WHAT MAKES ME, ME?

A gay guy’s guide

- Ian Kirke

Lying awake in bed as a kid I often wondered what it felt like to me. This abstract thought process ebbed away as I got older, holding many other beautiful aspects of my childhood imagination to ransom as the drudgery of adulthood eventually took control. As a child, I didn’t know how commonplace this self-reflective behavior was although if the scientific discipline of psychology is anything to go by, others have observed the phenomenon of ‘self ’ in great detail. Indeed, it would appear that a lot of other folks have little hesitancy in declaring their own conclusions on the intimate behaviors and identity of others. And a recent statement, of which I have heard previously, suddenly connected with a forthcoming drinking session with my mates causing me to revisit my childhood quandary again. The trigger announcement, uttered with conviction and apparent authority by a contributor to a television program pronounced, “From a baby, we knew he was gay!” Thinking about my gay mate Scott, who I was looking forward to meeting along with my other buddies for some nosh and copious amounts of beer the electrical connections sparked inside my head – especially since I had never heard anyone state the inverse of this dubious assertion.