Gay Marriage Reflection Paper

I can remember it like it was just an hour ago, the time the plane landed in New York. It was a late afternoon and it was chilly. I remember immediately falling more in love with my mother because she had insisted vehemently that we wrap ourselves up in layers because she predicted that it would be cold. Even though these memories are so vivid, it feels like it was a thousand years ago. So much had happened since that first day in the United States three years ago. I hit the road running almost immediately, but the end of the following week I was already overwhelmed with class deadlines, scholarship and college applications and house chores but I was happy. This was the first time all my siblings were together under the same roof since 2009. This was also the end …show more content…
I no longer needed to hide myself for fear of being harmed, shunned, put in jail or worse being murdered. I didn’t worry for the safety of my family as much due to me expressing my innate nature because I knew that the law was begin us and no one had the right to harm or hurt us. Then on the 26th of June, 2015 when the supreme court made that historic decision on gay marriage, I decided that I no longer wanted to be African. Being African was backward, it was not progressive, it was homophobic and I did not want to be a part of that. This period of time was difficult because despite being born abroad and having lived abroad for a considerable amount of time, Nigeria and Africa was all I knew. I grew up in Nigerian community and culture and I loved most of it. I did not understand why I had to choose between being gay and being African. I didn’t understand why all I saw about my home was barbarity, pain, and poverty all of which I might have experienced in mild shades but none of which I identified with myself or my