![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I was crossing the street in a six-way intersection and I had the pedestrian walk signal in my favor. I'm walking at a medium pace and in my peripheral vision, I see a large tan shiny SUV accelerating through the intersection towards me. I started to clinch and panic, but it quickly applied the brakes, thereby not killing me. But I was a little peeved at how close it was, so I slowed my walking pace down. Annoying, I know. That was the point, I fully admit -- to be annoying. They were in such a rush to clear the intersection, I felt compelled to play God of Time and balance the scales.
It took maybe an extra 1.5 seconds to reach the sidewalk, and I expected the car to punch it and zoom past, possibly clipping my bag. Instead, they remained at a near standstill. Then I heard very clearly and angrily, "FUCKING FAGGOT!" through the rolled down car window. I had my headphones on and kept my gaze forward the whole time, pretending I couldn't hear. I got a little worried that the situation could escalate, that the car might pull over, but I figured it was just angry talk and brushed it off fairly quickly. I kept walking, nothing happened, I arrived at the Currency Exchange no worse for the wear.
Let me stop and say I don't think I was gay-bashed. I think obviously the person doesn't think too highly of fags since that was the fiercest insult he could yell in the moment, but I don't really think he perceived me as gay and therefore decided to yell at me. I think he perceived me as an asshole for making him slow down and he wanted to retaliate. I honestly did almost turn around and say "I know", but I just didn't want to go there, to risk possible injury or but also for myself, I didn't want to call up even more anger and frustration today because I'm already feeling a good bit.
While waiting for my fax, some other customer was yelling at another employee about a mistake that he insisted they were required to fix or else face his lawsuit. He was so angry that it was practically comical, I was expecting little clouds of smoke to come out of his ears. I was glad to leave and wondered if this is just a cosmically angry day.
Thinking about it on the rest of my walk home reminded me of a help desk call I took years ago at my old job about a guy dealing with being harassed, and he wasn't gay, but he's okay with gay people, and sometimes people perceive him as gay, and his best friend is a lesbian and he doesn't think homophobia is right, so he wants someone to do something about these harasser who are coming after him and verbally assaulting him as if he's gay. So he's telling this long story about some other drama, I think the story was that it was a conflict between neighbors and property issues, and after awhile, I stop him and say, "sir, what makes you think their harassment has to do with your perceived sexual orientation?" And he said, "well, one time when they were yelling at me, they called me a cocksucker."
Needless to say, we didn't take the case.
It took maybe an extra 1.5 seconds to reach the sidewalk, and I expected the car to punch it and zoom past, possibly clipping my bag. Instead, they remained at a near standstill. Then I heard very clearly and angrily, "FUCKING FAGGOT!" through the rolled down car window. I had my headphones on and kept my gaze forward the whole time, pretending I couldn't hear. I got a little worried that the situation could escalate, that the car might pull over, but I figured it was just angry talk and brushed it off fairly quickly. I kept walking, nothing happened, I arrived at the Currency Exchange no worse for the wear.
Let me stop and say I don't think I was gay-bashed. I think obviously the person doesn't think too highly of fags since that was the fiercest insult he could yell in the moment, but I don't really think he perceived me as gay and therefore decided to yell at me. I think he perceived me as an asshole for making him slow down and he wanted to retaliate. I honestly did almost turn around and say "I know", but I just didn't want to go there, to risk possible injury or but also for myself, I didn't want to call up even more anger and frustration today because I'm already feeling a good bit.
While waiting for my fax, some other customer was yelling at another employee about a mistake that he insisted they were required to fix or else face his lawsuit. He was so angry that it was practically comical, I was expecting little clouds of smoke to come out of his ears. I was glad to leave and wondered if this is just a cosmically angry day.
Thinking about it on the rest of my walk home reminded me of a help desk call I took years ago at my old job about a guy dealing with being harassed, and he wasn't gay, but he's okay with gay people, and sometimes people perceive him as gay, and his best friend is a lesbian and he doesn't think homophobia is right, so he wants someone to do something about these harasser who are coming after him and verbally assaulting him as if he's gay. So he's telling this long story about some other drama, I think the story was that it was a conflict between neighbors and property issues, and after awhile, I stop him and say, "sir, what makes you think their harassment has to do with your perceived sexual orientation?" And he said, "well, one time when they were yelling at me, they called me a cocksucker."
Needless to say, we didn't take the case.
