It’s Not GAY Rights – It’s HUMAN Rights!

This is result of an interesting email I received from my son, regarding an openly gay man, Michael Sam, trying to get a spot on an NFL roster.

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ZAC: How much you want to bet that the Dolphins draft Michael Sam haha. Not this it matters and not that I care but it would be very Dolphin’s like and it sure would suck to have to listen to people talk about it 24/7. I love how he says “I don’t want to be looked at as Michael Sam the gay football player, rather Michael Sam the football player”. If that was the case you probably shouldn’t have came out publicly. Of course people will always think of you as the gay football player. I have absolutely nothing against gay people as you know but it’s different in football. Because I know as a guy, if I see a naked girl in the shower I’m 100% looking her up and down lol. I’m assuming it is the same for gay people which makes it awkward for his teammates regardless of their stance on sexuality. Think it was the dumbest thing he could do was come out publicly.

Thoughts?

Hey Zac, I appreciate your honesty but your feeling are more about you than they are about him. But you're not alone - I too share those kinds of feelings like most everyone not use to this predicament, but I work to suppress them because in my heart of hearts, I know it's wrong. And I'll tell you why.

To educate yourself with first hand knowledge on this topic, the best way is to talk to gay people… ask them straight up what their experience is. What ever it is, you can draw your own conclusions and then you’ll have an opinion you can be sure of regardless of what side of things you're on. Failing that, here's a bit of history...

Harvey Milk was the FIRST openly gay legislator in the San Francisco in the 70s during a time when people like governor Jerry Brown and Anita Bryan were pushing for FEDERAL LEGISLATION to openly and legally discriminate against the gay community. These are the people that believe that you can TEACH someone to be gay – and you can also UNTEACH them and breed it out of them, back to straight again. They also believe, with 100% certainty, that gayness leads to pedophilia and that eventually bestiality – it’s only logical right? The misinformation and flagrant LIES they based their beliefs around were staggering (and mostly Bible based – SURPRISE!) and designed to scare people (=votes) and it’s all designed so they didn’t have to be inconvenienced in any way for the lifestyle of people they don’t know, will never know or understand – and that scares their tiny minds. THIS is how you justify discrimination at the state and federal level. Read up on “Proposition 6 in the 70’s”. Oh… and what happened to Harvey Milk you ask?… he was assassinated of course – shot dead in the City Hall along with the Mayor of San Francisco, 1 of the few elected officials that stood by his side and supported his cause – not because the mayor was gay (he was not) – but because constitutionally, it was the right thing to do. So don’t under estimate what this football player is doing by being the FIRST to come out. It is indeed a grand, difficult, lonely, selfless and scary thing to do. Like Harvey Milk, HE is doing the bravest thing a man could possibly do. HE is the one breaking the stereo types – HE is the one enduring the public scrutiny and ridicule and constant threat of physical harm – HE is the one paving the way for others to follow – but in a CIVILIZED manner. And only after the many that will inevitably follow – only THEN will he/they be considered just a “football player” because by then, people are use to it and they’re not afraid of it because they are now familiar with it an have a better understanding of it – ergo, no need to bully, stereo type or discriminate.

Another great examples of “First Steppers”… read up on the Suffragette movement in the 1920’s-ish. At one point, MEN were “uncomfortable” with women VOTING! These women sacrifice EVERYTHING to protest this egregious affront to the constitution. They were socially ostracized, divorced, abandoned, ridiculed and eventually jailed and beaten regularly just to shut them up. And to continue having their voices heard, they went on a hunger strike in jail to continue to apply pressure until finally, someone said, “what’s the big deal? – they’re Americans – they should vote”. It only took a couple of years and a LOT of beatings and hardship… but a woman in a voting both these days is just a “person” voting… not a “woman” voting – thanks to the Suffragettes – the FIRST ones! In the sports vernacular… Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Jack Johnson… what those guys had to endure just for being black and being FIRST at what ever it is that they do – it was unbelievable. And those were just athletes. Imagine the first black man to run for any kind of office? Or tried to graduate Harvard? Or tried to be a stock broker on Wall Street. The discrimination we’re talking about here is only the discrimination that we can SEE because it’s sports on TV. But those guys took one for the figurative team and stuck their necks out and became the FIRST! It’s the hardest thing to do – and whether you agree with this player’s lifestyle or not – he should be revered and respected for this selfless stand he’s taking for the benefit of all Americans that follow him and the ideals that make America what it is… “with liberty and justice FOR ALL!” The fact is, there’s few people in the country acting more American than he is right now.

