Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Unstylish life
I just read a roundup of news about the despicable Ocean County NJ Freeholders/ Lt. Laurel Hester hoo-hah, and was struck, as I always am, by the editorializing implicit in the press' use of the word "lifestyle" when what they really mean is "sexual orientation."
"Gay" is not a lifestyle, any more than "straight" is a lifestyle. We, all of us, embody many styles. It's my choice, my style, to keep my hair short, to wear shoes with thick heels, to exercise to stay youthful - but I did not choose to have thinning hair, to be 5'10", to be 51 years old. Nor to be straight. Those things just are. Straight, gay, or somewhere in between - sexual orientation is, simply, everyday life. What could be less stylish than that?
"Gay" is not a lifestyle, any more than "straight" is a lifestyle. We, all of us, embody many styles. It's my choice, my style, to keep my hair short, to wear shoes with thick heels, to exercise to stay youthful - but I did not choose to have thinning hair, to be 5'10", to be 51 years old. Nor to be straight. Those things just are. Straight, gay, or somewhere in between - sexual orientation is, simply, everyday life. What could be less stylish than that?
