Marriage Etc

I have distant friends who nowadays
say of themselves to others 'I was born Gay'.
I understand why they say it, but also I find
that the same birth right is not true for me,
in spite of my sharing in their sexuality. 

In the language that was common
when I was born, couples were meant
to court, engage, then marry for life.
There marriage meant men being
the only breadwinner in the house
they got themselves in debt for,
and slowly paid for with their wages.

There men lived most outside the house,
in the world of money and power, and alcohol.
Women were meant to stay at home and not ask
to see the man's wage packet each Friday.
As housewives and mothers they were meant
to say nothing about what they did without
whilst being grateful for what they were given.

So much for the social divisions of the 1950s.

The reason some men now say they 'were born gay',
is that in some churches and 'tradition based' structures
the view is promoted that inside every gay man and lesbian,
there is a heterosexual who at an early age got diverted,
but who can be brought If the gay man submits with vigour
the diversions that made them gay could brain-washed away
and family values will replace a misbegotten past.

Such beliefs have long been on the dark side
of the health and wealth gospel, where success 
is worshipped, and money always comes first..   

I am gay, but I was not born that way,
I was converted to it by how change,
choice, and money were set against me,
making marriage etc a fantasy
I was never going to complete.