Happiness is an act of defiance

Posted byjasonh52gmailcomPosted inUncategorized

Happy Summer Solstice!

There’s this duality about Solstice that always gets me. Winter Solstice is the day when the days start getting longer. So while it’s the darkest day in Canadian winter, it offers the most hope. Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, with the most sunlight, but it offers a hint of sadness as the days are getting shorter. 

Yep, “Sunshine boy” is literally moody based on the cycle of the sun. 

As Chester finished “Mass Effect” – the trilogy, I realized what we have missed in part of our childhood. The queer romance of the protagonist and his crewmate. We didn’t know it was even an option. In the second game, if you didn’t play the first game, said crewmate is defaulted to be dead. If at any point in time, you take on the countless advances of members of the opposite sex, this option is closed to you forever. Yes, in 2013, and even in 2021, being queer is an act of rebellion. You can shoot up aliens, save humanity, commit genocide in video games at a press of a button, but having authentic representation and authentic relationships is still an act of defiance.

So yes, my shoelaces are rainbow, and my T-shirt is Calgary pride, and my Fitbit is overtly gay, and there is a Progress Pride flag flying on my deck. My straight coworkers sometimes in passing kinda asked “Why do you have to be so gay?” in a genuine concern that I might be harassed. Countless straight boyfriends from my good gal friends ask why do I tell so many gay jokes. Here is why, because it is important for people, youth at work, random people in the street, people who live in the closet due to circumstances, to see a queer brown immigrant who can be successful, adjusted, and, most important of all, happy. It’s not pronounced or courageous by any means. I wish I had the courage and the time investment to be out on the street protesting for our rights, to keep the fight and be the voice and help the cause. But I haven’t done so.
In my very quiet Buddhist way, I am doing my best to live in happiness, in a world that has been set on the erasure of people like us, with the vibrancy of our authenticity and complexity.
Consider that my humble act of defiance.
Happy Pride month!

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