Being Gay In 2020! There Is Hope!

[SexyGaySenior]

Well, two-thousand-and-nineteen is finally behind us. Being as it's January 1st, I would like to start off with a Happy New Year wish for everyone, and may 2020 be a good, no, make that a great year for everyone to celebrate the Gay lifestyle. Or, as I read somewhere, being Gay isn't a lifestyle, it's a style of life. Whatever1 Being Gay absolutely R*O*C*K*S!

Do I have any hope or plans for 2020?

Well, first off, I plan to attend as many Pride events as I can. I go to the festival in Hamilton for sure, and, of course, Toronto. They're always fun, and are always extremely sociable. I've met many friends at these events, including my latest boyfriend, Jordan, whom I met at our local Pride festival five years ago, and we've been dating now for four years. He's significantly younger than I am by more than 15 years. I just turned 65 in November, and Jordan will be turning the big "5-0" on July 1st. Jordan prides himself in not only being Gay, but, he shares his birthday with Canada! A proud Canadian! As I am too!

As for hope, being Gay, there is always the hope that we can get passed all the bigotry and hatred we face, mainly from the religious right, which, I think, is beginning to lose steam, if what's going on south of the border in the U.S. is any indication. The evangelicals, that band of anti-GLBTQ Christian conservative bigots, are starting to see a lot of in-fighting, as many are calling them out for being the biggest two-faced hypocrites on the planet. Personally, I'm glad to see the poison of religion is finally being seen as the root of all evil. Can we thank the young people for that? If you can believe anything you read about surveys, half of young adults in the U.S. don't believe in god, while another quarter won't have anything to do with any organized religion. That is three-quarters of a segment of the population. And the term "young adults" is defined as being between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. Some are saying that "young adults" is a little restrictive of the age groups walking away from god and religion, and "twenty-five" are way too conservative, that the actual age is more like forty-five, maybe even older. And two of the main reasons being blamed for the downfall of organized religion and the reason so many people are walking away from it is that too many religions are misogynistic, and, believe it or not, anti-GLBTQ. Religion has always been anti-woman, and people today are not standing for that. As for the anti-GLBTQ, people aren't tolerating that either from right-wing, Christian conservatives. It's really nice to finally see these hard-line Christian bigots being called out and held accountable for their hatred.

(I have a straight friend who hate's religion with a passion. He is forever quoting Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens. He's in his glory over these meltdowns the Christian right are having!)

What gives me the most hope is with the young people, and especially young Gay people. That generation is far and away more tolerant than previous generations. And I am seeing that!

Just this passed weekend, on December 29th to be exact, I had an exchange that both made me smile, and is giving me hope for the future.

On Sundays, I go to one of two different Starbucks on Sunday morning. One is close by and opens at six-A.M. while the other is located downtown, and on Sundays, it doesn't open until six-thirty. I will go to one this week, then the other one next week. The one reason I love Starbucks, and no, this isn't an advertisement for them, is that Starbucks in general is always especially welcoming to people like me who are GLBTQ. You see it right as you approach the door. There is a 4-inch-by-six-inch rainbow flag on the door. In a way, it makes me feel like I'm home. Also, I usually take one of my "Gay Pride" travel mugs with me. I have no hesitation about using one of these mugs at any Starbucks, and I've commented in the past that, I swear, if the Barista's even get a slight hint you might be Gay, they bend over backwards for you, especially the young male ones.

I won't get into any comments about the Barista, other than one, I will say, they're all very professional, very friendly, very courteous, and very respectful; two, why are the young male ones all so damned attractive; and third, and most important, and I have been told this is just a coincidence, they're all *G*A*Y*! And none of them hide it!

At this one location I go to, usually on Sunday, there are three Baristas I've been seeing there every Sunday morning since July. One works the counter while the second one works the only Starbucks drive-thru in the area. The third one bounces between the counter and the drive-thru. The three of them are local and attend university here. I have gotten to know the one young man quite well, and I've talked about him before. He's the one who wears his Starbucks baseball cap backwards, a "style" that I don't like, but on him, it truly adds to his attractiveness.

Oh, if I was forty-years younger!

Now, when I got there, there already was two other cars parked in two of the ten "Reserved for Starbucks Customers" parking spots. Crazy enough, both cars were Ford Focuses, both about the same 'generation' as mine. I have a 2017 Focus, and this 'generation' ran from 2015 to 2018, when Ford made the misguided decision to stop producing the Focus, and cars in general, focusing (sorry for the pun) on truck and SUV production. As I parked and got out of my car, another car, a Kia Forte sedan, pulled in right behind me. I had got out of my car, they parked and got out of theirs and were right behind me. As I approached the door, I stopped and let the two young men go ahead of me. When I looked at them I recognized them right away! They were the two hot, sexy young men who were embracing and kissing each other as they waited for their order on this one Sunday back at the end of July.

There were two guys at the counter already being served ahead of us. I am not a good judge of a person's age, but, I would put them in either their late-thirties or early-forties. As I watched the two older guys get their order and go to sit down, I got the hint they were both Gay! The hint? As they got their order, they waked to a booth HOLDING HANDS. I let the two young guys get their order first, as it's usual for their night to be ending just as my day is just beginning. I've always figured once they get their order, they leave to go back to where they live, where they "enjoy" each other. Hot! Hot! Hot! Something else I learned this morning. Those two are friends with the one Barista who was working the counter! Wow! Are they the hottest threesome?

