I wear a cross. It's a little golden kuvuka, msalaba with a tiny ruby in the middle, being I'm born in July, and that's my birthstone. It's a girt from my mom, and I might pass it on to the inayofuata generation when I grow up. It's very special to me. I wear it all the time unless I'm swimming au bathing. I wear it in performances (I'm an actress-to-be and I play violin at school). Even when I was in a play about the ancient greek gods, I wore it under my robes. My whole family is part italian, so we are mostly catholic. We are a good family, we upendo each other and all of us support gay rights. I upendo my family.
But lately, with all of the stereotypes going around, I've been hiding my kuvuka, msalaba under my shirt. A lot of my Marafiki are gay, lesbian au bi, and just about everyone at theatre camp old enough to know the conflict around this topic supports gay rights. I feel ashamed to wear my kuvuka, msalaba in public, because even people who don't know my sexual orientation might automatically assume "oh, you're a homophobe." I'm not! I just feel so helpless and that everything's unjust when people make stereotypes like that. I want to announce to everyone "I'm christian, I'm straight, but I fully support gay rights!" But some people won't give wewe a chance to explain. They judge a book kwa it's cover. IT'S NOT FAIR!!! I just had to write that. I had to. I feel like people think they can take one look at wewe and think they know everything about you. But it's not the gay supporters faults. It's the super religious people.
The strict christians are giving us a bad name. They're against gay rights because they're ignorant, cowardly and discriminative. It's just as bad as racism!
They're are people out there, wanting to actually hurt homosexuals au bisexuals. They are trying to ban marriages. They are trying to tell complete strangers who and who not to love. upendo is love! It should be simple. It should be obvious that no matter what sexual orientation wewe are, wewe should love. The homophobes say they're supporting Jesus's love, but they're hating! This isn't what Jesus wants! He wants us to love, if not get along just leave each other alone! I know that some people kusoma this, they could be gays, lesbians, bi's, transgender, Christians, atheists, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu. Anything. Some of wewe may not believe in God. And that's ok. Some of wewe may be that boy from a catholic family, who desperately wants to come out but is afraid his parents will forbid him from seeing his boyfriend. Some may be a bi kid, teased and called awful names. Some may be that lesbian girl forced from attending religious services because of who she is. wewe may even be a person who believes in the ancient greek gods. Some may be just like me. wewe may all have different beliefs, different personalities, different histories, different upbringings. But whoever wewe are, hear me. Hear what I have to say. Please, don't judge. Don't be afraid of getting along with people. I've been so afraid that people will hate me for who I am. A straight, christian girl.
Lots of my Marafiki are homo au bi. I suspect my cousin may be gay too, I'm not sure. I know one guy who, a few years ago, I liked. I fancied him. He was so sweet, and charming. I found out he liked me back. I asked him to be my boyfriend, and he really wanted to. I was sure he would say yes, but he turned me down. His last girlfriend died; he was afraid of losing a loved one again. He was afraid of us breaking up, of the pain. After that, I can't remember exactly what happened, but we started fighting. He hurled insults at each other every siku for the rest of the school year. We argued constantly. We both forgot what the argument was about, like Capulet and Montague in Romeo and Juliet. The inayofuata school year, we agreed to bury the shoka and make up. We were lucky. Something else could have happened and wee could have hated each other forever. But we agreed the fight was stupid, and we're Marafiki again. Shortly after that, he revealed t me that he was gay. I think he got sick of loving girls like that. We are still very good friends. I think he has always been gay, deep inside, he just needed time to realize it. Now, our relationship is status: very good friends. We like to joke around and weird out one another for kicks. I still upendo him, but like a brother. Who knew silly ol' me could help someone realize something as major as that in themselves?
I also have many bi friends, and we all get along just fine. We all laugh, and do things any group of Marafiki do. We talk, we hang out in after school clubs, we talk some more. The thing is, no matter what your sex orientation, you're daily life is just about the same as most people. I don't know why people can't get along better, just not judge a book kwa it's cover. Give people a chance. Get to know them.
Live, Laugh, Learn, upendo and Music.
Throughout all of this.... listen to your inayopendelewa music. Let it help wewe through all this craziness in the world. You'd be surprised how much muziki can help anyone, au anything. Anybody.
Thank wewe for kusoma one of my deeper articles. Most of my makala are comedy au something light-hearted, but throughout all my silliness, I have moments of thought. I'm deeper than I seem on the outside.
And lastly, I know wewe people get tired of this, but if wewe have any thoughts, please post below.
And thank wewe again for reading! :)
P.S. Some awesome people in my mind.
Ellen DeGeneres: lesbian.
Walt Disney: gay.
And the best singer who ever lived, Freddie Mercury: bi.
Live, Laugh, Learn, upendo and Music.
