M
markomalley
Guest
I think you might be surprised to find out that more people in your life are gay than you realize.
You really have no gay friends or relatives? No one in your spouse’s family? Neighbors? Your doctor/lawyer/dentist/mailman? I have 2 lesbians in my family, one in my immediate family and the other is my niece. My husband has two gay relatives, only one of them is out to the family. I have several gay friends, my husband’s boss is gay, and of course I have many gay classmates-but that’s just due to the fact that it’s a large program. While gay people may be overrepresented in my life, I also believe they’re underrepresented in yours. Everyone I know IRL has at least one gay person in their life, and even on these boards posters frequently share stories of the many gay people in their lives. (I’m not talking about the threads started about gays, I’m talking about the many posters who respond to those threads with “My ________ is gay”. Or “I have a gay ______”. Just the fact that over three percent of the population is gay means that most people will have a gay person in their closest circles (work/family/social/school).
- My family: one niece – haven’t seen her in 10 years (not because she’s a lesbian, just hasn’t worked out that way.
- My wife’s family: one niece – she and my wife had a falling out and we haven’t seen her for probably 5-6 years (she’s actually bisexual, not lesbian)
- Doctor: her husband and kids would be shocked and surprised to find that out
- Dentist: fellow K of C member and father of 3
- Dental Hygienist (or her daughter who is also a hygienist in the same practice): nope.
- Mail woman: married/kids
- Investment manager: yes. I talk to him on the phone every couple of months and may see him once a year.
- Neighbors: one couple has a lesbian daughter, but she moved in with her girlfriend shortly after graduating from high school and we literally never see her; we may see her car parked outside her folks’ house every few weeks
- Previous job: there may have been one LGBT person there (pretty much everybody was married…or had a serious boyfriend/girlfriend of the opposite sex)
- Job before that: can’t think of anybody who even may have been
- Air Force time: I may have met 10 of them in my 21 year career – and that’s out of several hundred friends I made over that career and literally thousands that I knew over that time (of course, when I was in was “pre-DADT” and “DADT” time, so the only time one would find out is with close friends)
Having said that, and to your point, I also fully acknowledge that some of the people with whom I casually associated may have been “LGBT” and the subject didn’t come up as a result of professional discussions or meetings. Nor should it. One should not expect a homosexual to answer the phone “Human Resources, this is Lance and I’m gay. How can I help you?” any more than one should expect, “Human Resources, this is Caleb and I’m a Baptist, can I help you?”
On the other hand, to my point, if it would be unnatural and inappropriate for a “LGBT” person to announce their sexuality in a professional meeting, casual setting, sales situation, or other business case, then why would it pertinent for a character in a bit role on a program to do so?