On my trip to the UK last fall the girlfriend I stayed with for most of my trip got me hooked on "Modern Family". A hilarious show if you aren't already watching it. Upon my return to Canada I quickly went back and watched the previous season and caught up on the second. During one of the most recent episodes I was struck by the realization that the show has never written a storyline around the nieces and nephews of Mitchell and his partner Cameron commenting on having an uncle who is gay in a negative way. Or any way at all. It is a non-issue.
Which is how it should be.
I was raised in a way that I didn't know that two women or two men being together was "not normal" until I was told otherwise years later via the schoolyard. One of my aunts has been with her partner for as long as I can recall. My parents never tried to cover it up, or make excuses as to why I received gifts from two women together. I recall the day that my mum sat me down at the kitchen table and explained to me that some people don't think it's right for people of the same sex to be together. I know she did it because I was at the age where kids were starting to say things such as "You're so gay" [or worse] and have it be a horrible insult to one another. I remember that if one of your peers called you gay it was one of the more offensive insults someone could hurl at you. Because it was so wrong to be gay. And at that age you were doing everything in your power to be as cookie cutter as possible.
The reason I adore how "Modern Family" has never made it an issue with the kids is because that is how I feel it should be. For any generation before ours, to a degree I can understand how it is hard for them to understand a same sex union. It just wasn't as prominent. It was hidden, avoided and repressed. For so long it has been drilled into society that it should not be that way.
For our generation though, and the ones following, the fact that it is still considered "unnatural" just makes me cringe. I often wonder if I would feel so fiercely about the negative connotations that being homosexual has if I wasn't raised how I was. I hope that I would be as nonchalant about it as I am, but one can never predict what a person will accept or reject without any influences.
You won't catch me using the phrase "That's so gay" or any other saying along those lines. And I have a hard time dealing with it when others do. In fact, it makes me want to throw you off a roof. If you suddenly find that I am no longer speaking to you then perhaps review your vocabulary. If you partake in the use of the word gay in a derogatory way or other words of similar kind, chances are there's your reason.
Because while I don't care about the sexual orientation about my friends I sure as hell mind if they are ignorant assholes.
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