I was surprized by these two, and it wasn't thinking they were a threesome with that beautiful Barista, although, it's very hot to think about three exceptionally beautiful young Gay guys having a menage-et-trois. Sunday morning, they didn't leave! They actually sat down for a while. And, as I got my order, and was going to sit at a vacant table, they asked me to join them! Wow! They asked someone who's old enough to be their grandfather to join them! Before getting into specifics of our conversation, I noticed something else about another couple in the cafe. There were two other guys in there already, and they were sitting in another booth. They appeared to be in their late-twenties or early-thirties. and they were siting there. looking at each other in a way that you knew they were lovers, and were holding hands. Cool! That made seven customers, all guys, plus the three male Baristas, all openly Gay.

Oh, one other thing, and this is why those two young guys asked me to join them. Because there hadn't been any real social contact between everyone, things never got noticed, until this Sunday morning. Remember my travel mugs? Sunday morning, I had one of my travel mugs with me. It was the one with the rainbow flag on it. (There is one downside to my travel mugs, they're "only" a "Grande" size, not the "Venti" size. Oh well, I probably drink too much coffee anyway!) The two young guys noticed it. That's why they asked me to join them. They were curious about my experiences with being Gay when I was their age. The conversation got very intimate. I told them how I had met my first boyfriend in College in September, 1973, and in College, We found out through a challenge that it was no big deal if we held hands and kissed each other in the open, even back in the 1970s. That challenge came from three female members of a Human Sexuality class I took as an elective. Remember this, I took that class in the winter, 1975 semester (beginning of January until the end of April). The fight for Gay rights were just beginning. First, we were discussing ever so briefly about Homosexuality when one young lady said she didn't know anyone who was a Homosexual. I hesitated for a moment, then I came out to the class. Next thing I knew, my "lifestyle" became the topic of discussion. I pointed out major differences that they as heterosexuals could do that someone like me, being Homosexual couldn't. Holding my boyfriend's hand as we walked down the hallway was one activity I could not do. I was challenged to meet my boyfriend and walk down the hall holding his hand. In fact, they found out I was meeting him right after the class, as he was taking a class just down the hall. After class, my boyfriend was waiting for me. As my classmates watched, I met my boyfriend and gave him a hot, open-mouth kiss, AS THEY WATCHED! Guess what? The hallway was busy, and except for my classmates, nobody noticed. Then, as we were watched, we both walked to the cafeteria to get a coffee, and we held hands ALL THE WAY! Again, nobody noticed. After that, we didn't hesitate to hold hands and, occasionally, kiss each other right out in the open.

After college was another story. Throughout the rest of the 70s and well into the 2000s, I had to hide my sexuality both from my family (my mother was a devout catholic, and was very Homophobic), and from my employer. In nineteen-eighty-nine, my mother found out about my sexuality. She never spoke to me again, and when she died in 2002, she took her hatred for me to her grave. My dad reached out to me during all that time, and often dropped by to visit me at my house. After mother died, dad and I reconnected as father and son. My brother, who was mother's favorite, never accepted me as mother didn't accept me, and we haven't spoken since dad passed away in 2007. Cousins. on the other hand, were another story! They stayed connected and often visited me. If there was a family function, if they knew mother wasn't coming, I was invited to join them. I am still in contact with them to this day!

Had my employer ever found out I was Gay, I would have been fired. And he would have come up with some other reason so it wasn't so obvious that he fired me for being Gay. Too, I worked with several Homophobic bigots, all of whom identified as "Christian". To this day, only one colleague knows my sexuality, and she found out about me by accident. About four months after she started working with me, I was coming out an office supply store with my boyfriend Jordan (we live separately, as he too works at a very Homophobic company), and we had just purchased two new laptops. Well, my colleague was walking up the parking lot with her husband, when I bumped into her. It was awkward for sure! But, I introduced Jordan to her. She was shocked to say the least. But, more importantly, she was accepting. To her credit, she never told anyone else, and even more, we've become friends, even outside of work!

The two young guys told me they've worked in environments that are very accepting of their sexuality, and said they have experienced very few issues with expressing their sexuality out in the open, and any issues came from people who identify as Christians. They attend several Pride events in Ontario every year, and they said they've been exposed to protests, they've never experienced any hostility at school or in their workplaces. They can express their feelings toward each other in the open, and they can dress as they please. They did say they've had "weird" (their word, not mine) issues with a few young ladies, because they're both extremely attractive, and, well, and this is the issue, they're not into women! Anyway, as I sat and gazed at these two young guys and listed to what they said about being so open, and not hiding who they are and what they are, and thinking back to when I was their age and living in fear of family and an employer finding out about my sexuality, I was both envious and full of admiration.

Things sure are different in 2020, well,nit was still 2019, but just barely!

We talked for an hour about it all. and the more we talked, the more I admired not only both of them, but the three Baristas, and all the other Gay guys around who can openly express themselves without many issues.

That made me smile!

Happy 2020 everyone!

🌈 A Sexy Gay Senior 🌈
❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

[Vernon Williams]

Awesome! Have a great 2020!