Friday, April 11, 2008

Are Gay Cemeteries Really a Bad Idea ?















I see that gays in Copenhagen are making plans to gentrify a cemetery.

Homosexuals have been designated an area in a Copenhagen cemetery for those who want to be buried among people who shared their sexual orientation.

Matt at Queer Liberal thinks that's lunacy.

But I'm not so sure.

We have gay schools to protect gay children from violence. Gay safe spaces in universities for the same reason.

We have our own bars, gyms, libraries, community centres, and sports teams. We have our own rehabilitation centres and medical clinics because some straight doctors can't deal with our special needs...or are too bigoted to treat us.

Our gay kids depend on our help lines and youth services to help them survive the trauma of being savagely bullied in our schools.

And now there's a rush on gay retirement homes.

Because our seniors don't want to have their dignity insulted, or their bodies bruised by homophobes .... when they're frail and helpless.

So why not gay cemeteries?

There are Christian, Jewish, Muslim cemeteries. Religion is a choice that can be changed. Sexual orientation isn't.

So why not us?

After all there are PRACTICAL considerations. Because most gay people don't have children to maintain their graves into the future, their gay family can do that for them. Forever.

"We don't want to isolate ourselves but we also feel a need to be together. We see this as a family grave, one that will be taken care of by our family,"

Instead of being forgotten, the gay community can put flowers on their graves, and make sure it's the most FABULOUS part of the cemetery.

In life they were persecuted, in death they can be spoiled.

And then there are the hard feelings...

When I came across this grave in the middle of a Toronto cemetery I found it beautiful and moving.
















I thought good for Roger and George.

But the next thing that came into my mind was whether it would be defiled. Because our subhuman enemies are capable of ANYTHING. And I wouldn't be the only gay person to think that.

Would our epitaphs....our last declarations of love... be more honest and secure in a gay cemetery?

After having their lives stunted or destroyed by straight people...can you really blame some gay people for not wanting to spend eternity with them?

Does gay separatism say something about us? Or something about them and the bigoted societies they created...and we are forced to live in?

Are graves for the dead...or really for the living?

Oh well .....I guess I'll dig that that grave when I come to it. I'm not saying I'm for gay cemeteries. I'm just pointing out from what bloody soil the idea springs from.

What I do find absolutely wonderful is that one of the gay people buried in that Copenhagen cemetery is the guy who wrote this story.

Poor Hans Christian.

I wonder what he would think of the gay cemetery idea.

I like to think that when the gay ghosts hold their disco nights every Saturday, he will amble over with the naked Emperor....with Thumbelina on his shoulder.

And might FINALLY get laid. Or find his swan at last.

Hmmm....who said it was lunacy?

This Copenhagen cemetery idea sounds like a fairytale.

Or a PARTY !!!!

And I LOVE happy endings...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

kind of reminds me of theway that blacks and whites had "segregated but equal"facilities. i think it is a step in the wrong direction.

Simon said...

Hi Rashid!!! As as I said in my post, I'm not for or against the idea. I just thought that brother Matt had dismissed the idea a little too hastily.
In a more perfect world, where gays and straights lived happily together, we certainly wouldn't need a special part of the cemetery.
And hopefully that will happen before we die.
But if it doesn't, lying there in the most FABULOUS part of the cemetery, bathed in the love of my brothers and sisters, under our beautiful rainbow freedom flag, sounds....um....heavenly !! :)