A Short Story about Being Human

Continued from Part 1

“So I didn’t grow up religious or anything, and my parents were pretty open to just about anything, so I guess you could say my philosophy was always kind of ‘Live and let live’ when it came to that kind of stuff. But then one time on another all-night bus ride—I take a lot of trips by bus to see old friends who moved away after high school, just FYI. Anyway, on this bus ride I saw two ladies sitting next to each other … one maybe in her fifties, the other one probably in her early thirties. So I’m thinking maybe a mom and daughter, right? Then we stopped at a travel plaza, and I saw them hold hands and hug and kiss. So I caught up to them in the restaurant and asked if I could sit down with them. Ha, guess it’s a habit, huh?”

“Heh. S’pose so.”

“Yeah it is. But I love talking to people and finding out more about what it means to even be people—you know, human. Anyway, I never actually talked about homosexuality with a gay or lesbian couple before that bus ride. So I asked these ladies straight up—no pun intended—if they’d always been attracted to females. Both of ’em said yes, with the older one saying she had no attraction at all to guys or girls when she was younger, but then knew she liked girls by the time she hit high school. The younger one, though, she said she knew from the time she was in grade school. So now with seeing your sign about it being a choice, it has me thinking about all this again.”

“Thinking what?”

“Well, your sign says it’s a choice, but these two lesbian women—and probably most queer folk—would say it has nothing to do with choice, but just how they’re wired for attraction.”

“Yeah, I’d agree that’s often their reasoning.”

“But you wouldn’t agree with what they’re saying.”

“No way. The Bible is clear that—”

“Hold on, hold on! Sorry to jump in, but I figured you’d go there and I’d rather go a different way if you don’t mind, because you can quote me all the Bible verses you want, but that will still come down to your belief system and how you interpret what the original authors meant—not to mention what the original audience would have heard based on that time and culture and all that.”

“Mmm, I might push back on that to some degree, but go ahead.”

To be continued …