Stuff

Yesterday, I was watching the movie Valentine’s Day with my family. As the movie was ending there was a scene where the famous football player comes out during a press conference and tells the world he is gay. He does this because he believes that his ex boyfriend left him because he was not true to himself and wouldn’t tell anyone he was gay. Later, his ex, played by Bradley Cooper, comes back to him because he had seen the announcement that the football player had made. Here was where the “WOW” moment began: as soon as they showed that Bradley Cooper’s character was gay, my father blurted out “Wow! Look who they cast as the gay guy! And to believe he was voted the sexiest man alive this past year.” I was taken aback somewhat by his comment, but then replied, “So you have to be heterosexual to be sexy? Gay people can’t be sexy?” “Yeah, basically” was his response. He then went off on this whole speech, making very little to no sense, about how there are three categories: you are either a man, a woman, or a gay.  I couldn’t believe it. How could my father be saying something so idiotic? According to him, in order to be a man, you must be attracted to women, and vice versa. I had heard about people saying ignorant things like this about gay people, but to hear it coming from my own father was appalling. Who you love has nothing to do with how much of a man or how much of a woman you are. And gay men and women are every bit as sexy as their heterosexual counterparts, it’s just that they have a different audience calling them sexy.