So, it's 2 a.m. Am I writing?

Nope.

Am I editing?

Nope.

So what am I doing? Posting political commentary on YouTube?

Yep.

Brought to you by the Department of Grossly Unrealistic Release Schedule

In case anyone is wondering what exactly I'm writing right now, instead of fiction.

Today is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (http://dayagainsthomophobia.org/). And I'm participating in a blog hop on that topic. When deciding what to write about in regards to homophobia or transphobia, I decided to think back to the last time I experienced/witnessed one or the other and to write about that occasion.

Seven days. I've made it a full week since I last witnessed homophobia. Though, if you factor in the research necessary for this post, my brief reprieve from hate speech  is more like seven minutes.

And for anyone else keeping tally on how many days, minutes, hours, they can go without being disappointed in their fellow man, I'm sorry, but this post is about to reset some counters.

When Michael Sam got drafted into the NFL and kissed his boyfriend on ESPN, my social media networks blew up. And I saw basically three kinds of responses. "Good for him." "How do I explain this to my children?" and "Why is this even news?"

My response was "Good for him". But I want to answer those two questions. Starting with the first one because it's the easiest.

How do I explain this to my children?

He's gay.

So when the hospital told me I had pneumonia, I totally didn't take them seriously. I left the hospital like, "Sure, I can bus home for two hours in the rain. They call it "walking" pneumonia for a reason, right? After all, I'm Kayci Fuckin' Morgan. I leap small buildings and return stolen candy to babies and shit, right?"

And then I threw up...

I immediately morphed from a super hero to a lost and frightened nine year old.

"Nana, come get me."

"Sure. Where are you?"

"I dunno. Come get me, Nana."

"Okay, what's the address."

"I dunno. Why aren't you here yet, Nana?"

"What is wrong with you child?"

"Puked my brains out."

Recently, I was having a discussion on Twilight and Game of Thrones which led me to buying the collective works of William Shakespeare. If you’re wondering how Meyers and Martin had me buying Shakespeare, I don’t blame you. I’m still wondering and I was there.

 I had quoted “To thine own self be true,” which made me think about all the insights on human nature that can be found in Shakespeare’s works.

Centuries have passed and yet his work is still relatable. His characters are familiar. When I read his comedies, I laugh. His tragedies break my heart. I remember sitting in my inner city high school, reading Taming the Shrew. Someone asked what the title meant and I told them. “Keepin yo bitch in check.” After that I’d sit in class every day doing a ghetto-fab retelling of what I’d read the night before. When I say Shakespeare’s work is universal, I mean it.

So as I was reading Romeo and Juliet, I thought to myself how people regard this relationship as an example of pure love. How some even consider it an epic romance. I don’t see it that way at all.

As I’ve stated before, Shakespeare was a man that knew what he was doing. He understood people down to their core. That’s why his stories have thrived for centuries. Notice then how Romeo and Juliet starts with Romeo in love with some other girl. And not just in love, but Bella-staring-out-the-window-for-six-months-because-Edward-left-her in love. He’s establishing the kind of person that Romeo is, even the friar calls him on it when he says:

That last part points out that Rosaline probably knew better than to fall for Romeo. “Sure, I’m your sun and stars this week, but next week you’ll be smothering me with a pillow.”

So instead he falls for Juliet, a girl about to be pushed into an arranged marriage. Oh yeah, can’t see a girl wanting to rebel from that one. “Mom, Dad, sorry, I can’t marry your Top Pick, because I’m madly in-love with the first name on your Hellz No list.”

Perfect love? They have all of what? One conversation before they decide to get married? Two nights together before they decide they can’t live without one another? And why do they die? Because of a slow messenger. Their death wasn’t some beautiful act of love. It was preventable and pointless. That’s what makes it such a tragedy, because it was such a waste. Romeo and Juliet were young, passionate and stupid. But fifteen is the time to be passionate and stupid. That’s why kids have parents, so they can be passionate and stupid and not die from it.

But the parents were too busy growling at each other to wonder what their kids were up to. At the beginning of the play the Montagues see their son in distress and what do they do? They send in their nephew to find out what’s wrong with their son. And the Capulets don’t want to hear anything from their daughter but “I do.” If either of those kids had been able to talk to their parents there would have been no play.

So while some people see Romeo and Juliet as one of the greatest romances ever written, I see it as a cautionary tale on parental responsibility.