Why are you so hung up on gays?

THE EDITOR, Sir:

DEAR STRAIGHT people,

I write to you against the background that so many Jamaicans seem to be disappointed in Dalton Harris for their perception of his sexuality. I write to you because I find your obsession with how people have sex to be rather interesting.

It may come as a shock to you, but not everyone is of your inclination. Let us no longer continue to delude ourselves into thinking the world is homogeneous. Not everyone is heterosexual and members of the queer community do not wish for everyone to be homosexual, or, any other associated defining character. We (members and allies) fight for happiness, whatever that may mean to an individual, as long as it does not infringe on the capacity of others to be happy.

In your fight to reduce our advocacy to one of only promoting sex between two men (because clearly no one has a problem with sex between two women), you have clearly demonstrated that you have very little understanding of what it means to be happy and, further, what it means to be human.

The gays, the queers, sodomites or whatever name you ascribe to members of the community are not here just for sex. We understand fully that Jamaica is obsessed with sex and, therefore, everything must be reduced to that, but know also that there are those who abhor the thought of sex on every level and exist as fully functional humans, contributing daily to nation building.

GIVE UP THE POLICING

I think it’s time we all just give up this self-given right of policing other people’s lives. It seems to be so psychologically entrenched in us, and even DNA-encoded that irrespective of whatever someone does to lift society and humankind, there can be no reprieve for being gay. While it may seem unfathomable, there are so many other defining characteristics of these individuals, but I guess that their gayness shines so brightly, you don’t even notice anything else. Blindly fighting against something you don’t understand and coopting innocent, unsuspecting persons to be part of your battle against something so innocuous to your survival cannot be how you continue to live the rest of your days.

Gays have been sharing your cigarettes, cooking your food, raising your children, growing your economies, passing laws, giving you deliverance, entertaining you, managing your finances, being your chauffeurs, making your clothes and other essentials, providing you medical care, offering you marriage counselling, counselling your wayward children, enforcing the law, handing down verdicts, defending you in divorce cases winning you half of the estate, fighting our wars. The list is never-ending.

It is time you stop reducing people to who they have sex with and start seeing that everyone is a person in his or her own right.