This question, posed by Shakespeare way back when, can be applied to more than just literary ideas.  In fact, one area that is always in need of more support is Gay Rights.  Recently, the government of Uganda has proposed a law that basically states if you are found to be gay, you will be arrested and then executed.  If you are found to have known someone is gay and didn't turn them in, you will be arrested and sent to prison for three years.

Wow.

Do you see how support of intolerance leads to hatred towards others?  Can you imagine living in a country that would support such actions against a group of people?  The fact of the matter is, you are born gay, just like you are born straight.  I know because I am gay.  Since my first crush, I have known.

There have been several of my friends who have suggested the following reasons for why they believe I am gay:

1. I was raised without a father (he was killed in an accident when I was four years old).
2. I was raised around my aunts and not around other men (I never saw them with their boyfriends as I recall).
3. I was just telling my mom this to piss her off (that was my Granny's theory).
4. I was molested by another male at some point and decided that I liked it enough to stick with it (seriously?).
5. I was afraid of women for an undefined reason, so I chose the "easy" way out (wtf?).
6. I am confused and haven't figured it out yet.

As I was growing up, being gay was not as tolerated as it is now.  In fact, when I came out at age 16 to my mom, she flipped out and declared that I had just "ruined her life" and that I was a disgrace.  She called up my grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and cried to them how horrible it was for her.  Then, they all arrived to comfort her during this distressing period!

They also methodically went through our house and removed every prescription bottle, knife, gun, tool or whatever they thought could be used by me to commit suicide, because in their mind, I was bound to be suicidal now that I had stated I was gay!  My grandparents (on my mom's side) stayed with us for two weeks.

I was grounded and not allowed to speak to anyone outside of the house.  Ultimately, she told me that I was not allowed to have any friends over while she wasn't home, and under no circumstances was I to be allowed to have any male friends come over.

The pressure was so intense for next two years or so that we could hardly stand the site of each other.  Eventually, I began to use denial as a way to survive the onslaught of hatred I was experiencing. I also looked at every option to escape from my mom-so I ended up joining the Navy.

These were the years before "don't ask, don't tell" and I didn't tell either way.  They didn't ask about preferences when I joined, they only asked if I had ever had sex with a man before, which I could answer truthfully as no.  That was good enough for them so it was "anchors away" and off to San Diego.

However, after nearly a year away from home, and living in a major metropolitan area like San Diego, I was able to jettison the burdens put onto me by my mother and I did make some connections with other males.  This made me realize that I wasn't the monster in the equation as some had suggested, but it also made me realize that the Navy wasn't going to be the place for me either.  I decided that I would tell them that I realized my true identity, and that it was up to them what would happen from there.

I was accused of fraud by my Department Chief Petty Officer.  He said that there was no way I could not have known I was gay when I signed up.  I was given sympathy by the Department Lt. and he gave me a discharge rating of "Honorable" so that I wouldn't be burdened by yet another label in life (such as "other than Honorable" or worse).

I underwent years of being told I was a disgrace, that I had ruined my family and so much more before I found my freedom in San Diego.  But, even though I had actually said that I was gay to another person outside of my family (and it was three years later), I still didn't feel comfortable revealing that to anyone who didn't know me for at least a year-for many, many more years to come.  That was how much fear and even subliminal loathing had been pumped into my head by my family, by society and even by me.

But that didn't prevent me from stumbling through relationships and having casual "friends with benefits" over the years.  It just took me a lot longer to get into one of them because of my defensive walls that prevented me from being myself to anyone I didn't know very well.

Does this sound like I chose the "easy way out" or that I was making a "lifestyle choice" to be gay rather than straight?  Was I choosing not to be straight just to piss off someone?  It would certainly be one of the longest and hardest methods of proving a point if that where the case.

I have finally come to terms with my sexuality enough to write it down here in a publically viewable format, and it only took 24 years to get here.  The fact that society has grown up enough to accept that gay people aren't agents of Satan has helped in my transition as much as anything else has.

But, regardless of the progress made so far, we still have a way to go.  The fact that there are still large enough numbers of people out there who believe that gay people should be treated with less respect and with fewer rights than straight people still leads to gay hate crimes and to proposed laws such as the Ugandan travesty, and that must come to a halt.  The citizens of the United States should take a closer look at their history-because it is filled with people who came to the New World to escape the persecution of those that they were leaving behind.

For this reason, we should be the beacon's of tolerance and we should be the sentinals of justice for those who would be persecuted because of their race, color, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin.  We should demand sanctions against Uganda in the U.N.  We should look around the room and ask ourselves if we would support a law to execute someone because they have diabetes, or freckles, or cancer, or because they are Methodist, or Muslim, or gay.

And then we should think about what makes us human beings.  You see, I know that I am a human being even though I am gay.  I would never support any law anywhere that demands arresting, imprisoning or executing anyone for being born to the human race.  That's what their proposed law is saying-those people who are born gay, born human nonetheless, are not worthy of life because they don't fit an ideal of what a human is in the eyes of the ruling government.

Didn't Hitler and the Nazi's think the same way?  Can American's become monsters too?  Look around the room and let me know.