I’ve always been a big believer that sexuality is a spectrum and no matter where we land on it - straight, bi, gay, lesbian, transgender, asexual or somewhere in between - we are all part of the same bold and beautiful rainbow.  And all of us blues, reds, purples, yellows, oranges, and greens... we all matter, we all belong, and we are ALL equal.  

In full disclosure (and as some of you know by now), I identify as a straight female and I was born female.  But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t bloody kill me each time I hear or see anything that even remotely resembles homophobic behavior.  To me, homophobic comments are the equivalent of taking five million nails and scratching them across a chalkboard, simultaneously.  It’s dreadfully painful...it’s screeching...and it makes me want to cover my ears and recoil away in horror.  And that’s just me - coming from my perspective as a straight-ass, 30-something gal.   I can’t even imagine that’s like for one of my friends in the LGBTQ community when they hear this type of ignorance spout from someone’s mouth - but I know it happens, all too often.  Homophobia is hateful - end of story.

I know it’s not in my nature, but I need to get serious for a second. There is no doubt that the LGBTQ community has made strides over the years, but it has been an uphill f-ing battle.  It was just 66 years ago when the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual listed homosexuality as a “sociopathic personality disturbance” and shortly after when the president (Dwight D. Eisenhower at the time) signed an executive order banning homosextuals from working for the federal government, saying they are a “security risk.”  What a load of COMPLETE and TOTAL HORSE SHIT, Dwight!  It’s a good thing I wasn’t around then, ‘cause I’d of raised hell...

Over the years, through countless marches and rallies, society hasn’t become perfect or all-accepting by any means, but it has gotten better.  Basic human rights (I can’t believe I have to say it like that) have been given to the LGBTQ community, including a milestone two years ago when the ban on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military lifted.  It’s baby steps, people, but if I thought sex ed in America was dinosauric, don’t even get me started with government and the LGBTQ community… but progress is progress, nonetheless.

I am convinced that the homophobia that still lingers in our country has to do with something more than just ignorance; it has to do with our silence.  When people are afraid of being judged (or worse, tormented) if they come out and openly live their truth, it only adds to society’s ignorance.  When people don’t communicate about sexuality in everyday life, it doesn’t lend itself to a positive shift in cultural acceptance.  But with one in every two people having a close friend who is openly gay (these days) and another one in 10 having a close friend who is transgender, there is a certain strength in numbers that has never existed before.  So now, more than ever before, people have the community backing them up and welcoming them, with open arms, to be brave enough to come out and speak their truth.  Hell, there’s even an upcoming holiday to celebrate it, friends! National Coming Out Day - which, by the way, is celebrating its 30th anniversary - is on October 11.

A final thought before you get on with your day and I get on with mine.  Rainbows are a beautiful and natural phenomenon, but they tend to only show themselves after a storm and then people forget about them...until the next storm.  I vote we make rainbows (you, me, everyone) part of our everyday discussion instead of waiting for the next storm.  Let’s end the silence and embrace equality -  for good.

~ Miranda Buzzlove