Last weekend was the annual Pride march in my local city. I didn’t manage to go this year but my teenage nephew did. He went with a few friends, one identified as bi, one as pan and one as transexual; he self identifies as bisexual. All the young boys and girls (15 & 16 by the way) had a great time.
BUT…
Standing at the tram stop on their way back home a man walked by, with his young daughter. As he walked by he said “faggots” to my nephew and his group of friends. He saw the look on his daughter’s face, and he said she looked mortified.
My first reaction was to laugh out loud. How could someone be like that in the day and age and during Pride. It just sounded so ludicrous.
Then I got to thinking and all those thoughts from my youth came flooding back. How I was scared of anyone finding out about my sexuality for fear of being victimised and bullied. I could never have come out at school and I had to hide who I really was until I came out in my twenties.
Today people are more free to be themselves and that is a good thing. But there are still those people who feel they the right to shout abuse at others.