For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 30, 2022

Homosexuality (and all other non-heterosexualities) sure is a taboo topic for centuries.

We have to accept people as they are. No one gets to choose whom they are attracted to.

And it’s not the end of the world.

I guess that I am just too “out of it” to understand Mike’s problem. That age was over 50 years ago for me, but how does Lawrence’s romantic or non-romantic love interest involve Mike? Or does he somehow think he is the object of that interest? If that is not the case, why is he so upset to the point of violence?

I’ve never understood why guys gotta hit things when they are angry or upset. How does that help?

I wasn’t angry when I found out my best friend wanted a sex change. But everything seemed so ….. surreal. Definitely a sensation of “Is this really happening to me and not in some Hollywood movie?”

At least Mike is not taking this out directly on Lawrence.

BTW, who will pay for the property damage??

Be careful Mike. It’s against the law to deface public property like stop signs and fire hydrants though the latter is more likely to damage your foot if you keep kicking it.

Those are some tough shoes he’s wearing to get a clong from a fireplug.

Real life hurts, doesn’t it Mike?

This might have been the first time I ever really read the word “Gay” being used anywhere. Michael’s plain denial and anger read so clear to me. Like he’s just SO frustrated and worried, and probably has a million thoughts going through his head. Like he was just worried if Lawrence was into him, or that they can’t be friends any more (it’d be pretty out there and unusual to have a “gay friend” back in 1992’s high schools, for sure), and now he’s thinking about every childhood moment they’ve ever had and what they mean NOW if he can’t have Lawrence as a friend.

Stop in the Name of Love! Ow

I remember when I was about 8 or 9 our neighbours son came to visit his mum with his boyfriend, never thought anything of it. My parents taught us well.

Lawrence is your friend, and he really needs a friend right now, Michael… so quit being a homophobic asshat..

Pain is nature’s way of saying (A) “Don’t do that again!”, (B) “You idiot!”, (C ) “You’re still alive!” (D) All of the above.

A tantrum rarely helps and usually hurts. Besides, what’s it to you?

In my teens I had no attraction to girls/women or to boys/men. I had discovered radio electronics when I was 12 and it utterly consumed me. I was never very social, and the fascinating world that was still being invented filled most of my waking thoughts. I had hormones but I already had a true love.

I have written of the horror of my high school experience in late 1968. For those not familiar, trust me: you don’t want to know… I still don’t either. The three month gap in my memory ended when I decided to get an FCC radiotelephone license. It was literally the first thought I can remember. I would not have trusted anybody and I needed something to live for; radio electronics saved my life. So strange the paths we find before us when the world is dark.

Don’t worry about the little faggot. He’ll die of aides pretty soon anyway. All the little bastards need to crawl back into the closet.

I don’t think it’s only prejudice, it’s that he had a certain mental image of his friend that has just been abruptly shattered. In his eyes, someone that he thought he knew well, he really doesn’t know at all. Also can’t help but wonder what other secrets about Lawrence he doesn’t know about and if he can really trust him or anything about him anymore. As far as violence, he’s just venting the shock and betrayal he is feeling in a normal teenage way.

Back in the 90’s Lawrence wouldn’t have had the internet to easily read other peoples coming out stories. I was considering how much rougher that would be.

Before I came out I read several accounts that warned me how to deal with people’s reactions. And told me that some people need time to process the information, even if they ultimately will stay your friends. I had a cousin who didn’t talk to me for about a week, then she came back to me and told me she supported me. I had friends who hugged me immediately. And I had a best friend…I was even in his wedding party. Never speak to me again. Reading what happened to other people was a big help to prepare me for the experiences.

Careful! My nephew once broke his foot kicking the door! Better to hit a punching bag!

Sure! Take it out on the city’s property!

When I was in graduate school in the late 1960s, I had a great male friend, who might have become a boyfriend, but for his “coming out” about a year after we met. We stayed the best of friends and giggled at what the neighbors might be thinking when I occasionally stayed over at his place, sharing his bed. That experience taught me a lot about what it means to be a gay man. Since that time many of my best friends have been gay.

This piece is relevant here: https://www.fborfw.com/news/looking-back-at-lawrences-coming-out/

Michael isn’t very mature. Yet he thinks he should be able to drive…

Hopefully in time Mike will accept Lawrence being gay. I have never had a gay friend but if one of my friend’s told me they were gay it wouldn’t matter to me. Their happiness is what is important to me because of who they are and not what they are.

ELLY:“Mike,why is your foot in a cast?”

MIKE:“I kicked a fire hydrant as hard as I could,for no reason”

ELLY:“Repeat that again.please”.

as a teen his age, a close friend turned gay. i never knew or expected it. but, he made his moves on me and it turned my stomach. he was my friend no more after that, and i quit hanging around with him because i did not want his kind to think that i was gay and free to advance on. queers make me sick as do all their qlt**group. i like them in the sense that they won’t likely reproduce more of their genetics on the world. hope they all die off , like a plague.if people were meant to be gay, population would have died out long ago.

Does he take him to a strip club to “straighten him out” or inject him with some strange chemicals?

We have “Magic Mike”!

Michael is acting like this is the end of the world for his friend. The worst thing that could happen. Not even close.

Haven’t you heard that apparently a GREAT NUMBER of people in this country never got “over the acceptance of people who are different in almost ANY way”??? And they are now demanding we all go back to living like things were in the very backward 50s!!

BearHamiltonon1 is right – BUT – I am amazed at how many people in TODAY’S world want the country to go back to how things were when gay was considered, at best, very weird! I lived through the 50s and 60s – I do NOT want to go back to how things were then. Anyone who was “different” was treated unbelievably bad – I’m a member of the “white privileged” group and I was treated badly because I was poor, wore glasses, and was being raised by my grandparents!

SPOILER ALERT: Your sister’s reaction was the same as Connie’s will be later.

Being gay is sadly still looked on as something bad. A person can’t help their sexual orientation any more than the color of their hair. You are what you are. No one chooses to be gay and has all the problems that sadly go with it even to this day. Lawrence is a good guy that just needs to have his friend since childhood says he is good and worth being, because we all are just being what we are, can’t be anything else.

Now that you got that out of your system Michael now go be his friend

Mike this is a SIGN that you should STOP

30 years ago being gay wasn’t that much of a shock, at least in the NY/Philly area. I went to hairdressing school 57 years ago. We had gay guys and bi-sexuals. Nobody cared. When I was in high school, a couple of gym teachers were gay. I think it was after aids that people felt threatened by them since they were the first to get it.