Homosexuality and Homophobic Discrimination

Many people will tell you that being a homosexual is unnatural, not to mention the other things they will tell you about it. One of the most common things that people just cannot understand is how someone could choose to be a homosexual. Many times people have told me that I should go and sleep with a woman, because “That will sort you out…” if this is the case why do we choose to be homosexual?

Within society today, although much more widely accepted, homosexual people are still widely discriminated against. In the work place, schools, restaurants, bars, and so on. It seems that what seems like a perfectly ordinary day to anyone else, could become a very large hassle to a homosexual person. In our lives we grow used to this discrimination, and even learn to tolerate it, but why should we? Couldn’t we just wake up one day and become a heterosexual because we are fed up of it? If it were that easy, don’t you think that when a boy is just discovering that he is different to his friends, he would just think ‘Ok I will be like them…’ the idea that it is a choice would please many people.

What some people do not understand is that, at some point in most gay men’s lives they struggle with the idea of being different, even if for only a few minutes. The majority of us will, at some point, think that some situation could be different ‘If only I were straight…’ but that doesn’t mean we want to be, most of us. There are two types of homosexuals, there are those who know from an early age they like the same sex, and those who ‘turn’ later in life, and realise what they really are. For the latter the thought could be sickening, especially if they are one of the people who dislike the idea of homosexuality. For some people it may be this sudden insecurity that sparks the discrimination of the very type of people that they do not want to be. This is in part where the cruelest form of homophobia stems from, fear of the unknown. If the people who discriminated against us were asked why they were heterosexual, then they would probably answer along the lines of, because I just am. But at the same time will probably not accept the same answer from us.