K-I-S-S-I-N-G

[judecorp]

Okay, so I was on my way home today on the red line T, and the high school kids started pouring in. Since I ride the Ashmont line, lots of African-American teenagers filled my train car - many with iPods and Walkmans and similar (and overly-loud and bassy) products. In front of me, two young women were standing between rows of seats, leaning against the poles.

They had a really amusing and flirtatious banter going on between them, and I had a bit of inner dialogue about whether they were friends or 'friends,' if you know what I mean. Part of me berated myself for assuming they were flirting solely on the fact that one girl (they looked somewhere between 14 and 16) was quite (handsomely) butch gangsta and the other was much more traditional Baby Phat girl. But they were so cute to watch, so I kept my eyes on them on the sly as the girlier girl continued to throw playful punches and slaps at the butch girl. When we got to Andrew, the butch girl shrugged her coat up onto her shoulders to get ready to leave, pressed a quick kiss on the girlier girl's lips, and exited the train. The girlier girl sat on the bench across from me at that point.

My grin met her blush in the center of the train car.

Comments

[jennbits.livejournal.com]

cutest. anecdote. ever.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

It was so adorable!

[siercia]

That is awesomely cute. It must be amazing for you to see young people feel so safe and free to be able to act like normal teenagers instead of hiding. Now if only that could be true everywhere, right?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

It's so thrilling to me, especially because they were teens of color. The African-American community is pretty expressive about its outward cultural feelings about homosexuality (though arguably more critical of gay men) and it's also much easier for teens with White privilege to engage in more risky PDAs.

I love that out queers keep getting younger and younger. I went to a Big Gay Conference once for queer young people, and one of the people in my writing seminar was 13 years old. I was floored. I know that I had a skewed adolescence since I went to Catholic school, but even know when I check my high school's LJ community (I know, I know) I see kids writing about trying to start a GSA even though the administration won't let them. Awesome.

I've learned so much through the years by working with queer youth, and in some ways, they've encouraged me to be /more/ outspoken and /more/ determined. And MUCH more thankful of the generations before me, the ones who had so much to lose and risked it all so that Jen and I can talk about our love openly.

[anitsirk.livejournal.com]

you know what's so weird?
there's no GSA at Mount & 30% of the teachers are gay.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Only 30%? Heck, everything I know about being queer I learned at Mount. (Well, maybe not /everything/...)

The Catholic Church is so chock full of guilty queers. Especially the older generations, I think, who flocked into church-related vocations to sublimate their sexual desires.

And Mount is such a queer-friendly place, too! I guess the administration just can't, you know, support it openly.

[siercia]

I love that out queers keep getting younger and younger.

That is awesome. Imagine a day when queer kids won't even really question who or "what" they are, and instead are just comfortable in their skins (or as comfortable as any adolescent can be).

I can totally see how working with the kids would make you all the more committed, since you went through this all, and you can see all the ways you can make their lives easier.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was more like I felt like parts of my life were more "do as I say and not as I do" than I would like. After all, I was facilitating a coming out support group when I was married to A., and had never told my mother (arguably someone I don't have a close relationship with) that I also liked girls. I felt so hypocritical, so inappropriately leading the group, that I had to go home and sit her down the very next time I was in town visiting.

Young people continue to make me a more real, more honest, more accountable person. In the same way that I feel accountable to those that came before me and did the /really/ hard work, so too I feel accountable to those that come after me and will keep pushing the envelope and crossing that line.

Someday maybe there will be a day when there won't be anything "different" about same-sex relationships, but I honestly don't think I will ever see that day. Heck, we (as a society) still have our panties pretty firmly in a bunch about interracial straight couples these days!

[siercia]

Oh, I get you now. And that totally makes sense... can't be telling the kids to do stuff you don't have the courage to do yourself.

And it's only been about 45-50 years that interracial couples were even legal, forget accepted, and at least in SOME places we've come pretty damn far to it being entirely normal. Not, of course, that I'd want to pack my family up and move somewhere that we'd get weird looks or worse, mind you. It just takes time. Hell, it really just takes the time of generational change - waiting for all those old bigots to die off takes a long time.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I agree that a lot of times you just have to wait it out for the bigots to die, as terrible as it sounds that's totally true. However, it's also true that people tend to become more conservative as they age, and that conservatism in youth is pretty trendy in the parts of the world where conservativism is king. Fie!

I know that change happens, and that it happens slowly. I also know that I am ridiculously impatient. :)

[darksulia.livejournal.com]

Awww! That could be the beginning of a book. Write it, write it!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so not a book-writer. Maybe a quick anecdote-writer, but nothing more lengthy. It's just not in me.

Besides, it's their story to write, not mine. I'll just enjoy reading it. My love story is being written too, one day at a time. Maybe I should write about that some more.

[darksulia.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, will there be naughty bits in your story? I'll read it even if not. :-)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Naughty? What's naughty about love? ;)

(Seriously though, I was talking about "writing my love story" more in the mental sense rather than literally.)

[ktmcda.livejournal.com]

heee heee heee heee!!!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

They were SMOOCHIE SMOOCHIE.

(You should be smoochie smoochie, too!)

[calledmara.livejournal.com]

ew. kissing is yucky.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

You weren't saying that LAST night. Or was that your mom? I forget.

[oddharmonic.livejournal.com]

That was totally my mom! 12-year-olds are all about kissing.

(Seriously, my mom tells anyone that asks her age that she's twelve and a half. I find it amusing and baffling in turn.)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

That is quite bizarre.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_epiphany_girl_/]

Yay! That is so adorable. :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Just like YOU!

[mooglegrl.livejournal.com]

Witnessing little things like that every other day make public transportation totally worth it sometimes.

At least for voyeurs like me. :p

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I wish I was able to spend more time on public transportation. Also I wish I was able to spend more time in the actual fun parts of the city I live in. I spend so much time driving around south of Boston proper that I usually forget I live anywhere near Boston.

[shadist.livejournal.com]

That makes me all sorts of happy.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Because teenagers were kissing? Heck, go kiss your girl and THEN be happy! :)

[shadist.livejournal.com]

any free and open expression of love makes me happy.

Doubly so when its something which, as you said, is looked down apon no matter how right or natural it is.



And I have every intention of doing what you said once I get home!