Rambling Thoughts

Yesterday my daughter and I were out shopping when she ran into a friend of hers who was the aunt of a young man she knew in high school. The friend told her that her nephew had just come out of the closet. Julie acted surprised but she later told me that she had always suspected her friend was gay however he had married and had two children. He has now been divorced and living with his partner for two years. The story got me to thinking about how many gay men and women have felt forced to live a life that wasn't true to themselves. They chose to do so I'm sure for many different reasons. This young man was fearful of losing family acceptance, which it appears his fear was founded. I simply can't imagine being a gay teenager. Being a teenager is difficult enough without the social stigma of being gay. The other day Dr. Phil had a panel discussion on California's proposition 8. I tried to listen openly to both sides of the issue but frankly it's hard to understand the opposition. One of the fears was that schools would start teaching about same sex marriage. I don't know but I don't think you can teach anyone to be gay. You might just teach tolerance of those who are. I heard someone ask a former co-worker of mine (who happens to be gay) the question "When did you know you were gay?" His response was interesting, "When did you know you were straight?" I thought about that awhile a nd knew that for myself I never had a defining moment of realization that I was straight. So...I guess I don't understand the fear of recognizing that homosexuality exists, they are human beings who have basic rights. What is horrible about allowing them to have the same ability to honor their committment to another person? I'm pretty sure that heterosexuals are not honoring the sanctity of marriage with a divorce rate over 50%. Let's see if same sex marriages do a better job. It would be an interesting statistic to watch.