I have a Secret...
I have a secret to share. There are times I have had a few of them to keep quiet.
There was a time at a business meeting outside of Atlanta, near the big chicken, when admitting that I was Jewish didn't seem like a good idea. Or the time driving through Knoxville when the radio in my rental was stuck on a station that was speaking about the subsequent civil war and the white people will rise again.
There are numerous times in conversations for work, in particular, where the comments about partners come up, and you wonder if they know I am talking about Frank, and I wonder about others on the call. It doesn't seem necessary to describe my life and family, but I sometimes feel like one toe is in the closet without explaining more about my life.
But today, my confession is a bit sarcastic and a bit serious.
You see, Frank and I live in East Texas. No, that is not the confession, although, as a Gay Jew, it might be.
We get up and do some very odd things. See, we have a cat and a dog that generally want us up at 5 am. Lucky, the cat, wants to be fed, and DaisyBelle, the dog, is ready for her morning walk and breakfast. As of late, we have added a variety of cats that we feed out back, and surprisingly they get rather uptight when we are late.
Then, we make coffee, and usually, around 7 am, we start our work day. As of late, my work day can include early morning calls with partners and clients, and since we are a worldwide company, usually one night a week around 10 pm, I am on Google Meeting sharing the best of Tekmonks.
Around 11 AM, I walk DaisyBelle. We then feed the kids (dogs and cats) lunch, and on most days, Frank and I have a nice salad for lunch.
Then we work through the afternoon. Surprise, around 5:30 PM or 6:00 PM, we walk DaisyBelle again, feed her, Lucky, and the other cats, and have dinner. I usually cook dinner, such as chicken with a baked potato and maybe asparagus. If I am feeling adventurous or frustrated by the day, I might cook something more adventurous such as this week's Chickpea and pasta. Which, honestly, didn't live up to the NY Times' usually great recipes.
We then sit in front of the TV. Around 9 PM, Lucky decides I should go to bed. If I don't, she will dance around DaisyBelle until I let DaisyBelle out, which is a sign I am going to bed. I am re-watching the Sopranos at night, which usually puts me to sleep, which is good. Frank stays up to watch TV, and we generally go to sleep debating whether DaisyBelle should be on the bed with us. If not, she will noodge us and get on the bed somewhere in the middle of the night, especially in cold weather.
If that is not enough, our weekends are more of the same, except Friday evenings might be a stop by Frank's sister and brother-in-law to catch up and have a beer. We may go downtown for dinner or something extravagant, like head over to Kilgore or Tyler for a meal or even brunch on Sunday.
So, what is my confession, two actually? One, my life is actually more boring than I realized. Second, I actually like it. I do need a beach break on occasion. Frank is enjoying recent business trips, with an upcoming one to Pittsburgh. I do enjoy Savannah when visiting Mom, but I generally enjoy our days. We have a nice home, family, and friendly people nearby, and life is good.
Why do I feel the need for social media and a blog to share this excitement while everyone else is posting descriptions of cruises, of European adventures, of walking through Times Square? It is not because anyone should care.
However, every red state in this nation seems to be trying to legislate me out of existence. I am a gay Jewish male, living with my partner, living a normal life that doesn't hurt anyone. In fact, we own our home. We pay taxes. We shop, we eat out, and honestly, we don't have many issues. We walk around our neighborhood in east Texas, and I don't feel any animosity from anyone about us as a family.
So, explain to me why the legislature of the great state of Texas and our governor keeps passing legislation against me. Why does the governor of the great state of Florida think it is a good political move to try and legislate my behavior to such an extent that he is willing to take on Disney and forgo the additional investment Disney would be making in his state?
Human rights, and gay rights, have generally come a long way in this country. We have the right to marry. Many states have legislation that protects gay people against hate crimes. Yet, somewhere in these legislators' minds, they must feel I am a great threat to society.
Guess what? Gay people have families with children. If they want to take their kids to a pride parade where they can see other families like them, today, in many states, they have to worry this is against the law. Not to mention, straight families would have the opportunity to see gay families and how normal we act and are. Imagine that?
Imagine that same child in school. When the teacher asks about parents, they will skip over the child of gay parents because discussing sexual orientation in schools is illegal. Those same states are banning almost every book that doesn't support the right race and religious behavior.
To be honest, I generally feel more worrisome in East Texas about being Jewish, but I realize most of my neighbors voted for this state government, impacting my freedom to live my life as I choose, regardless of how boring it may be.
If you are on the red side of this discussion and believe God sees my life as a sin, all I ask is that you trust your God to handle it. I am not hurting you, and I am not recruiting you to the gay side of life.
What I am asking, and this is true for all human rights issues, including women, religion, and others that you stay out of my life as long as I am not harming you. If you want to avoid seeing a pride parade or a drag show, there is an easy way to avoid them, don't go!
I would like to let you all in on a secret. They start with gays and transgender people who seem out of the mainstream of society, but do you honestly think they will stop with us? Do you think the attacks on abortion rights are about unborn babies and not an attempt to control women? Do you think if your religion is not part of the majority, they won't come after you next? If your family isn't a man and a woman with kids, do you think they won't try to legislate your life?
In Florida, a parent challenges a book in the school library, and it is put on the banned list. Then the school or others have to challenge it. Do you want the state and local governments and other parents to decide what is appropriate for your kids to read? They are already targeting books about slavery and other racial injustices in this country. Guess what and whom can be next?
Why does the party against government intervention in our lives spend most of their waking hours trying to intrude and prevent my freedoms?
It seems illogical in a time of global warming, the war between Ukraine and Russia, education issues after the pandemic, and even considering the potential value and threats of Artificial Intelligence that the government is wasting its time targeting my family and me.
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