24-04-2022, 09:45 AM
I have a Russian neighbour. She isn't the nicest woman, hasn't made many friends here, even her family prefer arms length because she is contentious at times - probably part of the reason she, and many of us, have ended up here in this wee community. But she has that accent. The one that betrays her birth in Kyiv and her life in Moscow. She has been subjected to nasty remarks, lost social contacts, been shunned, and in one case actually spat at by nice well brought up New Zealanders since Putin started his murderous campaign.
People are horrible, and some of us love to vomit hate and spite on available targets, especially on those among us who appear different.
Being gay, or wanting to be accepted outside the norms makes us a target for that kind of attack. A single man in a group of women will know he is 'different', just as a single woman in a group of makes knows only too well she is. There is threat, and risk, and danger in that isolation, be the cause gender, sexuality, race, colour, age, political standpoint, ability or disability...
Difference has inherent vulnerability. And we, as predatory animals are triggered by vulnerability.
People are horrible, and some of us love to vomit hate and spite on available targets, especially on those among us who appear different.
Being gay, or wanting to be accepted outside the norms makes us a target for that kind of attack. A single man in a group of women will know he is 'different', just as a single woman in a group of makes knows only too well she is. There is threat, and risk, and danger in that isolation, be the cause gender, sexuality, race, colour, age, political standpoint, ability or disability...
Difference has inherent vulnerability. And we, as predatory animals are triggered by vulnerability.