Ever wondered why we call heterosexual people “straight”?
Because homosexuality was a crime and “straight people” were those who did not commit that crime.
Saint Matthew started it all Matthew 7:14, which King James’s translators rendered as: “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
English speakers have said rule abiders follow the “straight and narrow” ever since. Dude gets out of prison and we tell him he should “go straight” and people who don’t do drugs are “straight.” Someone who is not straight is bent, a word we used for criminals, as well as homosexuals and any sexuality that did not have mainstream approval, back when those where overlapping categories. Straight people are those who follow the rules, and are therefore not homosexual.
…and this all reminds me of a joke. When gay guys in a car come to an intersection we can’t really instruct the driver to “go straight,” so we have a substitute of our own – instructing the driver he should proceed “gaily forward.” Every little sub-culture has its own awkward humor. ;-)
Preston, the young people who I worked with have, after my acknowledging my sexual orientation, almost all taken to saying “forward” when giving me directions it’s perhaps a small thing to lighten the day with a bit of a joke; but I believe it has a greater impact on expanding their awareness than any lecture. Usually we both laugh when I say “ok thats good cause you know I can’t go straight”
Brilliant! How funny that mainstream kids are incorporating our way-too-old joke. I love that something as simple as auto directions can generate a moment of funny camaraderie.