A few years ago I told a patient that my partner was excellent at fitting gas permeable lenses. The patient finished his exam with me a proceeded to our optical dispensary to look at glasses. While looking at our frames, he made this comment to my technician, "I did not know Dr. Collins was progressive." My technician asked, "Progressive? He answered, "You know, gay. Dr. Collins said he had a partner and I did not know that he was gay."
Now, I confess that I have been in a committed partnership for over 16 years. A BUSINESS partnership that is. I have been married to my wife for almost 19 years. All this makes me wonder, when did the word "partner" become "gay"?
3 comments:
"Not that there's anything wrong with that..." (remember that Seinfeld episode?) I guess it's just another example of the way words chage with cultural contexts over time. I'm also wondering how the word "progressive" came to be associated with gay people. I've known plenty of gay people who were fairly hard-core conservatives.
Enjoying reading your blog. I'm going to link you to mine, if you don't mind. But beware, some in the church may not know that you're a partnered progressive...
Ya know Garry.....we've been friends since kindergarten.....and I've always wondered about that. Read up on Freud and see what you find out about yourself.
Just kidding man....I enjoy your blog.
Chris, feel free to link it to your blog. You bring up a good question on the progressive front as well. Posted this one on facebook and got some pretty responses.
Mark, I'm afraid to see what Freud might say about guys like me. Thanks for the comments.
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