What is a Freak?

My granddaughter, Lisette, is a feisty, passionate, idealistic 17 year old who has vastly different views of the world than I do. It would be easy to pass her views off as immature idealism but I'm too smart for that. It pays to listen and learn, doesn't it?

Lisette is a beautiful young CCAP...affectionately known as a Cuban, Canadian, American, Princess. She is smart as a whip and carries her strong convictions with pride. And she's not adverse to arguing her "core values" with her inate Latin intensity but she does so politely, at least with her elders.

And so the conversation began innocently enough with me stating nastily that the gay pride parade in Toronto was filled with freaks who don't really represent the gay people. Oh my god! From the back seat of the car we happened to be driving in came an indignant squawk. "Freaks!", she yelped. "People have the right to act and dress any way they want without being called freaks! They're only trying to draw attention to their plight to be treated equally!"...or something like that.

And so the conversation/argument went on. Me trying to stress that a man dressed as a woman humping a man dressed in a thong is not conducive to social reform and Lisette, much better spoken, stressing that this is indeed the way social reform is attained.

We conversed/argued all the way to the restaurant for lunch and no-one's mind was changed but I, being older and wiser, really did listen to her arguments and began to internally question my own. I told Lisette that I respected her views 100% and hoped she could respect mine. Isn't this what we want in our society...a respect for each other's views? It's hard for me to respect two men humping on a parade float but I have to rationalize that it is a legal venue for them to express themselves.

On the drive back to Canada, my oldest daughter, Kim, and I discussed the bra burning demonstrators of the 1960's and the social reform they brought about. I'm sure many oldsters thought of them as freaks because they usually didn't look like your average lady. They were aggressive women whose "core value" was that women deserved to be treated as equals to men and their attention getting device was a bra burning. Enough said! Lisette, you just might be right.

Another topic of conversation/argument was the gay pride day at Disneyworld. I was mistakenly under the impression that this was a day sanctioned by Disney and had been very angry about it. Since Disney has been enriched by the "families" of the world why would they promote a day for a group of people who are often an affront to these families? My son-in-law googled us an answer to that question. Disney does not promote this day. They do not restrict who enters their parks and that is quite right. The gays are the ones who organize this day and I can only believe it's an outright slap in the face to heterosexuals. You've heard the slogan, "We're queer and we're here", well, why would they swarm a family park to overtly display their sexual preference when they know so many of the parents there will not want their children exposed to this?

Lisette wasn't part of this discussion but the rest of us adults were unified in our opinion that it's wrong for anyone to organize a controversial group to spoil the vacation of unsuspecting families. A trip to Disneyworld is expensive and often it's the trip of a lifetime for families. In truth, how many of us would allow our young children to spend the day at Disneyworld surrounded by attention seeking gays? People might say, "What's wrong with kissing and hugging in public?". I say that in the year 2008 it is still deeply offensive for many people to see gay affection of any kind and that's all there is to it.

I was at the wharf in San Francisco a few years back on a busy afternoon and was highly disgusted to see a straight couple having sex in full view of passers-by. Some people might say, "This is a natural function of life". I say these two were attention seeking freaks who didn't care who they offended.

Yes, Lisette, sometimes people are simply freaks who thrive on offending.

As for the bra burning demonstrations of the 1960's...it did help bring awareness to the need for women to receive equal treatment in the world. But most of us ladies, young and old, still wear bras to this day. Freedom was won but we're smart enought to want to keep the comfort, too.