So I ended up getting driven through the empty streets of Glasgow as my mouth went fat and thick with swelling. Husband simply kept calm and managed to slip through a stream of green lights as if the traffic gods were on our side and waved us through the worrying journey. Me and my husband couldn’t look at each other in case I saw the fear on his face as he saw the swelling on mine. Good news, I am fine, I got treated and it all calmed down.
So been a long time since I blogged, lots has happened, for instance Gadaffi got killed and we all had to look at his dead body on constant news streams, The OCCUPY movement has gone global. People in over a 100 major cities have started camping out in the streets to show their anger at greedy bankers and the 99% of people affected by the financial downturn. We have an OCCUPY in Glasgow but unlike other cities we had a sexual assault at ours. To make matters worse we also had a suspected homophobic attack on a young man in east Ayrshire where he was beaten and burned to death. Sometimes I feel like the people of my thriving exciting country are going backwards instead of forwards.
Don’t get me wrong Scotland is a vibrant exciting country but sometimes it feels like we harbour and nurture things like homophobia and sectarian hatred- we still have an 80% rise in domestic abuse on the day when Rangers football team play their rival Celtic. Can you believe that families sit in fear of their loved ones who are coming home from a football match in Glasgow? Families still batter religious hatred into their kids, I know- I was told to hate Catholics when I was younger, but I married one instead.
Homophobia is still a dirty cancer on our modern society, people still raise kids with spitting hatred and deep seated prejudice against the gay community, and let’s not kid ourselves, religious bashing alongside to reinforce that theory doesn’t help.
People have said to me “Would you care if Ashley was gay” and the answer is – yes I would care because I worry how she would be treated by others, but not care about her sexuality in itself.
I worry that the next generation of my family, i.e. Great nieces and nephews might have to come out as gay and how they will be treated in a Scotland of the future.
Having said that – a big salute to the many families who raise their kids up to believe religion, creed, colour and sexuality mean nothing as long as you have respect for each other. My nice Ann Margaret has three kids whom I totally adore, aged 5 8 and 14 and all three are brought up to discuss what ‘gay’ is and explore why some hate black people and basic world politics and religion. It isn’t that hard to make sure when you speak to young kids that they know you don’t hate the world and the other inhabitants who are different from you.
Those kids are even encouraged to touch spiders and not kill anything in nature, we are not religious but we don’t want them growing up haters. It isn’t that hard to do.
So now am feeling better and my skin fits me again, please do check out our podcast on janeygodley.com .
1 comment:
Hey Janey, just thought I'd pop up to say I know how you feel. I've lived in Scotland for almost 20 years now and I love the place, but it confuses me sometimes the two faces of it has. The fun place to be full of smart people doing cool stuff and at the same time the place that you describe.
It's weird. On the bright side, I haven't had the open my mouth and speak and realise everyone is now looking at my funny moment for a while.
Maybe my South East England accent has reduced somewhat?
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