Why should you love me?

This is a post that celebrates the homosexual man, since we get condemned by society enough, here is the other side to the story. 

On why you should love your gay neighbour. 

If you are a woman: Your gay best friend will tell you off when you're about to commit the biggest mistake of your life. Juliet would have lived on after Romeo, if only she had a gay best friend (see video). 

Your gay best friend will also be the one person from the opposite sex who for once doesn't see you as a piece of meat with no brain. He will probably see beyond those two breasts of yours and appreciate you for who you really are. 

If you are a man: Your gay best friend will guide you through your relationships with girls. Give you good valuable advice on what not to do, and how to be romantic. Probably help with your horrible fashion taste too. 

If you are a mother: A gay son would mean avoiding the whole daughter-in-law issues that you risk with a straight son choosing a girl you don't approve of. No fighting and bickering with a كنة in the case of a gay son. You can rest assured, no woman would steal him away from you. 

If you are a father: You can be sure that long after you die, the woman you love (which was hopefully your wife) would have someone to take care of her 24/7. Because that's what us gay people do. We care too much. 

Hope that's been convincing. There is absolutely no reason why you should be hating on us. In fact, after reading this, you should be going around Amman looking for a gay best friend of your own!

Are they better than us?

Homosexuality is fundamentally against our values, isn't it? It's not what our culture is about, right? Being true to myself is a betrayal to the Arab inside me. Or at least that's what haters tell me ... 

But what makes us Arabs different? What's special about our culture? It definitely isn't the Homo(u)s [no pun intended :-)]. 

During a trip to NYC; I would always tell those who wanted to listen about our family values. I would talk about our great hospitality, the way we cherish our neighbours and how we live in an extended family structure, where a second cousin is as close to the heart as one's brother. 

They smile and wish they had the same. "We lost our family values" they sadly confess. They reminisce about the older generation and how it all used to be. We proudly say how we still cherish those values and we nuzzle that warm feeling of self-righteousness.

However, I pause and silently reflect. I come to the conclusion that it's all bullshit. What use are family values when I fear my parents would reject me because of who I am? How are we more closely knit, when I see mothers over there loving their kids regardless, and my mother worrying more about who and if I'm going to marry? 

Parents in our culture struggle with the concept of "unconditional love". I know it's a tough generalisation, but it's closer to the truth than anything. We only love our kids if they turn out the way we imagined them to, with a perfect family of their own so we can die happily and rest in peace, knowing they're having  expectations of their own to force onto their kids. A non-ending hypocritical cycle of 'pretend love'. Bullshit. 

Gay or straight, an overachiever or mentally handicapped; You love your kids period. And I can't help feel jealous of parents in the west, who seem to be able to do just that.

Oh but wait, our culture has stronger family ties ...