Can't We All Just Get Along?

 Last Sunday, my husband and I took ourselves off to the Springs.  We had left a couple of very nice large towels there on my birthday visit and wanted to retrieve them before they were pitched.  We don't usually go there twice within a two-week period but even so, the need was great and we were more than ready to go.  Oh, to visit this place on a weekly basis.

This time, there were quite a few same sex couples.  I found myself observing them a little more than usual.  This was because of something I saw on the way home from work the day before we left.  As I got off the exit ramp that took me into town and home, I passed the long-term parking lot on the south end of town.  I noticed a little police action going on there.  In the second or so as I drove by, my brain registered three images: two defiant, angry looking young men, a female police office and a trashed, gaudily painted vehicle emblazoned with the words:  GAY PRIDE SUCKS.

My thoughts fragmented into a myriad of directions.  I began to wonder why certain people feel so threatened by homosexuals that they consider it their civic duty to wreak havoc in these peoples' lives.  Don't they have enough going on in their own lives to occupy their time?  I also thought, not for the first time, how sorry I was that this particular group confisicated the word "gay" as their own to represent their sexual orientation.  It's always been a word I've enjoyed using and now it's to be avoided at all costs lest someone misinterpret your meaning.  The appropriation of this word is my only complaint regarding this sector of the population.  Couldn't they have chosen another word?  But then, I'd probably be cross about that, too.

Thinking about that vandalized car made me wonder why anyone should feel so much anger and animosity.  I've seen these couples together; they're happy, they love each other.  Isn't that really all that matters in the final analysis?  Homosexualtiy is not something new.  It's been around since the dawn of time; has always been so and will continue to be.  After all, who is to say what is normal and what is not?  Isn't the bottom line loving someone, anyone, and being loved in return by that someone?  Personally, I don't care if an individual wants to love a piano stool.  If both parties are happy, it's okay with me.  This is most definitely so if they're over 21 and doing no harm to anyone.  Remember the phrase, "consenting adults"?

Finally, I thought about the three words that had been defiantly, proudly painted or sprayed on the side of the vehicle:  Gay Pride Sucks.  Imagine taking this hateful, hurtful phrase literally.  Its meaning would become something far and away from the intended message.  This phrase would mean, Happily Excited Group of Lion Cubs Nursing!  Hardly hateful nor threatening; but I doubt that those who intend harm and hatred towards their fellow man are always educated, literal or pragmatic.  I like to think I am all those things. 

These thoughts are simply random musings on my part.  I'm allowed to do this~this is my journal.  Since I left the sin-filled city of San Francisco so many years ago, about the only time I see gay couples is when I go the the Springs.  There are some days we visit when the "boys" seem to be out.  Other times, it's the "girls".  The fact that remains is that they, too, enjoy being with their special someone in a natural state.  It's nice to have such a special place where any couple, whether hetero- or homosexual, can feel safe, comfortable and free from harassment.  The world needs places such as these.  The Springs is such a place.