........................................................................................ - a weBlog by Snowy and me.

Thursday 7 July 2016

Tokens Of Tolerance

When it happened, my 'coming out' to the straight folk
in my shared house was easier for them than it was for me.
They could take a break from my struggle to find my new self
in ways that I could not, but I liked their acceptance.
Their apparent ease was a tonic when I needed one.
My struggle was partly against how little I knew
of the minority community attached to my new choice of self.

When the worst of my struggle was over
it was clear that I had been a token of liberal tolerance
for those apparently welcoming straight folk;
any human token would have done for them.
The further I got into being 'out' the more I found
that real diversity lay in freedom from being judged;
real life was as far beyond the tokenism of tolerance
as the deficient community of my new identity.

I had to just trust that who I was would carry me through.

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