Once upon a time (as all good stories start) a man was driving down a road when he noticed another man standing on a crate under a tree. From the tree hung a rope with a noose on the end, which the second man was pulling over his head.
The first man pulls over to try to stop the second from taking his life. “What are you doing?!? Surely things aren’t so bad that hanging yourself is the only solution!”
“They definitely are that bad,” came the simple reply.
“Then tell me about it, maybe you just need to talk through things.”
“One hundred years ago, if you were even *thought* to be homosexual, you’d be taken to a public place and whipped or stoned to death. Fifty years ago, if you were discovered to be homosexual you’d be completely and utterly ostracized from society, unable to find work or provide for yourself. Twenty-five years ago, homosexuality became something one didn’t talk about, but it was not a big deal and you could still lead a fairly normal life. Today, we have laws requiring public acceptance of homosexuality, forbidding discrimination under threat of punishment.”
The first man had listened to this and replied, “Okay, that’s right, but those are good things. We’ve grown as a society to the point that we care about all people and want to ensure that all have the same basic human rights. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing is wrong with *that*. I just want to get out of here before homosexuality becomes mandatory!”
The first man mulls over this for a minute and asks, “Do you have room up there for another rope?”
I think it goes without saying that they didn’t live happily ever after.
Retold from memory (and thus perhaps not 100% accurately) from a story told by Dave Allen on the BBC program Dave Allen At Large during the 1970s.
I can't believe no one (aka my sister) commented on this. :)
I wonder if this will sync to Facebook… Probably not.
Edit: Nope.