I don’t usually notice middle-aged men standing on corners. But the man on Waverley Avenue last Tuesday yelling about ‘healing homosexuals with Christianity’ almost convinced me punching strangers was acceptable. Remembering my upbringing, I directed a few unprintable words in his face as I marched past.

Then the truth hit me, just as it did Matty Bennett, a junior psychology and English and textual studies dual major. The man on the corner’s got the law on his side.

‘Unfortunately, just because I don’t like what he’s saying doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be allowed his opinion,’ Bennett said.

Maybe some people should be seen and not heard.

As the man on the corner – let’s call him MOC – demonstrates, people who are straight are more easily accepted by society. But even if you aren’t straight, you shouldn’t hide who you really are. 

Someone’s sexuality isn’t something you can decide is wrong. It’s not your right, it’s theirs.

Let’s make one thing clear to MOC. ‘Homosexuality’ is not something that God needs to worry about. Nor is it something Spiderman needs to save upstate New York from. Val Schweisberger, a doctoral candidate at Syracuse University, believes even the term ‘homosexuality’ is problematic.

‘It’s too clinical, too much like the disease that was in the books until the ’70s,’ she said. ‘Today, young people see sexuality as more fluid.’

MOC, and a few potential Republican U.S. presidential candidates, need reminding that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973. Being gay was never a disease: Its inclusion in the DSM was a symptom of ignorance.

While MOC is a lost cause, there’s no need to be scared about sexuality. Your dorm room closet isn’t for you and your sexuality to be sitting inside. If you fall in love with someone of the same sex, remember you aren’t the only one who does. And if you were born a boy but want to dress like a girl, it doesn’t matter what your sociology professor thinks. He wishes he had the balls to do it, too.

Being straight is great. But being lesbian, gay, transgender, transsexual, bisexual, queer or any other box society tries to put a lid on is awesome, too. And nowadays, we can be more open about our sexuality. Even the Army got rid of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in 2011.

Schweisberger believes the media, including shows like Will and Grace, played huge roles in normalizing ‘queer culture,’ an umbrella term for alternative sexualities. But they haven’t been enough.

Sexuality is a fundamental part of who we are. Lady Gaga sings, ‘Baby, I was born this way,’ but is she right? Are you born ‘your way’ or does your sexuality become, or reflect, whoever you are at a given moment? Despite having an LGBT center on campus, Bennett believes students need to be even more open to view all sexual preferences equally.

‘We may have an LGBT center and 5-star LGBT campus climate, but sometimes people aren’t actually nice,’ he said.

Jack and Joe holding hands on University Avenue don’t need to put up with the narrow-minded stares of next-generation MOCs. Jack and Joe are probably as boring, dysfunctional and ridiculously happy as Jack and Jill making out behind Bird Library.

Whatever sexuality you think you are, don’t stay in a box if you’re getting dusty and unhappy. Being in love, or just wanting to have a good f*ck, is as important as free speech. Give up your rights to no one. Especially not MOCs.

Iona Holloway is a magazine journalism and psychology dual major. Her column appears every Wednesday. She thinks your sexuality is the only cool way to apply YOLO.She can be reached at ijhollow@syr.edu.

Published on March 27, 2012 at 12:00 pm