Being Gay is Not Easy for All, There are many Thorpe’s Out there

                                                                               

  As I indicated in the tittle and as we’ve seen with Thorpe’s process of coming out it was not easy for him. Some get to realized early in life that they are different sexually. On the other hand many of us do see ourselves as different and if we do, we try to make up for it in other ways by overdoing ‘machismo’ or sports or hanging out with the guys. When the time comes that we decide that we have to be honest with ourselves it becomes a hard process and one that cannot be done in one day.  It takes a lot of soul searching and being honest with ourselves. At that time we can look back honestly and see that indeed we were different and were trying to be the same as all the others. Some kids withdraw but other take the bull by the horns and try to change and be like others. Humans like to be like other humans.  You can see that on the fads of fashion one person starts with something and before you know it it’s seen as a‘personality thing’ and then every person starts wearing the same. He finally did and now he can have a better life being at peace with himself.

Adam Gonzalez     

He is Out!                                                    

HE’S finally done it. After a procession of biographies, tell-all interviews and “candid” documentaries, swimming legend Ian Thorpe stopped the farcical self-mythologizing and came clean about his sexuality on Sunday night.

That it took a 90-minute television special, and reportedly a giant wad of cash, to reveal two words that everyone already knew – “I’m gay” – says more about commercial realities than anything else.

Indeed, it was commercial realities that kept Thorpedo in the closet for so long.

Even in 2014 Australia, an openly gay swimming star has less earning potential out of the pool than if he were straight.

Whether Thorpe’s “outing” is a watershed moment for the gay rights movement is still to be written, but there’s little doubt it will help some young people struggling to come to terms with their sexuality.

It can’t be easy being gay.

Although society has made great leaps – amid the occasional stumble – on its way to shaking the antiquated prejudices applied to race and religion, the same acceptance of homosexuality has been slower to materialise.

In schoolyards, gay slurs are thrown like confetti at anyone who dares challenge the notion of the conventional Australian male or female stereotype – regardless of whether the target of the vitriol is gay or straight.

Perhaps, though, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these prejudices are so prevalent.

For too long there has been a chronic lack of leadership among the usual bastions of moral decency: the church and the state.

Only through the most gritted of teeth have most governments and churches made any concessions that are likely to bring about a change in people’s attitudes towards homosexuality or gay marriage.

This is not a matter of political correctness or affirmative action – it’s about a person’s basic right to be themselves without being vilified.

Being born gay is just as arbitrary as being born black or white.

But as long as society is anti-gay, then it will seem like being gay is anti-social.

northerndailyleader.com.au