Friday 8 December 2017

'Oh, you are cacky-handed!'

As a child I was often the target of this comment. For those unfamiliar with the term 'cacky-handed' it  meant 'left-handed'. (Indeed Apple spell check is clearly unfamiliar with the term autocorrecting my typing each time to 'cocky-handed' which I have had to manually over-ride.)


Nowadays, even though we 'cacky-handed' ones still represent little more than about 10% of the world's population, it is very rare for anyone to make that observation to me.

Today Australia's Governor General gave Royal Assent to Parliament's legislation allowing Marriage Equality. It is now the law of the land. Australia is the 26th country to legalise Marriage Equality. It has been a long and difficult road to reach this point.

I am aged 68 and life for me as a gay man is very different now from when I was teenager and my orientation was not only shameful but criminal and needed to be kept secret. Indeed as a teenager I was referred by authorities to a Psychiatrist who, I guess, investigated my 'deviance'.

It would be nice if Marriage Equality was the final step to complete equality for gays, lesbians etc. But still we are exhorted or encouraged to 'come out'; and having 'come out' we continue to 'come out' again and again. Yes, life for us is much better today but there is still a way to go.

6 comments:

  1. I am quite tired of coming out and at times now resort to a white lie, just because it is easier.

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    1. I think most of us take that way out at times Andrew.

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  2. Replies
    1. Walt, I've long had the suspicion, from my own set of gay friendships, that there may be a higher proportion of left handers amongst the gay community than amongst the straight community. I wonder if anyone has ever researched this formally?

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  3. I'm agree with Andrew. Marital status comes up as a topic quite a bit when I'm talking with taxi drivers from Africa/sub continent. Easier to just say single and leave it at that.

    I am cacky-handed too. The term, was still used when I was at school in the 80s and early 90s.

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    Replies
    1. AdRad, seems to support my suspicion about the rate of left handedness in the gay community.

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