Untamed Environment
by W. Bledsoe
The majority of Heather's coworkers were not particularly sophisticated. They'd grown up in small towns or on farms, didn't care much about city life and shunned anything modern. People who lunched at Applebees or T.G.I. Friday, they called, "Yuppies," and claimed McDonald's, Burger King or Taco Bell were much better places to eat. Almost daily, they could be heard telling jokes about immigrants, people of color, homosexuals or anyone else, they considered to be out of the norm. While some people considered these jokes to be funny, others found them to be highly insensitive, offensive or even unjust cruel.
"Gay people have been around for centuries." Heather was telling her coworker, George. "Why are there still so many people in this world, who believe, gay people choose to be gay?"
George shrugged his shoulders, "You know as much as I."
Heather loved intellectualizing with George. George was the most unusual and wittiest coworker she’d ever known. He had just told her about his childhood and his deceased cousin, who’d been gay. Since she had just completed her study on the history of people, who preferred same sex-relationships, she felt highly knowledgeable about this subject. Hence she informed George that scientists now believe homosexuality is inherited through the X-chromosome, since many mothers who have gay offspring, also have gay ancestors. She also told him that George probably had more than just one gay family member, since his family was very large.
"There is no history of anyone in my family being gay." Heather decided to end her report with that statement.
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"How do you know this? Huh? How can you be so sure?" her coworker rebutted, pushing his face real close to hers.
"I guess you’re right, I really don’t know this," Heather replied carefully. Her pal, George was very tolerant and understanding, but Heather now wondered if she’d offended him a bit with her latest comment. "I’ve never considered this." Heather concluded.
"Hmm," Heather mumbled to herself, still deep in thought, long after her discussion with George. What a revelation! How could anyone be sure they didn’t have a gay relative? Gay people had been prosecuted for centuries. They could lose their family-ties, friends, or jobs, and would have to fear for their safety or even lives if they chose to tell anyone they were gay. It’s quite possible that every person in this world has relatives who are gay, but simply never finds out. George’s words made perfect sense to Heather.
Still contemplating this issue, she abruptly was interrupted by another coworker rushing into her cubicle. "Do you think he’s gay?" Bob feverishly expected Heather to give him a quick reply.
"Who, George?" Heather answered, being caught completely off-guard.
"Nah, not George, he has a girlfriend. I know he isn’t gay! I’m talking about Peter."
"I don't know, Heather replied, annoyingly. "It really doesn’t matter much to me. I don’t want to date him -- do you?"
