A Rant about Homosexuality

Apparently, a few weeks ago, an anchor on the news came out as a lesbian and announced that she and her partner were expecting. I was exposed to a conversation recently where two people were discussing this woman and the news. Their obviously shock as they were talking about how they didn't know that she was gay was unsettling but the worst was when one of them said, "from the way she reported the news, I always thought she was straight".

Here's the thing. The reason you assumed anything about her sexuality at all is because heterosexuality is the norm and it never crossed your mind that she would be anything else. In fact, the truth is that you never thought anything about her sexuality until you found out that it wasn't what the majority of people are. Consider now just how often you assume things about people. If I said, "He walked down the street", you probably imagined a heterosexual white man of average height. It is only if I give you a detail of who "he" is that you imagine something else based solely on the stereotypes you typically associate with that label. Her sexuality only became significant when you found out she wasn't like you.

Since you had never given her sexuality a thought until you found out it wasn't the norm, society dictates that for those in the public eye, this can be conceived of as "news". So when that basketball player publicly came out, everyone was buzzing about it. Talking about how powerful it is and the strength that it takes to accomplish such a thing. It changed nothing about his playing abilities, it is irrelevant in anyone life but his, and yet because we are hyper-aware of sexuality right now, we need to talk about it. If someone were to announce their religion, it's also still considered significant although not to the point of sexuality.

Race is something we can see (or so we are led to believe), correct? So by this standard, because we can compartmentalize people without even speaking with them, this is why announcing your "racial background" is not news worthy. And yet, because there are "qualities" that society has fixated on, announcing something that is not of the norm and that can't be observed visually, is held to a different standard. My confusion is why in the 21st century, we are still obsessing over the need to assign labels to people. These labels are constructed by society to mean something, they are not inherently known or understood, they need to be explained and taught. Until we stop placing so much emphasis on what a person is versus who are person is, we will continue to hold public figures coming out to a standard that continues showcases the differentness of those identities. And until we stop this focus on differentness, it is forgotten how similar we all are. Until it doesn't matter where you come from, what you believe, or who you love, these labels will define our lives. And how sad it that?