By: Uriah Lekin [Staff Writer] @Uriah_theChamp
Five years ago today in the halls of Franklin middle school one bright, young man decided to no longer hide from his peers and take off the fake skin he had been wearing. Three of his best friends were told and unknown to him his secret crush and hidden identity was spilled across the school, Facebook pages, and text messages while he sat at home thinking he had made the right choice. The next day he walked into school with an eerie feeling consuming his body and as he entered his home room he was stopped by an unlikely person who said, “So I hear you like so-and-so.”
Most straight people will never understand the feeling of coming out and the insanity of emotions it brings along with. Why is it that people who are gay have to come out? Why are they labeled as gay, homosexual, or fag? Why aren’t straight people labeled as heterosexual or breeders? Why is it that when someone refers to the straight guy down the hall they call him by his name and not his sexuality? Maybe it’s the times or the way our society thinks and works, but it needs to end. The embodiment known as the “Closet” needs to be thrown into the garbage like the bathroom signs of the 50’s saying “White Only! No colors allowed”. It’s a saying that no longer should be used. People may think it’s just the way society identifies someone, but why? When a straight person likes a girl they aren’t immediately consumed with the sayings from their peers about how they now are out and like girls. They aren’t shoved against lockers or have to mentally prepare themselves for the daily torments of their classmates while they are getting dressed in the morning.
Some may say the closet is just a way homosexuals come out and show the world they are not afraid. Some may say it is just the way it is, or even that it’s the only way, but is it really? As a society many people need to change the way they think of someone coming out or how they label them, because at the end of the day everyone is a person with their own name- not a label like clothing.
