I have a confession to make:

I’m a housewife and I watch Days of our Lives.

I also have another confession to make:

Seeing two guys kiss kind of makes me uncomfortable.

 

 

My favorite daytime Soap now has two homosexual characters that are starting to make out on a regular basis.  Whenever I see it… I feel kind of weird.  It’s a little shocking… in an ice water kind of way.

I went to a performing arts college – practically half of my class was gay.  I was also a working actor for over a decade after that, and have very dear friends that are gay.  However, most of my gay friends now live on different coasts and since becoming a housewife I have been severely… underexposed.

I don’t feel weird when I see a husband kiss his wife on the sidewalk in front of my house.  I don’t feel uncomfortable when the heterosexual characters go at it on Days of Our Lives.  I think it makes me feel weird because it’s something I’m not used to.  It’s shockingly different.  My weekly viewings of Glee aren’t enough to make it still feel normal to watch.

I imagine it’s how some people feel when a woman breastfeeds in public.  People shift in their chairs…

They whisper to each other…

They slightly shake their heads…

They feel uncomfortable…

They ask a restaurant manager to make the woman leave or stop.

Breastfeeding advocates around the world encourage women to nurse in public because of the idea that the more people see it, the more normal it becomes.

It’s one of the most normal, natural things in the world, but I’ve found myself on a number of occasions huddled in my car trying to uncomfortably feed my baby.  I’ve sat on a bench with my son under a nursing cover hoping that no one would notice… then felt strangely guilty for feeling ashamed.  I’ve felt bold.  I’ve felt natural.  I’ve felt nervous.  I’ve felt dirty.

I can’t help but wonder if any of my gay friends feel that way when they kiss their partner hello or goodbye in a public place.

I don’t want you to feel that way…

and I don’t want to feel as uncomfortable as I do when I see it – my self-touted open minded and open heartedness is crumbling before me.

Gays of the world, I need your help.

I need you to kiss more in front of me…

and since you never know where I might be at any given time, just do it wherever you are when the urge strikes you… and hope that I see it.

I don’t need you to lick your partners face off – gay or straight that may make me dry heave a little…

But I need to be exposed to more simple displays of homosexual affection.  Seeing love should not make me uncomfortable…

We need a new normal.

You kiss the person you cherish when the moment calls for it.

I’ll nurse my son on a bench when he’s hungry.

Let’s make our acts of love more commonplace…

and then lets make a sandwich, put our feet up, and watch today’s episode of Days of Our Lives.