Growing up?

Today some acquaintances were playing some kind of impromptu Battle of the Sexes/Scattegories game where you had to name 10 of something they didn’t think you’d know.  (Baseball players for the girls, etc.)  I got “women’s fashion designers”. At times in the past I might have purposely slowed it down or gotten some wrong in order to “not seem as gay” around people I don’t know that well, or who might be weird about that sort of thing.

But today?  Fuck that.  I rattled them shits right off, and didn’t even pretend for a second that I didn’t know how to pronounce Yves St. Laurent or Hermes flawlessly. 

I think it’s easy for even right-minded, progressive people to ignore the ridiculous amounts of “minor” homophobia that we (I) encounter on a regular basis, regardless of where you live.  It’s easy to reason that it’s usually not intended with malice, and only used in what is considered “safe company”. 

I can’t say that I’ve ever done something in my adult life that I would call homophobic.  Some very important relationships in my life pretty much knocked that out of my brain at a really young age.  I can say, however, that I am a guilty observer of it almost daily, and that I’m going to stop that.

I’m not saying that I’m gonna be the PC police, or even that a gay joke can’t be funny (sometimes they’re very funny), just that I will no longer go out of my way to avoid setting up a homophobic non-joke, or pretend to courtesy laugh at one.  I will not be “safe company”.

I know, Hero, right?  I just figured if we’re all taking small steps towards great things today…