It seems that lately there is a lot of preoccupation with the question of men’s sexual nature. I have seen first hand, the change in a lot of men’s attitudes, on the question of whether or not another individual is, or is not, gay.

In other words; when I was young, if you asked whether or not a person was gay and that person stated that they were not, that would be the end of the story. You would usually presume that person was telling the truth. In fact; back when I was young, you usually didn’t question someone’s sexual preference unless there is strong evidence to show that his sexual habits were contrary to the norm. In fact it usually took some guy, either acting very stereotypically homosexual or that person actually propositioning you or another party, for the person’s sexual preferences to be even considered coming into question. These days it seems like everyone and everything is coming into question. It seems as though every time I turn around, someone else’s sexual orientation comes into question.

I really don’t know why this is happening, but I do have a theory. I don’t usually subscribe to the notion that: if an outwardly heterosexual man is preoccupied with hatred for homosexuals, it is usually because he himself inside has deeply repressed homosexual feelings but this is, more and more in my mind, becoming a serious possibility and even a likelihood. I don’t make this statement lightly but, it seems as though these people that are preoccupied with figuring out whether or not a certain individual is or is not a homosexual are of a certain type of male. They seem to be that kind of guy who is always trying to prove their masculinity. There vocations are usually in the area of some kind of very physical labor related work where they are constantly around other men doing the same physically stressful job themselves. I am not saying that every guy who works in a physically intensive job has repressed homosexual feelings and it is not my intention to even hint at this, but it just seems as though the more physical ones job is, the more the propensity that individual has to becoming preoccupied with another’s sexual orientation.

Another disturbing development is that this phenomenon is not only limited to putting a fellow human’s sexual orientation into question, but also fictitious and animated characters. Within the past five to ten years, I have heard such absurd discussions on whether or not a Teletubby or Sponge Bob is gay. How ludicrous is that? How can a cartoon character be gay, especially "my main man", Sponge Bob? If the creator or animator of Sponge Bob were to develop an episode of Sponge Bob having a love interest with a man, then I could see people questioning the author‘s intentions, but other than that, I don't see what all the furor is all about. I mean, what is Sponge Bob’s sex anyway? I don't even know if Sponge’s have different sexes. Sponge Bob always seemed to have a love interest with Sandy anyway; so does that mean that if Sponge Bob is a female, it makes him a lesbian?

Go back and read this last paragraph again and you can see just how ridiculous the whole discussion really is. So if you were to break it down in terms of importance, I give someone’s sexual orientation as much thought as I would to whether or not they add fabric softener in the rinse cycle and even less concern when it comes to a cartoon character‘s choice on relationships.

Dante Persechino is an accomplished artist and stay at home dad, the opinions reflected in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of findRI.com, Inc, its employees or its sponsor. To send a comment on this article click on the link below.