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FacebookMy brother’s birthday was last week. He wanted me to come join him and some friends in LA at a bar around 9:30 at night. I had to decline. It has nothing to do with LA, booze, or even my brother. The real hold up is the 9:30 part.
I don’t know what happened to me or where the turning point came, but 9:30 at night feels so late. At 9:30 if I’m not sleepy, I’m thinking about being sleepy. Who goes out at 9:30? Nine-thirty should be coming home time. It should be the end of your evening–not the start.
I’ve gotten so old. It used to be 9:30 was a great time to go out. When I used to go to the movies with friends, I loved the post-11 p.m. showings. You could go out, have dinner, goof around, and then go see a movie. Now I dread shows after eight because I like to be home before ten. Having a fulltime job has a lot to do with it–but many folks party all night and still show up to work every morning. I’m just old.
A lesbian couple in Seattle made news this week because they were fooling around at a Mariners game. I’m all for gay marriage because I don’t see the harm in people doing what they want behind closed doors (insert the obligatory ‘gay people should have the same rights to be miserable as straight people’ joke). I don’t understand folks are so passionately apposed to gay marriage. If it doesn’t affect you or me, why should we care what people do in their spare time? That being said, this story bothers me.
The majority of gay folks I’ve come across don’t flaunt their homosexuality. It’s not like the characters you see in television shows. More often than not, gay people are discreet. Sometimes you might see two short-haired women, without makeup, wearing ‘I Heart Hillary’ t-shirts at a restaurant and you know you’re looking at a pair of dykes. But it’s not like they’re groping each other and advertising it. And that’s why I’m okay with homosexual relationships.
But when you get public displays of affection–brief kisses or not–I think that’s a no-no. Explaining it to the children has something to do with it (I can’t believe I just used that excuse). There’s also the ewwwww factor. But above all, it just feels inappropriate. I think homosexuality is fine–as long as you keep it to yourself. It just feels more acceptable that way.
I realize this probably makes me sound like a bigot. I like to think I’m open-minded and a big believer of individual’s rights (vote libertarian!). But there’s just something about gay hand-holding that bothers me–leave that sorta thing at home (or at least on gay cruises).
Maybe this is what the anti-gay marriage folks are so upset about: allowing one barrier to fall just makes it easier for others to crumble (gay marriages today; necking at ballgames tomorrow!). I don’t like saying folks shouldn’t be allowed to do something that is relatively victimless. But there should be some boundaries. If a hundred years from now, I look like an obtuse bigot, so be it. There are just some things that are left better for behind closed doors.