The LL's Word: A Blog For M/M Romance Readers: Raise Your Glass (Tales of Foster High #3) by John...

The LL's Word: A Blog For M/M Romance Readers: Raise Your Glass (Tales of Foster High #3) by John...: I loved this third installment of the Foster High Series for three reasons: 1. This one felt even more strongly like those stories I love...

Homophobia is natural.

Watch this shit. I am about to show you some social kung fu.

Homophobia is natural.

Yep, you didn't read that wrong. Disliking or fearing gay people if you are straight is a completely natural thing. It is inbred to us. As living organisms and more importantly mammals, we have been genetically encoded to fear and hate what is not like us. It comes from a distant time when things that were not like us did silly things like attack, maim and sometimes eat us. It is an evolutionary mechanism and exists in almost all areas of the animal kingdom.

Ever bring a new cat into your house when you have cats that have lived there? It's not a pretty sight, I know my cats have attacked each other when one of the cats they were born and raised from is away for an extended period of time. Which tells me that either cats are not great at recognizing their own kind of my cats are dicks. Dogs will growl and bark to protect their territory, they will bark at anything. Any fucking thing. I mean a car, a bird, a cat, a shadow, a car, a plane, another car. If it is not dog, guy I know or food, forget it. Even the most laid back of dogs will lose their shit at the sight at some thing or people, they just can't avoid it.

The problem of course is our brain.

Our brain is so developed that it sees and forms patterns where there aren't any. For example, what is the next number in this list? 1,5,13,22,47,99. I will give you the answer when I am done talking.

So we see these patterns, these waves of things that we identify with. White, Black, Christian, Jewish, Democrat, Coke drinker, Right Handed, Trekkie, etc etc etc. We group ourselves into these social groups so we have a tribe an identity, a place to belong.

Then we hate everyone else.

Which is kinda stupid because it is a waste of a perfectly good hate. We invent these bunkers to hole up in all Waco style, daring someone to drag us out of, and then just radiate mistrust like a space heater. Do you know what the difference is between a Caucasian, a Negro, an Asian, a Hispanic and a Native American is? Biologically nothing, the only difference is the words I used to describe them. As a race we are a fantastic creation. Full of wonder and amazement and capable of so many incredible feats. We have split the atom, moved mountains and walked on another planet. We have dreamt infinity, cured the plague and at times have startled ourselves with our own capacity to love.

But inside we are all still frightened cave dwellers cringing from the thunder, hating all that is not us because it is one day going to kill us.

Homophobia is a natural reaction to a natural condition. Humans are not the only race to have these feelings, we are the only race that shuns other members of our tribe because of it. There is no real cure for homophobia, none that is going to quickly work. People will always be uneasy around us and there will always be those few that cannot tolerate us. I'm ok with that, because I know a few things they don't.

I know that God loves everyone. Not some, not a few, but everyone. He is a push over when it comes to fucking up and like every good father out there all he ever asks of you is to apologize and to do better next time. I know that the Bible was written by man to control man. It is from a time when people needed to know that their actions had consequences, when they had to believe there was an angry god looking down on them screaming at them to do right. It is a guide book for an age that has long passed, and though the sentiment of it endures, the specifics of everyday life today cannot be taken from that book. And I know the truth. The big surprise that in the end, is going to wipe out homophobia and one day let us all live as one.

Sooner or later those people will die.

Evolution takes care of its own and the same way I don't piss on things to claim them mine or growl at people as I walk by, I know that we, as a race, will one day outgrow that reaction and move onto something else. Maybe we will hate hybrid humans, maybe we will hate clones or maybe we will hate aliens. But one day the human race will look around and not see several different camps of people, they will see one race. And it won't matter what your skin color is or your sexuality or even who you pray to, because we all will know its going to the same place.

You might say I’m a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope one day you'll join us...

See? You figured out what I was going to say before I ever finished it. Patterns, it's all just patterns in the end.

We will endure as a race, and we will survive together. We will outlive this hated and intolerance, leaving the haters to die a lonely and miserable death. We will not remain huddled in that cave, because we came out of it. And we found fire. And we sailed the seas. And we went to the moon. This is how I know we will get past this, because no matter how scared we are as individuals...

As a race, we are incredible.

So next time you see homophobia, don't get angry, don't let them hurt you. Know you are looking at a dying race and this is their last gasp of air as they sink deeper and deeper into the tar pits. You can take some pleasure as you watch them drown in their own darkness, but try not to gloat ok? We need to be better than that. So one chuckle and move on.

Nothing to see here, just the future.

PS: There is no next number, I typed them at random. If you found a pattern, congratulations. You made something out of nothing. Now you know how bigots come up with the rational for their behavior.