Queer!!

Sitting in class waiting for the lecturer to come in, as always i have my earphones on jamming to some Ed Sheeran. There is a moment I remove my earphones and I hear the word gay amidst peoples conversation. It definitely catches my attention so I listen in. I have a classmate of mine who is a staunch muslim. By muslim I mean the full works,prayers, quran, heena, buibui things. She is cool, cool in my book because i have never interacted that closely with a muslim before and ended up friends. I also have another classmate who is muslim but only by virture of her last name. She does not conform to her religion at all. So the arguement on queer people begins between the two of them. It gets pretty heated as they are both on the opposite side of the queer support. I am careful not to jump in because I believe in choosing your battles and this one was one I knew I couldnt win. In the heat of the debate the staunch muslim blurts out "gay people are dogs". You can only imagine the silence that befell the room. I think the not so staunch one couldnt believe what she had just heard so she says "oh!did you mean doggy style". At that moment I burst out laughing because am very aware of homophobia, it exists but comparing queers to dogs is abit unnecessary in my book. So the arguement goes on and at a point the staunch muslim blurts out "and i never want to see a gay person in my life". Aaaaaawwwwwkward!!!!!!! Am sitting across from her and in my head am like "dude am gay,your looking at me now,its not like you have turned into stone or something." Most of you will ask why i did not stand up for my fellow queers. I have a couple of reasons:first of all, I believe that the people you come out to is a personal choice and in the event you coming out to people will make your life unbearable then i dont think its worth it. In this case, me and staunch muslim are friends, for the most part i would probably say we are the most alike, we get along, me coming out to her in a bid to defend queers will change the way we relate. I will be reduced to that gay girl, everything else about me will not really matter because "gays are dogs" right. Second, I have my own reservations toward this religious types(blog for another day),argueing with someone who is so deeply entrenched in religion is actually a lost cause for me, its not worth it, because of how close minded the religious types can be. Third,people always judge things they do not understand. I will however,slowly but surely educate her that being gay doesnt define who you are, its a part of who you are. Listen to same love by ryan lewis ft. mary lambert