He Was Not Like the Other Boys

I have a ninety minute commute and it gives me time to talk on the phone. Recently, my brother and I had a talk about sexuality and awareness.

He was discussing all of these band posters and albums he had in high school. He also had Madonna pins I wore on my denim jacket.

Finally mid-conversation Carlos wailed, "How did I not know that I was gay?!? All of this is indicative of who I was!"

I asked, "How would you know? There wasn't a deeper meaning in the things you liked. They were just things."

I said, "Well the things you liked weren't different because they were the things that just made you Carlos. It's society that assigns meaning to our possessions, meaning Carlos is just Carlos and while you might not have been like the other boys, you're just another man living in the world around him."