Post by Dabeagle on Sept 27, 2014 10:33:00 GMT -5
As a writer you have many ideas; the sad truth is you have to find new ways to tell age old stories. One of the most popular is of being the 'other', that outsider who doesn't seem to quite fit. But as one character said near the end of 'Revenge of the Nerds' and I paraphrase, "There's more of us than there are of you". That's the truth - there are more of us 'outsiders' than there are of the insiders, the pretty people.
AS we develop we tend to say or do things as a matter of 'going along to get along'. For instance, kids who have no animus towards LGBT people will still say 'that's so gay' or some derivative of it. There are a few ways things can go when you come out - some won't care and simply accept you. Some won't care and will ignore it. Some will say they don't care, but their stance towards you changes subtly or becomes the opposite of 'not caring'. Some will embrace you and thank you for telling them, for trusting them. Some will reject you. The only real question, as a storyteller, is which option the character will take.
Now, take this slice of life from a coach in the mid-west who came out to his homophobe friend. This is yet another way to react, and in some ways is the most hopeful - that people who say terrible things need only to have met us, to befriend us, to learn how wrong their assumptions are. This is the core of the power of coming out, of visibility. It doesn't always go this way, of course; it could have been much worse. But, there in the mid-west, is an example of the power of change.
AS we develop we tend to say or do things as a matter of 'going along to get along'. For instance, kids who have no animus towards LGBT people will still say 'that's so gay' or some derivative of it. There are a few ways things can go when you come out - some won't care and simply accept you. Some won't care and will ignore it. Some will say they don't care, but their stance towards you changes subtly or becomes the opposite of 'not caring'. Some will embrace you and thank you for telling them, for trusting them. Some will reject you. The only real question, as a storyteller, is which option the character will take.
Now, take this slice of life from a coach in the mid-west who came out to his homophobe friend. This is yet another way to react, and in some ways is the most hopeful - that people who say terrible things need only to have met us, to befriend us, to learn how wrong their assumptions are. This is the core of the power of coming out, of visibility. It doesn't always go this way, of course; it could have been much worse. But, there in the mid-west, is an example of the power of change.