I had a really nice evening last night. Really cool. But I don’t want to talk about that. What I want to say is that wandering through Soho last night I experienced my first public piece of badgering because of being gay. First ever. I don’t mean by this that I’ve never had people wander past a bar I’ve been at and shout stuff in – because I have. And I don’t mean by this that I’ve never met people who don’t think that being gay is evil or stupid or disgusting, because I have.
But this was the very first time ever that I’ve actually experienced a group of people outside name-calling and being physically intimidating and aggressive. Except they weren’t really that intimidating at all. The whole event was startlingly stereotypical – but also very brief, and – I think – easy to rise above. You can almost understand it – insecure teenagers trying to assert their heterosexuality to their friends, trying to look hard. It’s a bit sad, but not particularly worrying.