FAG: it is a shitty word

Today I took a break from work to go and get a slurpee. Normally this isn’t an event that requires a blog post. In fact I wouldn’t be writing this post if it weren’t for the hateful people that apparently frequent the same 7-11 that I do.

I was walking across the parking lot after getting my slurpee wearing plaid toms, green sweatpants and a hoody that has rainbows on it. I hear someone behind me say in a contemptuous voice " I like rainbows. " In my mind I thought: oh goodie some cool people. Then I hear the hate word " FAG!!!” It wasn’t mumbled under breath, it was said with force and hate. At that point I turned to see who it was that was full of so much hate. I was not surprised to see that it was the four Greeley West High School students (remember boys and girls when being hateful try not to wear anything that affiliates you with where you go to school) that I had followed out of the 7-11. The windows on the mini-van they were driving were open so I told them that their word cause people pain. I asked them if they like to be singled out and called names. The only response they could muster was to flip me off, call me a fag and drive off. Awesome.

Here is the problem: I am pissed, upset and a little scared. I am not a big dude. All four of these boys were at least 6” taller than me and had probably 50 lbs on me and a lot more of that is muscle. I worry that with the amount of hate that these boys exhibited for a complete stranger who had the audacity to wear rainbows that a fellow student of theirs would be an easy target for bullying and possibly more.

Part of me is sad for these boys. They are obviously so uncomfortable with who they are that they feel the need to lash out at someone. Another part of me wants to lash out. That part of me wants to go to Greeley West Highs School and see if I can figure out who these boys are and contact their parents about their behavior. Of course most of this behavior is learned at home so I am sure that would be awesome. All of me is upset. As I am writing this all of my memories of high school bullies is coming back to me.

I remember my sophmore year I was wearing blue rubber pants and a shiny gold shirt and some members of the football team told me that if I dressed like that again they would kill me. I have been called gay, fag, queer and probably every other horrible name that has been given to gay men. And here is the kicker… I am not gay. I am happily married to a women but that doesn’t matter, no one should be allowed to call another person something that is loaded with that much hate. It needs to stop. I don’t know what will cause this to stop but please if you find yourself thinking hateful things about a person for things you don’t understand take a moment and stop.

I am not sure if this rant did anything other then calm me down and get some things off my chest and frankly if that is all it does that is good. If you feel the need to take action against this sort of thing check out It Gets Better

And, as Pete from The Muppets Take Manhatten says “Peoples is peoples.”