Living Under the Microscope
By Stephen Clark
12/5/04

This weekend I met up with my boyfriend who lives about an hour away from me (he took the bus, so for him it was about an hour and a half.) I awaited his arrival, sitting on a cold bench just outside the Southland Mall. I saw his bus pull in, the 275, and I began to be filled with thoughts of hugs and kisses for my love. He stepped off the bus, smiling, and I walked over to him, and gave him a big hug, and we made our way back into the mall. I carried his bag for him, and he offered me his hand, and I took hold. As we walked through the mall, holding hands, we were given the strangest looks by some people. We couldn’t walk 5 steps without someone glancing at us in a disgusted or shocked manor. This is what living under the microscope means. It means you cannot show affection for the person you love in a public place without being placed under a microscope, and examined like you are some foreign bacteria.

Over the course of the day, we mostly sat in my basement, cuddling, watching movies, and fiddling around with both of our computers (we are both huge computer dorks, a perfect fit really). He brought his laptop and some other neat gadgets, a few of which he gave to me! He gave me an extra cd-burner he had, some cd-r’s, and a wonderful Ethernet card (I’ll stop now before you guys really get a headache from this tech-terminology.) And I guess I never really thought about it, until we went outside, holding hands, giving each other a quick kiss on the lips. It wasn’t until we began to be “examined” by those around us, that I noticed we are different from everyone else. When you kiss the person you love; when you hold their hand and tell them just how much you care for them, it doesn’t seem like you should be any different than any other couple that can casually walk through a public place without being gawked at by every other person. At least, that flagrant difference didn’t occur to me until people started to react in a negative way.

This Saturday, my boyfriend and I, as well as one of my friends, were sitting in a Burger King, eating our meals, minding our own business, when suddenly, homophobia set in.  My boyfriend and I were both facing the opposite way of two girls that apparently, as my friend told us, kept staring at us and making rude comments. Well, my boyfriend being the kind to never tolerate homophobia, faced me, and began to kiss me. This triggered much giggling between the two girls sitting at the other side of the room. We both got up to get something else to eat, since he wasn’t yet full, and wasn’t quite poor just yet. When we came back, my friend reported to us that the girls were making even more rude comments and doing more immature name-calling behind our backs. What I should have done was calmly walked over there, and asked them, “What is the problem? I’m just trying to have a nice quiet meal with my boyfriend, and my friend.” But instead, we ignored it for the most part. Although on their way out, I said in a very flamboyant accent, “Bye bye girls!” This of course only made them say even more prejudice things.

Just last weekend when he came to visit me, we had to deal with more such instances of ignorant and intolerant people. When he came with me to my school for the day, and held my hand in the hall, a group of straight, homo-hating jocks yelled “fags!” but of course waited until we were a good distance behind them. They wouldn’t want to actually have to look at us while they insult us; I guess we aren’t that important enough. And when we walked outside next to main roads holding hands, cars passing by honked at us and people looked at us like we were a couple of wolves that escaped from the zoo or something.

It amazes me the intolerance and ignorance our society can live in. We can live in a country that does almost nothing to improve the treatment of the gays and lesbians of this country, and not have some major outcry from its people. Sure, there are those in organizations like PFLAG and the ACLU that continue to fight the good fight, but when are we ever going to get our act together as a people of a nation that claims to provide a blanket of freedom to live under, yet denies its people the basic rights which it gives to others? So don’ tell me that we live in a great society of freedom, justice, and equality, because we don’t. It’s a sad story to tell, but someone has to say it. If I, and others like me don’t, then we will continue to live in a country in which it’s people have no problem denying tax paying, hard working gay and lesbian citizens the rights and recognition that they deserve. After we start to let more gays get married with full benefits, after we start to let gays and lesbians adopt children with no unnecessary legal hassle, and after we start to treat them more like human being and Americans, rather than terrorists that are out to destroy our country’s moral values, then you stand up in your classrooms and sing about the land of the free. Because as long as my boyfriend and I have to live under the microscope like we do, I cannot with a clear conscience call this the land of the free, and home of the brave.