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Fairy

Bill Tope

When I was young, in grade school,
homosexuality was invisible and
mute and shrouded in a cloak of
secrecy. Most children my age
understood it not at all. Only very
rarely, would an adult refer to a
not-quite-right character, as a
“Fairy.” In my mind at the time,
fairies frolicked with the brownies
and the leprechauns.

Later, when I attended middle
school, at which time sexual
awareness became manifest,
homosexuals were heartily
reviled, the subjects of scorn
and hostility--the “other.” If a child
of that era were mentally
defective--labelled at the time as
retarded--he was often subject
not only to bullying, but to malice
and isolation as well, and was
called “Queer,” which was a
catchall word for the disaffected.

When at last I reached high school,
during the 1960s, the term “fag”
came into vogue and was levied by
boys and girls, athletes and non-
athletes (the freaks) alike. Girls who
would not put out were lumped into
the “Lezzy” dustbin of life. Clearly,
it was thought, there must be
something very wrong with these
girls.

In college, (the 1970s) the liberal,
enlightened teachers and their
student acolytes often advocated
for these alienated persons and
heralded the newly christened “Gays”
as quite upstanding men and the
“Lesbians” their female
counterparts, as exemplary as well.
Little attention was paid to the
gradations of sexual reality; everything
was still discussed in terms of male
and female. Which of course left
many people out.

A presumptive intellectualism was
bestowed upon them. “Rubyfruit
Jungle” found itself on college
reading lists in 1973, followed by
“Tales of the City,” “Dream of a
Common Language” and others.

But one time, at my university, a
wide spectrum of sexual “others”
gave a public forum on their sexual
identities and the undercurrent of
discrimination against them. It was
a courageous effort.

The panel was heatedly assailed by
an array of African American women
who discounted any bias the others
had suffered, as just. When a
transsexual said that he was in a
homosexual relationship, one woman
screamed, “Why don’t you make up
your mind?” Another shouted, “I like
dick!” to thunderous applause from
the audience. Okay, so not everyone
at university was enlightened.

After graduation, now free of the
regimentation and bureaucracy of school,
I explored the regimentation and
bureaucracy of the world of employment.
I witnessed discrimination, by both
management and labor, against both
male and female non-heterosexuals.
Homosexuality was not generally given
as the reason for the discharge, though
everyone knew the truth.

It was not until well into the 21st
century that it became illegal to fire
an employee based on the issue of
sexual identity (June, 2020). Like any
other segment of society, sex-based
minorities have had to fight for their
rights.

I have had many LGBTQ associates,
acquaintances and friends, housemates,
fellow students and colleagues over the
course of the last 60 years. And I admit
that my own attitudes toward LGBTQ
individuals, in terms of their rights,
responsibilities and merit, have evolved.

Society at long last has embraced the
efforts of LGBTQ people to attain the
rights and recognition so long denied
them. My experience, by definition,
has been only anecdotal, but I likewise
stand behind the LGBTQ community in
attaining their long overdue respect and
self-actualization.

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