We've Got It Good

[TheCrowing]

So I just started my college life about a month ago, and within that short amount of time, I became vice president of my university's LGBTQA club (We wanted to name it LGBTQsquaredAsquared to fit more labels in there, and to play on our tech school status but decided against it) and we're pretty much starting the club from scratch because last year it failed. It's hard being part of that community in a tech school. The freshman this year are so much more open and social supposedly, but the sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students are facing more discrimination than we are.

But anyway, today all of the executive board members were meeting to figure things out, and this guy walked in the room 3 hours after the meeting had ended, hoping that we were still there. He was a graduate student and had just moved to the US a few months ago. He told us how he's not certain of himself, and he's afraid. We all understood how much courage he had to get together to come to the club, late or not. And he got so overwhelmed with the topic of sexuality that he began to cry and get upset. He talked about everything that worried him about his sexuality: religion, acceptance, being punished, finding people that will understand him. And it hit the six of us pretty hard.

He wasn't sure if he was totally gay or not, but it obviously was upsetting him.
He didn't realize that you can be religious and still be comfortable with sexuality.
He didn't realize that we're in the club to support people like himself more than we are for personal gain.
We didn't realize that where he's from, being gay could get him killed.

I guess it just made me realize how good we have it. Sure, it's not awesome. But we don't get physically punished by our government for being part of the LGBTQ community. Compared to what he probably had to face, and what he had to hide every day of his life, what happened to me because I'm gay is nothing. And that's a lot for me to say, seeing the past circumstances. I think people as a whole need to start focusing on the bigger issue at hand.

[Soliloquy]

Thanks so much for sharing this, Courtney! You're right, what we have here isn't always awesome, but we are lucky in many respects. Although society still has a long way to go, it's nice to know that many of us are living in the more progressive and accepting countries. It's shocking to think that there are still places out there that execute people for being LGBT!

Thanks again!

[Celestial.]

I agree with you and Kylie. While being gay here might mean you get a few funny looks or snide comments, it's not illegal, and our rights are technically protected by law. Sometimes we forget what we have in the race to get what we want, and it can help to remember that in many ways we're much better off than people in other places. (I realise I'm Australian and you guys are American, but it still holds true here.) It was incredibly brave of that boy to do what he did, and I'm glad he found a group as supportive as you guys. All the best.