In the last few weeks, the UK Headlines have been rife with appalling murder of the 29 year old Journalist, Lyra McKee. She was standing by a Police Land Rover when a riot broke out, and a lone I.R.A. Gunman started firing indiscriminately into the crowd.
She was shot in the had and although the Police rushed her immediately to the local E.R she was dead on arrival. A needless waste of a life.
The U.K Headlines have been covered the public outcry to the senseless death of this young woman and the effect on her Family, partner and Community. Here I’ll skip over any politics but suffice to say anyone with a drop of common decency has been shocked by the waste of such a rising star within her field.
Her Family and Partner asked that at her funeral bright colours be worn, Marvel t-shirts or anything Harry Potter related as this encompassed some of her passions. 
The sea of brightly coloured scarves, Wizard robes, T-shirts etc was a testament to the outpouring of love felt over this tragic event.
Fast forward a couple weeks and I joined a few friends for lunch. We’ll refer to them as ladies of a certain age (Grins) I believe the youngest is 70 and the oldest is in her 80’s. Today the conversation was the normal, How was your week?, Any News ? , and then a quiet voice piped up….
“Can I ask you a question?”, hush descends and I nod in agreement. Then came a question I never imagined I would ever be asked.
“Is Harry Potter A Gay thing?”
Here I pause to allow you to reread the last few sentences.
I sat for what seemed like an eternity staring at my friend trying to decide if she was being funny or was indeed asking a genuine question. Imagine my surprise when I realised it was a sincere, heartfelt quest for knowledge. Due to so many folks attending her funeral in their various Hogwarts attire, they had mistakenly assumed this must be some kind of underground club or code for the ‘Gays’
I, myself am a Harry Potter Fanatic, who also happens to be Gay. I was unsure if I was pleased she felt comfortable enough to ask me or if I was outraged that she would make such a ridiculous leap to assume it was the new Gay code. I explained as plainly as I could that it happened to be a coincidence that the murdered Journalist happened to love Harry Potter and that she was Gay.
Why did it matter?
Would she have asked me a similar question if the Family had simply asked for bright colours in celebration of Lyras life?
Or if her partner happened to be male and not female?
I started to wonder just what these Ladies of a certain age actually knew or understood about the Gay community in 2019. They were 
raised in a time where it was simply unheard of or unacceptable to be openly Gay. Indeed Women where kept barefoot and pregnant at home to care for their ‘Man’
Thus started a two hour discussion that covered why there was a Rainbow flag, what the colours meant. What an inverted pink triangle was a symbol of and for. What Friends Of Dorothy meant, Oh and my personal Favourite, Which one in a Lesbian relationship was the man? The last question they followed with, ‘How do you know who pays for Dinner?
I initially felt as if I was in the Dock in Court, and my charge was to prove that I was indeed Gay. Truth be told, they finally had someone to ask the questions that they had never dare to think about let alone ask. Most of their preconceived notions and ideas where explained away or quashed in they’re entirety. I answered simple questions from enquiring minds
In the midst of this weekly camaraderie I realised that truly, preconceived ideas and lack of knowledge was the cause of so much confusion, suspicion and mistrust.
Could or can it be this simple?
Rest In Peace Lyra, Gone too soon.
Just A Shy Butch 