Dear Silly Straigghtish Belizean men

 

16/4/2022

16/4/22

Dear Silly Straightish men of Belize:

I write to inform you that if you must express your fears behind my back at a bar and be homophobic and verbally violent, you’re not straight, you’re in the closet. If you must be bothered by me going to the bathroom, you’re not straight, your just want the D, but don’t know how to ask. If you need to cut your eye behind my back, while I am a customer too, you’re not straight, you’re just a gay man in waiting or at the worse frustrated because you are experiencing a malfunction with your third leg.

When I walk the street, it not your job to police my body, my gender expression or sexuality. Please feel free to take care of your smelly braids, remember to ensure your children have an education, eat and clothes on their back, even if you’re unemployed. If you were clear about pulling down that zipper, you should be clear about how they will eat as they did not ask you to come into this world. Cutting into my business does not feed your child, it only shows that you want something, but don’t know how to ask.

If I am walking to the gym in my shorts, feel free to watch, the rule is don’t touch. Know that I am exercising my right to movement, expression, dignity, and personal security. It is not your job to judge me, but to mind your own business. Dahling, I am not to seeking your attention, for it means I will have to lower my standards. So, know this, I am looking for a taxi, not a bicycle to get me to my destination! I am seeking to appreciate me, its not my problem that you can see me, just know, I have no desire to see you. Your toxic insecurity, your self-consciousness, your worry that my gayness will rub off on you, your mistaken belief that if you fit in, have a deep voice, and walk like you’re in charge that that is the definition of masculinity. Ignoring, you always owe someone, never finished school, believing that having a wife, a girlfriend and a side chick is the image of a man, with kick down fence money. Dahling I finish school, have a job, manage my finances and take care of people around me. Wherever I go, I need not lie about who I am, I am shameless, authentic, and live with purpose. I have no need to prove my masculinity for its grounded in character, but yours seems to be stuck in the mode of an insecure teenager seeking acceptance. You have used a lot of words over the years to describe me, but a coward, is not one of them. YOU see me as weak, but you cannot stand the scrutiny of ridicule, threats, and reputation battering. I see me as strong because I am still here, “living life on my terms” you still can’t be yourself and stand out. I STAND OUT and still strong! I know who I am!

Let me not forget the straight men who have defended gay people in public, are friends with them in private, who have attended gay parties over a generation, who are certain about their sexuality, who have defended us on the bus, among friends. Thank you! You are many, but unfortunately silent. For the men who mind their own business, are respectful, even when they are uncomfortable, thank you! For innately knowing the value of respect. But for the fake ass men called politicians, business leaders and cuffy, who love to wallow in your quiet homophobia, say, you support equality, but will have a side chick, wife and girlfriend, but judge us, shame on you for your fake moral position, fake public statement and fake humanity. Your masculinity, your insecurity, your dishonesty cannot be hidden behind smiles, listening and positive statements.

Commitment to public optics, not substance to transform the lives of citizens, is not leadership, its pandering. Change comes with effort and deadlines, so please go get your spine off the kitchen table. We expect leadership by example. The struggle continues!

A Gay Citizen of Belize!