PART ONE --- THIS IS MY LIFE
A
gay Louisiana
Frustrated
and bewildered, my last resort was religion!
After four years of college, I enrolled in a seminary and took advanced
studies in the Bible. Religion was very serious because I believed if I
followed the straight and narrow and if I prayed enough, one day God would
touch me with his magical wand and change me into a straight man. But for me
that did not happen!
After
years at the seminary, I went back to the university and earned a degree in
English and Social Studies Education. At the beginning of my teaching career I
was given a job teaching English in an all black high school. It was a time
when students taught the teacher more than the teacher taught the students. The
most beneficial factor in preparing for a diverse society came at the hands of
black students. My experiences with
African American students provided the framework for success in an integrated
public school system.
My
job teaching school was interesting and rewarding. During those years many
students, both black and white, came to me with sexual problems because there
was no place else to go. Many of these
were very troubled students with sexual desires they did not understand. From
my own experiences, I could have helped these students much more than I did,
but for 32 years I lived in fear of being fired if my sexuality was exposed. As I look back, I should have said the heck
with the job and provided those students with the counseling they really
needed. It is a shame that the dynamic of fear prevents many gay teachers from doing
more to help students. For me, I live with names and regrets still today of
students who took their own lives.
Teenagers
are faced with many emotional problems and when sexual orientation is added, it
becomes more than they can handle. Students are not getting the proper help they
need, because schools are not equipped to handle teenage sexual problems.
Therefore, without proper counseling hundreds of teenagers take their own lives
each year. This is a problem that can and should be prevented.
Christianity
and Islam religions have made a horror story out of being gay, where there is
no horror story! It is an absolute fact that religious teachings are the
primary cause of teenage suicides. It is a pathetic situation that so-called
Christians go around patting themselves on the back for what they consider to
be upholding Biblical teachings. However, there are no Christians who are 100%
in accordance with all Biblical teachings. But yet, they cherry pick the doctrines
that cause the voluntary deaths of hundreds of teenagers each year.
Sexual
orientation is established at conception and the individual has no choice in
the matter. For an uninformed preacher to stand in a pulpit and declare death
to all LGBTQ individuals is the most ignorant thing any person can do in a
civilized society. In fact, primitive societies practiced better ways in the acceptance
of different sexual orientations. America
However,
some progress has been made even though the Trump administration is trying to
backtrack. I wish I could say there would never be another homeless teenager or
another teenage suicide caused by sexual orientation, but I fear that will not
be the case. Even though the road ahead may be better, there is still a long
way to go. Too many young people have died for reasons that could have been
prevented and too many adults have died in shame.
Moving
outside the United States
This is still an issue that has not been resolved in the US. Even though the US Supreme Court ruled on marriage equality; it will take up 3 case of the Civil Rights Act Title VII that prohibits discrimination based on sex. However, does this include sexual orientation and sexual identity? "Most states don't explicitly ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination."
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