R.I.P. David Bowie: Starman, Gay Man, Hero, etc…

Oh well, no need to check Facebook today, I guess, just put David Bowie on auto-loop and sit back and enjoy the star-man, waiting in the sky.  In addition to some ground-breaking music, he also helped break down some social roadblocks, too, especially for LGBTQA’s, etc…

First, I guess I should ‘come out’: I’m not gay. I’m philosophical. There, I said it: I’m a straight white male, which, according to one recent Facebook post, makes me (and I quote) a ‘coward and a bully’, sight unseen—ouch. There’s a word for that in my language—prejudice. But I prefer no rush to judgments, as I’d like to think I can do better than that, even in this era of self-styled rank and rancor that passes for social media, hopefully put the ‘A’, if no longer the ‘Q’, back in LGBTQA. Are we good now?

For the record, I’m very sympathetic, maybe even empathetic (question for our era is no longer ‘What’s yo’ sign?’, but ‘Are you an empath’?), to the quest for identity of homosexuals, same-sexers, ‘fluid’ sexers (I’ll take the pun), whatever, if not necessarily every aspect of the subculture, e.g. walking down Broadway in only a jock-strap—naah. I’m particularly affected by the feeling of being ‘trapped inside this body’ that seems to be a common phase and phrase in the process of self-realization, sexually and otherwise, too, which is the point I’d like to make… aren’t we all?

I can’t say that I was Bowie’s biggest fan, to be honest, but then: I’m nobody’s biggest fan, prohibitions on graven images and hero-worship, etc…  I hope Bob Dylan never dies…

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