Fairies

I just saw an ad on channel 9 for this week's 60 minutes. Their catch-line is 'How to tell if your little bloke is gay.' It had two boys in their mid twenties. They are twins, one gay and one not. They showed flashbacks (which are more than likely just staged using daggy 70s style furniture in a sound-stage) of one kid sitting on a bed playing with transformers and the other kid on his bed with a pink gauze mosquito net hanging over it.

I wonder if 60 Minutes can say the word stereotype? I've seen plenty of straight boys wearing pink. I don't condone it, but it certainly doesn't mean they're homosexual.

I wonder if 60 Minutes has really thought this through.

These kinds of special reports worry me. And I use the word 'report' very loosely and I'm waving a giant sarcasm-flag when I use the word 'special.' They can have some nasty results when in the wrong hands. My initial reaction at seeing the as was "so what?" I mean, what is the motivation behind knowing such a thing? But then I thought about it a little bit and realised that this kind of information could be used for good or for evil. Kind of. It depends on the environment the child lives in.

If the child in question has relatively reasonable, tolerant parents then this kind of story would probably be quite useful. The parent could, in time, help them with the confusing task of figuring out where they fit into the spectrum of human sexuality. Maybe not in a direct way, I know I would have died if my mum or dad sat me down at 15 and asked me if I'd like cock or cunt better, but perhaps in creating a positive environment for them to grow into. They would be able to help them combat any homophobia that came their way and advocate on their behalf with school, jobs etc. What a truly wonderful outcome this story could have.

On the other hand, if the child in question has relatively unreasonable, intolerant parents, then this kind of story could be very distressing. The parent might, upon suspecting that their son or daughter is gay, send them to one of the ex-gay camps where they are preached at, prayed over and fix their 'unnatural affliction'. Maybe they would rush out and buy Dr James Dobson's latest book on how to 'prevent' homosexuality. That course of action implies that the parent is concerned for the child. What if the child lives in a home where the parents are abusive and simply beat the crap out of them? What a truly disastrous outcome this story could have.

Except of course, to those who run ex-gay camps and write the preventative manuals. It's great for those who make buckets of money out of it all.

But imagine a perfect world. One in which there is no homophobic violence or homophobia of any kind. One in which all the gay, lesbian and straight children get along and play together without any issues, while their gay, lesbian or straight parents watch adoringly from the side of the sand-pit. One in which prosecution is non-existent, where Rev Phelps and Dr James Dobson hadn't been born. One in which Tom Welling and I are happily married because Howard isn't a bigoted conservative leader but a fair and just man (ok maybe that is unimaginable, but you get the idea). In this utopia, a story like this wouldn't mean much. It would be fairly useless because no one would actually give a shit. It might be mildly interesting for doting parents to know the sexuality of their children at an early age, but it wouldn't really affect the way things happen in daily life, at least not beyond the obvious lack of "coming out" experiences.

P.S. I was going to get a photo of James Dobson and put devil's horns on him but in the end I couldn't do it. I just couldn't bear to have his face on my blog. So I opted for a fairy. Has anyone ever tried to do a google search for a fairy? Interesting stuff to be found lol.