Homophobia

2004-02-26 - 8:24 a.m.

Yeah, ignore the last entry. Note to Me: don't try to write an entry when I have only five minutes of spare time.

But the moral of the entry which you will henceforth ignore is that I probably should give up pot if I am to do Lent. However, not actually being Catholic, I don't have to give up anything, so I guess I'm not. So there.

So, I got to hang out with Pookie and his friend who should one day get a name of his own, because he's pretty cool and may become a friend of mine one day.

Pookie mentioned to me that a colleague/advisor at his school "helpfully" told him that he might want to consider being more "discrete" about his "lifestyle choices" (no more quotes, I promise) if he wanted to have a better chance at getting a job in his chosen field.

Which, of course, is potentially the worst sort of advice you could ever give someone in that sort of situation, and (with some help from what Pookie told me yesterday) here's why:

1)Anyone who's openly gay probably has a working knowledge of homophobia. The fact that certain positions may be denied us, or that certain situations may be more difficult because of our orientation, is pretty much common knowledge.

2)A gay person, entering a homophobic field, pretty much has two options: one, to stay somewhat in the closet and try to change things from within, or two, to be out and open and face conflict but change things openly. Both options have their own advantages and disadvantages, but I swear to you that every gay man you will ever meet has had to face this decision.

Pookie and I agreed that while his colleague/advisor/whatever meant well, her comments could only really serve to shake Pookie's confidence in his own decision to be an openly gay man working within the Catholic church in a pastoral capacity.

Pookie assured me that he still plans to be as out and open as he always is, though I think we both realise that if it comes to a choice between getting a job and being out, he'll have to choose the job. I'd do the same thing.

Homophobia sucks. That's the deep, profoundly informative lesson for today.

Cheers,

The Magus

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