Issue 4

Issue 4

This article is based on an e-mail I received from a boy named Jeff, also 14 years old.

How can anyone call that unnatural?! How can anyone call that wrong? If one of those two was a girl, nobody would give it a second thought. They might say “How sweet” or “That's so cute” But if it’s two boys kissing, it's considered “disgusting”, or “morally wrong”. What's wrong with this world? Does anyone who doesn’t experience this pain care to sympathize with people who do? Maybe then, other people will wake their superficial little brains up and come to this pathetic, yet effective realization “Hey, if a straight person wants to stand up against all of this anti-gay activity, then maybe gay people aren’t as bad as we think they are.” Usually, however, it will go unnoticed. The fact of the matter is, these boys who are kissing are in love, and love isn't unnatural. Being in love, what they're doing just comes naturally.

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Brush and Mirror

Looks. They’re what we base a lot of our views on, especially when trying to find a boyfriend. But have you ever considered yourself? Especially in our teen years, we make all sorts of negative comments about ourselves. You know when you look in the mirror, and pick out all the bad things you don’t like about your appearance? Well, there are three things you can do.

1. You’re in the washroom, with brushes, water, cover-up creams, and other “appearance enhancers”. Try to fix yourself up. You’ll see that it does make a difference.
2. Say or (think) something nice about yourself. Sure, your face may have a few spots, but your hair is neat. It makes a big difference when a person fixes what they can, instead of letting it all go because of one flaw.
3. Look in the mirror and accept what you see. This can be difficult for some people, but you have to realize that this is you, and if people don’t want to accept it, itís their problem, not yours.

When all is said and done in the washroom, you have people to deal with! Just remember that someone might think that a certain person should wear a paper bag over their head, while you might want their face plastered all over your room! Everyone perceives beauty in slightly different ways. Your appearance is simply telling the world that you see yourself a certain way. The most important component, is who you are as a person,and you should never forget that.

In My Opinion Like the picture of the kissing boys up there? How about the parts in Niklas’ comics when the characters show affection towards each other? Well guess what? Some governments don’t! And guess which ones? Canada and the United States of America! You would think they are the most open and liberal places to live in, and then a LAW gets passed out that stuff like this is illegal! Oh, I'm sorry, you're allowed ONE form of it. That includes written out dreams and fantasies. Here society is again, making the wrong decisions for our people. We’re living in a time and place where sex is highly glorified in the media, therefore, any form of affection people see, they often interpret as sex. What sickos. A man can’t even hug anyone under 18 without being considered a pedophile! This is not a step forward, but a step back into the past. Hopefully those idiots will kick those rediculous homophobes out of parliament.

Electronic Mail
What’s up with the way people abbreviate that?! It used to be just e-mail. Now it’s email, eMail, e mail, e-male (oops!)...well you know what I mean. I just think it’s funny that people are trying to seem cool with their new versions of e-mail.

The positive aspect of those crazy parades:
In issue 1, I stated that gay pride parades are advertising something that doesn’t
have to be advertised. Well, I still stick with that opinion. You don’t have to,
but if you look at it the way we see being gay, it is simply a statement saying
“Being gay is okay. Look how many people there are who are gay.”
This doesn’t mean you’re going to find this writer at a parade any time soon,
but it does mean that I can see at those parades in a different light.

How can you expect others to accept you for who you are, when you can’t even accept yourself? If you think you're gay, go over some tests. Take a look at some boys, then take a look at some girls. First imagine yourself with one gender, then the other. You might want to try this situation: You're on a two-seater swing with your arm around the other person. The other puts their hand on your chest and leans closely to you. Which one do you feel most comfortable imagining? Did you continue the fantasy? Maybe you liked both. In that case, you're bisexual. If you’re a boy, and you liked the fantasy with the boy better, then you're gay.

There is nothing you can do about your sexuality. It’s who you are. It’s how you are. You have to accept that about yourself. Don’t tell anyone, if you’re not comfortable telling anyone. You shouldn’t feel ashamed to be gay or bi. It’s completely natural and human. It’s just like having parents who have blue eyes, and being born with green eyes. Some eyes even have streaks of gold or copper in them. It’s natural, and it’s different.

Remember that there are other people who are of the same sexuality as you. You may see them everyday without knowing it. Guess what? It’s a statisticalfact that one in every ten people in the world is gay. If you try to find out, become friends with that person and treat them as you do everyone else. When something good happens, let it happen. If you become close friends, you might want to consider telling them about your sexuality, and seeing if you were right.

Once you’ve personally accepted yourself, you might want to tell someone so that you can talk about your feelings to them in person. In case you didn’t know, this is called Coming Out of the Closet, or simply, coming out.
The term fits because we're all kind of hidden in a closet to other people about our sexuality. When you see a closet, you automatically think there are clothes inside, but once it’s open, you can bring things out of it and find out that this closet contains something different than clothes. And it sure is something special.