Gay and Transgender Issues in the Workplace
It Takes One to Know One
By Brian McNaught
In my youth, if someone called you a "homo" or a "moron," the reply was usually, "It takes one to know one," meaning "You'd have to be a homo to recognize another homo." It was an inane comment but it usually shut them up more effectively than "So is your mother."
Today, that same phrase – "It takes one to know one" - has a completely different and much richer meaning for me.
Alan Goldstein was the Jewish boy who lived behind me growing up in Flint, Michigan. He was my best friend for many years. It was through the time I spent with Alan and his family that I initially learned about Jewish celebrations such as Hanukkah, and also about the sting of anti-Semitism which I saw in Alan's face when another Christian eight-year-old in the neighborhood called him a "kike." …
(To finish reading this offering, please go to http://www.glbtatwork.blog.com.)
Nadine Smith
