Another article for the school magazine

THE MODEL UNITED NATIONS BANS GAY MARRIAGES WORLDWIDE!!!

MUN finished today. Someone told me that a resolution was passed to make all governments ban homosexual marriages within their territories. This means that, if the M in MUN wasn’t there, i would as of today have to wonder when the next resolution would come. You know, the one that doesn’t allow me to be your teacher, or the one that says that i have to live in special neighborhoods, or wear a sign stitched to my clothing, or be castrated or lobotomized.

Fortunately the M is there, and i can go on teaching… With the peace of mind brought by knowing that there’s a substantial majority among first year students who feels morally empowered to make such decisions affecting my life. Now that’s a relief!

Yes, i do feel a bit threatened, even with the M where it is. But not all that threatened. Seriously. What i am definitely not is offended. On the contrary, i really appreciate the fact that this issue is being discussed openly and i will welcome anyone who wants to talk about it personally. When i was your age, many of my classmates in highschool wouldn’t even touch the topic of homosexuality (other than to insult homosexuals), for fear of being thought homosexual themselves. Heck, even i, being gay, felt that way! So things have changed for the better, in my view.

Of course, there’s still a long way to go. For instance, how many of you feel comfortable about approaching someone who is lesbian, gay or bisexual and asking them what homosexuality is about? Have you ever wondered how someone who is directly affected by these issues views the whole thing? Is it fair to stay with what you read or heard about the topic without having talked about it with someone who supposedly embodies what you heard or read?

Maybe you don’t want to talk about any of this because you can’t understand why people do talk about it. I mean, why does someone have to blabber about her/his sexuality in MY face? Are you trying to recruit me or something? Do you want to make ME gay, too?

Let me make this very clear: NOT AT ALL! But i do have to be in your face, because if i don’t, there are more chances that you’ll go on thinking people like me are evil, sick, sinners, child-molesters, etc.. And i have to scream and shout, so that it’s not so easy for you to give me your version of cure or punishment. And i have to be visible and ask for my rights, so that you won’t try to tell me who i can and cannot love and partner with, what kind of jobs i should and should not have, or whatever (you might still try and do all these things, but at least not without me saying my bit).

If all these words coming and going make you uncomfortable, let me tell you: i myself am not all that thrilled about having to talk publicly or write about my sexuality. I very often find myself wondering how knowledge of my being gay affects the perception others have of me. Puerile as this behavior may be, my mind sometimes concentrates on this issue to the point of impairing my ability to communicate with others (“Is s/he thinking right now that i’m gay? What will s/he think about my saying this in light of my being gay? How do i say this so that it is not misinterpreted and taken to fit this or that gay stereotype?”)

Yes, my shoulders have more chips than any 3000 year old Egyptian statue, yet reason (not always in command) tells me they shouldn’t. After all, if you’re heterosexual, you display your sexuality publicly all the time: you walk hand in hand with your significant other, you introduce them as such to your friends, you comment on how attractive someone is, you watch movies and TV shows where your sexuality is portrayed as natural and supreme, and you have institutions such as marriage that validate your sexuality.

Yet if a couple shares the same gender, all of these behaviors are viewed as surprising, shocking or even criminal by many individuals and societies (in some countries punishable by death). Thus, artificial as it may feel in a society that is not used to it, a space must be created where homosexuality is visible as the kind of normal human behavior it is.

Anyways, going back to the MUN resolution about banning gay marriages on a global scale, i can’t help wondering whether the vote you cast on this issue was meant to reflect your own opinions, or rather those of the country you were representing. Did you research attitudes towards homosexuality in those countries before voting, or did you decide in accordance to your own ideas?

And what do you think: would it be understandable if my own attitude towards you (as individuals and as a group) were to change according to the answer you gave to the previous questions? It really wouldn’t be that difficult to change the way i think about you; i don't need to wait for an answer. In fact, it’s useless to deny it, to a certain extent, it has already changed. But don’t worry, o can guarantee it won’t affect my behavior as your teacher.

A lot of other questions come to mind, too. This is precisely what an exercise such as MUN should do for you. Consider the following, for instance: should there be a global organization trying to impose moral views that supersede those of individual people, cultures or nations? If so, what should its guidelines be? I mean, what are the parameters a certain practice must fit into in order to be declared universally despicable, damaging or violating societies, individuals and/or their rights and interests?

Personally i do believe there should be such an organization, but before it makes any decision, the parameters should be thoroughly discussed… I doubt it would be easy to come to a decision on what those parameters should be, but that same difficulty is an important indicator: issues such as this cannot be taken lightly.

Which, in my opinion, is exactly the opposite of what happened this afternoon.