CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Wausau held its first Pride Day event on the 400 Block earlier this month.
And I thought there was something tragically sad about it.
As background: I’ve worked with three people in my career who I’ve known to be gay. All three are professional, career oriented, talented individuals. Today one works as a television news anchor. Two are hosts of radio shows. Their sexual preferences are not part of their public personas or their careers. They are in committed long-term relationships, and I consider them to be friends. The only thing that’s “different” about them is that they are men who love other men. And, while they don’t hide that part of their lives – for instance they go out to dinner and go on vacations with their partners – what happens in their bedrooms is private. Just like what happens in my bedroom… or yours… should be private, too.
I probably have other gay co-workers, friends, and neighbors. Their preferences are none of my business. And if they want to keep that part of their lives to themselves, that’s their choice. Really, I don’t want to know.
It’s unfair to these people, who want to live normal, quiet, private lives, that the public face of the gay rights movement is what was on display on Wausau’s 400 block: a man wearing a rainbow-colored skirt; a man with a beard and a lavender dress; people in the crowd who emphasize their queer-ness; an overflow crowd at a drag queen show. That is a caricature of gayness. And people who present themselves that way in public need to look in the mirror. To force other gay people to have to constantly say “I’m not like that” is a disservice to people who have already struggled enough.
I’m Chris Conley
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