I'm 18 and gay, just came out and this question has irked me since middle school. Did any of you actually choose to be gay? I'm not asking about whether or not you chose to come out or express yourself as gay, I'm asking about whether or not you chose to be attracted to other men. It would boggle me if anyone would. I'm all for pride, but who would want to be a part of a minority struggling to fit in?
Hello Dustin, I hope you are doing well, you haven't been seen here in a while.
"It would boggle me if anyone would. I'm all for pride, but who would want to be a part of a minority struggling to fit in?"
This Man, John Howard Griffin, wanted to find out what Black Americans experienced in the Land of the Free.
He had already served in the Pacific in WW II, where he was paralyzed for a year with spinal meningitis, and later injured by a bomb blast. A year later he lost his vision entirely. In 1957 his vision returned. ( after eleven years ! )
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas.
from wikipedia:
Awarded a musical scholarship, he went to
France to study
French language and literature at the
University of Poitiers and medicine at the École de Médecine. At 19, he joined the
French Resistance as a medic, working at the Atlantic seaport of
Saint-Nazaire, where he helped smuggle
Austrian Jews to safety and freedom in England.
Griffin returned to the United States and enlisted, serving 39 months in the
United States Army Air Forces stationed in the
South Pacific, during which he was decorated for bravery.
It is fair to say that John Howard Griffin was a man of uncommon bravery and character. Way ahead of his fellow citizens in thinking Black Lives Matter.
In the fall of 1959, Griffin decided to investigate firsthand the plight of
African Americans in the
South, where racial segregation was legal; blacks
had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century and closed out of the political system, and whites were struggling to maintain dominance against an increasing
civil rights movement.
Griffin consulted a
New Orleans dermatologist for aid in darkening his skin, being treated with a course of drugs, sunlamp treatments, and skin creams. Griffin shaved his head in order to hide his straight hair. He spent six weeks travelling as a black man in New Orleans and parts of
Mississippi (with side trips to
South Carolina and
Georgia), getting around mainly by bus and by hitchhiking. He was later accompanied by a photographer who documented the trip, and the project was underwritten by
Sepia magazine, in exchange for first publication rights for the articles he planned to write. These were published under the title
Journey into Shame. When he decided to end his journey, in
Montgomery, Alabama, he spent three days secluded in a hotel room to avoid the sunlight and stopped taking his skin-darkening medication.
[8]
Griffin published an expanded version of his project as
Black Like Me (1961), which became a best seller in 1961. He described in detail the problems an African American encountered in the segregated
Deep South meeting the needs for food, shelter, and toilet and other sanitary facilities. Griffin also described the hatred he often felt from white Southerners he encountered in his daily life—shop clerks, ticket sellers, bus drivers, and others. He was particularly shocked by the curiosity white men displayed about his sexual life. He also included anecdotes about white Southerners who were friendly and helpful.
Still waiting...
Talk about walking a mile in another man's shoes...
His biography is enough to shame an ordinary man. ( me )
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
-Ian Maclaran