Monday, March 30, 2009

The Tables Turned

I am embarrassed about how gay I was in middle school. I did not play football. Most of my friends were girls. I gelled my hair. I like to keep tabs on the guys who made fun of me for it. Their names are on my friends list. Their numbers are in my phone. We stay in touch. Because when their lives fall apart, I want to be in the front row, smiling.

But an interesting phenomenon is occurring. I look around and suddenly these very people are self-proclaimed "VERY LIBERAL"s. They passionately defend gay marriages in groups like "If You Don't Support Gay Marriage, Then Don't Get One!" They blast "Just Dance" from their dorm rooms and sing Avril Lavigne in the shower. They take an hour every morning in the bathroom just to get their faces ready. They gel their hair.

Part of me is skeptical about their homomorphosis. How can somebody go from being so closed-minded and hateful to the President of the Gay Straight Alliance. Also, why couldn't you have learned all this like 10 yea
rs ago, before you completely ruined my self-esteem.

But it's not a bad thing that these people have changed. Better now than never. And perhaps their transformations are sincere. It's just ironic that those jerks became sensitive men and I became an athlete with the body of a minor Greek god. I guess all I'm saying is, who's the fag now?


Figure 1: You guys are gay. Or European.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"How can somebody go from being so closed-minded and hateful to the President of the Gay Straight Alliance?"

Move away from mummy and daddy, and stop parroting mummy and daddy's conservative views.

I can remember when I was a parrot.

Aek said...

I remember a friend from high school. She was scary and intimidating while she was "straight." When she came out as lesbian, and made a "transition" in college, she became even scarier. I'm not sure I recognize her now.

D. said...

OMG. i was also the kid in middle school who gelled his hair, had mostly girls for friends, and got made fun of for obvious reasons.

internalized homophobia. stems from a multitude of things. upbringing, religion, parents, society, yada yada yada.

"homomorphosis" - i love it.

but hey, people change over time. it's just too bad that people are real assholes in middle school, when peers opinions mean everything.

toddx said...

Do people change? Maybe. But watch them closely and be prepared to gloat when they lapse, become hyper-religious homophobes again, oh, and get fat.

Tristan said...

A teacher at school once wrote a comment on some work of mine: "When you leave school you'll see that the world is a much better place and you won't have such a hard time."
Kids at school are mean. Real life is hard but you can avoid the mean people and surround yourself with friends and 'supporters'.