by: Howard Kerr

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 13:11:55 +0000

I don’t know, maybe there is something wrong with me. I’ve known I was gay since about 1965, and the first thing I learned (no one taught me) was that it was “uncool” to be gay. I didn’t have a clue about the legal aspects of this issue other than the idea that doing ANYTHING to a gay man or woman would be ignored by those in authority. Gays, pretty much deserved what they got (or didn’t get). Then I started reading Penthouse and Playboy (mostly to try to fit in) but I found some of the info in articles dealing with sexual/civil rights to be eye-opening if not downright alarming. Many states, counties, cities and/or towns had laws against what someone in the 17th, 18th, or 19th century thought was “deviant” behavior….but in many cases, these laws were NOT enforced, EXCEPT against gays and lesbians. In some parts of the U.S. I would imagine this is still true. After living in California for a few years, I was transferred to Texas. I didn’t realize at first, that there might be legal differences between the laws regarding sexual “activities” from one state in the Union, to the next. In the mid-eighties, while I lived in a small town in Texas, the state SODOMY laws changed SEVERAL times. Luckily, I never encountered any law enforcement that was ANTI-gay, but I was never in a position to be caught doing anything illegal. To wrap this all up, I don’t know where this “urge” for gay men and lesbians to marry came from, but it seems that it MIGHT have been better to secure freedom from discrimination some other way. This flies right in the face of the Christian Right, and with their strong hold all over this country, is it any surprize they are trying to “roolback” what miniscule rights gays and lesbians already have?

Comments on: Virginia Just Gets Worse

by: Howard Kerr