my East Greensboro neighborhood the world doesn't end there. I'm not gay but unlike 1979 I'm no longer scared of gays. Meeting and seeing gays hasn't made me want to become gay, it hasn't even made me gay curious. I figure either you are or you're not. I did have a lesbian roommate once, something I'll never do again. You see, living with her was just like living with a wife except there was never any sex involved. All the pain and none of the pleasure? Forget that.
But that's my point, she wasn't that different from the wives or girlfriends I've known, she just had a different sexual preference. Yes, she had to put up with me as well and being that I owned the house I had a bit of an upper hand, but only a bit. That girl could lay a guilt trip on me worse than any beating I've ever had even when I was right.
Anyway, they point I'm trying to make and not doing a very good job of making is that a gay friend asked me to mention Amor en las Calles/Love in the Streets in Greensboro on Feburary 14th, Valentines Day in conjunction with South To South who are working to maintain and extend not just gay rights but all our civil rights throughout the Southland, the place where I was born, bred and remain today. For when one group suffers we all suffer. Because the South will not be erased.
Yes, we were very much homophobic. It was all we knew back then.
Today I have a number of gay friends. They're not my best friends but then I don't make friends easy so just being counted among my friends gets you a leg up on the rest of the world. Fact is: I'm difficult to get along with so my best friends are often forced to go out of their way to be my best friends. I have less in common with my gay friends so it makes sense that we might not be as close as I am with a handful of others who are for the most part, miserable old white dudes like myself.
And while it's true that I write a lot about the injustices that have taken place in my East Greensboro neighborhood the world doesn't end there. I'm not gay but unlike 1979 I'm no longer scared of gays. Meeting and seeing gays hasn't made me want to become gay, it hasn't even made me gay curious. I figure either you are or you're not. I did have a lesbian roommate once, something I'll never do again. You see, living with her was just like living with a wife except there was never any sex involved. All the pain and none of the pleasure? Forget that.
But that's my point, she wasn't that different from the wives or girlfriends I've known, she just had a different sexual preference. Yes, she had to put up with me as well and being that I owned the house I had a bit of an upper hand, but only a bit. That girl could lay a guilt trip on me worse than any beating I've ever had even when I was right.
Anyway, they point I'm trying to make and not doing a very good job of making is that a gay friend asked me to mention Amor en las Calles/Love in the Streets in Greensboro on Feburary 14th, Valentines Day in conjunction with South To South who are working to maintain and extend not just gay rights but all our civil rights throughout the Southland, the place where I was born, bred and remain today. For when one group suffers we all suffer. Because the South will not be erased.
