Grew up in Houston, Texas. I'm straight but was called gay in high school, and endured physical and emotional assault, as well as having our house and cars vandalized. One thing my parents did right was that my sisters' gay men friends were always welcome in our house, so I got to be around them and start understand what was going on in …
Grew up in Houston, Texas. I'm straight but was called gay in high school, and endured physical and emotional assault, as well as having our house and cars vandalized. One thing my parents did right was that my sisters' gay men friends were always welcome in our house, so I got to be around them and start understand what was going on in their world. Two of them stood up to the bullies in the neighborhood one night, to the point where they didn't touch our house or cars again.
It gave me a tremendous hatred for bigotry. Inflexible hatred, as in I've ended friendships over homophobia and/or racism. What's weird (or not) is that the racists/homophobes have felt comfortable revealing themselves to me, and have been angered when I've called them on it. I guess I've always looked like the evil team, without meaning to.
Hunting gays was an unfortunate by-product of growing up in Houston. Rednecks cruised the Montrose area (the primary gay neighborhood) to look for people to beat up. That sounds like your Denver swim teammates.
I just missed the Zumwalt Navy. I had ADM Heyward, who went on a jihad against drug use in the Navy. He ordered random unannounced searches, and random urine tests for all personnel. I've never touched drugs, but in a testament to how the Navy treats sailors that are "different," I somehow made it onto every single "random" drug test list on my ship. It's just one reason why I made a firm decision to get out when my enlistment was up.
My grad school professor lived in the Montrose area. He was a gem and I learned so much, except that he had horrid taste in movies. The gays that I have known were/are a cut above some of the jock types that give men a bad name.
Grew up in Houston, Texas. I'm straight but was called gay in high school, and endured physical and emotional assault, as well as having our house and cars vandalized. One thing my parents did right was that my sisters' gay men friends were always welcome in our house, so I got to be around them and start understand what was going on in their world. Two of them stood up to the bullies in the neighborhood one night, to the point where they didn't touch our house or cars again.
It gave me a tremendous hatred for bigotry. Inflexible hatred, as in I've ended friendships over homophobia and/or racism. What's weird (or not) is that the racists/homophobes have felt comfortable revealing themselves to me, and have been angered when I've called them on it. I guess I've always looked like the evil team, without meaning to.
Hunting gays was an unfortunate by-product of growing up in Houston. Rednecks cruised the Montrose area (the primary gay neighborhood) to look for people to beat up. That sounds like your Denver swim teammates.
I just missed the Zumwalt Navy. I had ADM Heyward, who went on a jihad against drug use in the Navy. He ordered random unannounced searches, and random urine tests for all personnel. I've never touched drugs, but in a testament to how the Navy treats sailors that are "different," I somehow made it onto every single "random" drug test list on my ship. It's just one reason why I made a firm decision to get out when my enlistment was up.
Military intelligence is to actual intelligence as military music is to actual music.
Love your response
My grad school professor lived in the Montrose area. He was a gem and I learned so much, except that he had horrid taste in movies. The gays that I have known were/are a cut above some of the jock types that give men a bad name.
Only "some"? :-)
Sort of a split between clueless and vicious
why not both?
Some indeed are both
nice, Tom.
I grew up in places where this sort of shit didn't happen, and I'm grateful for that. And very sorry for those who had to endure this shit.