What most (bible) thumpers and conservatives (one in the same really) want to forget is that gay people are American citizens just like themselves, just like you and me. Would you be ok if society told YOU “ummm.. Zac, you can be jewish, but just keep it to yourself” – “WHY” you would ask. “well, because we are not Jews and we represent about 95% of the population – and all your crazy talk and nutty clothes and slicing off foreskins and such – well, it just makes us uncomfortable – so don’t say anything about it and just PRETEND your not Jewish. It makes us feel better about ourselves. OK? Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, about 70% of private sector employment is not available to you, nor do you enjoy any tax benefits for civil unions like us Christians.” “WHY”? you might persist. “Well, it’s because you’re JEWISH and that just makes us uncomfortable.” and they continue, “and I have to warn you, if you persist in publicizing your lifestyle in any way we don’t see fit, we are going to publicly mock you and look the other way when people beat you in the streets.”

Well if I know you well enough to know that you’d have 1 big “FUCK YOU” for those fucking fascists – just as your grand father did to Hitler when he exactly as I described above! Because you’re American – you are ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED to be who you are as long as it does not hurt others or break laws. THAT is the greatest of all reasons American should be considered a world leader. But here we are, in 2014, over 50 years after the equal rights amendment… and we are asking this guy to cover, conceal and fake his way through life just so we “normal people” are never uncomfortable. This is starting to sound like Somalia or Sudan or Nazi Germany or all the above.

Now think about this… If you consider that 3-5% of everyone is gay (at least those that admit it anyway), add bisexuals in there and it’s a greater number to be sure… and there are presently 1,700 players in the NFL – add in coaches and support staff and you’re up past 2,000. With that math, that means that, conservatively guessing (pun intended), there is already ONE HUNDRED gay people showering with straight people in the NFL RIGHT NOW, and they have been since the 30’s! Dude… I’m guessing that YOU have showered with a dozen gay guys by now – LOL!!! The only difference between them and Mr. Sam is that those people have resigned themselves to life of servitude, conformity and secrecy. SERIOUSLY? IN AMERICA? This ain’t no fuckin’ RUSSIA where they beat people in the street for just being SUSPECTED of being gay and jail young girls for TWO YEARS just for staging an anti government protest in a church! But Mr. Sam, he has not resigned himself to such an existence. He’s taking a stand. He is standing up as a MAN and a FREE AMERICAN and saying – “this is who I am, this is what I do, this is the job I want, and if I’m qualified – which I am, I should have that job – and I should not have to change my identity or your perception of me to get it, just like every other American Citizen.” So Dawg, in my view, he’s being more manly than you and me combined. Perhaps the lesson take here – or at lest a tidy catch-phrase…

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It’s not up to him to SHUT up…

It’s up to US to GROW up!

Just like it was up to Crackers to come to terms with blacks voting and having executive positions and playing baseball and being doctors and lawyers and the POTUS fer christ sake! The fact is that the crackers never did except it and they now pass their time masquerading as Tea Party members, pining for the 1950’s when it was good to be an American (as in – white, straight, christian & male… everyone else… not so much). But alas we are mortal and those crusty old crackers are finally drying up and DYING while kind tolerant humans like YOU are forming the new generation of intelligent, forward thinkers. This is why a black man can now be elected president by a majority democratic vote, and gay people can play in the NBA and NFL, and a movie like Brokeback Mountain isn’t considered a ‘gay movie’… but just ‘a great movie’… but I’m not gonna lie – it’s tough watching that scene in the tent LOL. Zac, it’s up to US to evolve as a human sub-species… not continually gravitate toward that which is most comfortable for ME-ME-ME! I can assure you, that is the LAST thing on Mr. Sam’s mind because the next few years of his life are going to be anything BUT comfortable for him.

You might consider a heart to heart convo with your uncles about just what it took for them to come out just to their families – never mind the team you would play for and shower with, the industry that you want to be employed by, and the people who will be your customers. You should REALLY go after that conversation. I know they would welcome the question and give you a full, honest, and very revealing answer. I have my own experience with David’s coming out, and it does NOT paint the family in any kind of favorable light – even slightly. As it turns out, I was very instrumental in SHAMING the family into CONSIDERING excepting ALL of David back into their hearts. But you have probably noticed he never did move back to Florida, did he? I will be happy to share that with you – you need only ask.

Always keep a vigilant eye on the big picture… KNOW the country who’s flag you waive… understand how you fit into the world immediately around you, and how your actions, words and beliefs effect that world, be-it negatively or positively – and then make decisions as to how you want to live – the person you want to be. If you find yourself constantly wondering “why me” or “what’s this guy’s problem” or “I don’t get it”… yet do nothing to actually find the answer to those questions… then my son, you are a republican. But if you take steps to ANSWER those questions (like you did with this email!), and you can live your life based on sound decisions obtained from first hand findings – then you’ll be an honorable, well informed, kind and tolerant American human – regardless of your sex, age, race, sexual orientation, marital status, income level, political persuasion or religion – just as it should be. And THAT, my son, IS what this country is built on! U-S-A… U-S-A!