It was one of those, “Wow, really?” moments
that changes your world view in an instant. I had to rethink everything I
thought I knew. But from the get-go it
never occurred to me to judge anyone solely based on the gender of who they
choose to love. So after that first jolt of understanding, I never considered it a big deal - or anyone's business - that someone was gay, let alone an excuse for denying
people basic rights.
As a Canadian, I’m very proud to hail from
a country that now recognizes that working up a sweat about sexual orientation
is not only pointless, but harmful and offensive. I got to thinking about
Canada last week while writing a blog for July 1, and realized that the
country’s efforts on behalf of gay rights is one of the things that makes me
feel proudest about being Canadian.
But now I live in Honduras, where you’d
have to be one brave soul to step out of the closet. It’s like stepping back into 1950s North
America, all repression and denial. While nobody talks about any of it, my
impression is that marriages of convenience and extremely low-profile trips to
secret gay-friendly enclaves are about as good as it gets for people here, and
all of it undertaken at huge personal risk.
Maybe a month ago at my work, a big stack
of 2013 datebooks arrived that had been put together by one of my
organization’s major funders, a European NGO. All the big European funders have
got it going on around gay rights, so the datebook included a sweet story out
of South America about a lesbian couple whose farm was thriving thanks to help
from one of the projects the funder supported.
Well. My co-workers, who are generally
lovely, caring people, were completely scandalized by that story. They are
very, very Christian, and conservative in their thinking. For that reason I
usually steer clear of subjects that I know we’re going to disagree on. I
couldn’t let this one go, of course, but I could tell they were just gritting
their teeth through my rant and waiting to get back to feeling shocked and
disgusted.
Why, why, would anyone want to make a big
deal about something that’s essentially about love? I have no idea. Yet living
here has reminded me of just how much hatred and misunderstanding still exist
in so many countries. I appreciate the sensitive language that international
funders put into their contracts in Honduras to try to bring home the idea of
equal treatment for all, but this place needs a lot more than that to get past
its deep prejudices on this issue.
Send down the gay-awareness squad and let's get this thing done.
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