A rather unfortunate experience

[i am monster face]

I recently arrived home for the university holiday break. I attend the university of nebraska but hail from Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Tonight, an unusually warm night for the season, a friend of mine and I decided we wanted to take a walk. While on the walk we discussed everything from string theory to dream sequences to their relations to music. We decided to purchase sodas from the local mcdonalds and walked through the drive through. While there, a pair of men came at us and began attempting to initiate a fight. They were roughly our age (19-25) and our size. They began demeaning us, calling us "fags" and "pussies". Neither my friend nor I said a word back. They threw food and a soda at us. We still neglected to fight back. They told us we weren't fighting back because we were "cock suckers". When I told him I did indeed "suck cock", he told me he was going to kill me. I asked him if he ever kissed a man, and he screamed "I will slit your throat if you say another word." My friend and I then stood up, (I am about 6'2" 200lbs and he is roughly the same) and my friend told them to just do it or forget it because we were thirsty and wanted to drink our sodas. The men stormed off, threatening to kill us and hide our bodies.

What does this say about our society? I know this happens all over, but I have never been faced with it. I am not homosexual, but for tonight, I played a role. I have gay friends and friends who could be percieved as such and have always stood up for them. How terrifying it is to have that thrust upon you. I was almost beat up and possibly murdered for no reason tonight.

I believe everything happens for a reason, yet I have made no conclusive analaysis as to why this happened. What drives people to so unknowingly and with no restraint, attempt to demean and hurt others? I have never had this happen before, I wish this upon non of you.

Ian

[Mr PC]

I don't think you should look too far in trying to find a rational explanation. You just ran into some assholes. Some people are ignorant jerks, and they try to overcome their inadequacies by being aggressive and hurting others. They are just assholes.

Kind, confident people don't need to unleash their insecurities on other people. Sorry, I'm just vamping here, I'm sure you understand all of this. I just don't think you should waste your time trying to understand this kind of people.

PC

[Rigsby]

Grim, really grim. A few years ago when i was living in another town i got hassled for being gay a couple of times (i'm not). The most intimidating was when i was on my way home one Sunday afternoon, around 6pm. I was heading back home from a friend's house and had to pick up my guitar and head over to practice. I was crossing the road at the end of my road with these kids behind me, and one of the older ones, maybe seventeen-eighteen starts walking right next to me, calling me a faggot, telling me he's going to kill me, all this stuff. I had my headphones on, but my batteries had run out, so i could hear all of this, but pretended not to. He was about a foot away from me at one point. I was walking a little faster than him so i made it back to mine ahead of them, but by the time i got back, they were all shouting at me, threats and things, the fact that there were about eight to ten of them made me a little nervous. I went in, had a cup of tea, grabbed my guitar and headed out again, i figured they'd passed by now, but they were still there, a few feet from my house, and they saw me just as i popped itno my local shop and started it all over again, heading towards me. I called the other guitarist from the shop and the whole group turned up in the car to come and get me, which was sweet of them, and those guys didn't give us any trouble bar a bit of shouting as they headed off, but i was so riled that this had happened right at the end of my road, i mean, at one point this guys in spitting distance of me, spouting all this venomous stuff in my face. Bastards. What's that mentality all about?

[Isolation]

damn rigs, that brought up memories of walking home from school in Fort Worth when i was in junior high...there was this one kid who scared the hell out of me so bad that i started carrying a knife with me to school (don't do it kiddies!) for which i eventually got into a lot of serious trouble over once when i was searched for something else and out comes the knife instead...

bad times...

[Scodiddly]

My guess is that those thugs didn't care if you were gay or not, they just wanted a fight for some reason.

[bobbydj]

When I told him I did indeed "suck cock", he told me he was going to kill me. I asked him if he ever kissed a man, and he screamed "I will slit your throat if you say another word." My friend and I then stood up, (I am about 6'2" 200lbs and he is roughly the same) and my friend told them to just do it or forget it because we were thirsty and wanted to drink our sodas. The men stormed off, threatening to kill us and hide our bodies...I am not homosexual, but for tonight, I played a role. I have gay friends and friends who could be percieved as such and have always stood up for them. How terrifying it is to have that thrust upon you. I was almost beat up and possibly murdered for no reason tonight.

You fucking rule!! I hope I have the guts to do that when it happens to me.

[Scodiddly]

Yeah, the more I think about, the more sure I am that those guys were hoping to pick a fight. The legal shit falls on whoever throws the first punch... so the worst response would be physical. All this adds up to say that those guys liked to get into fights, and were probably pretty good at fighting.

Somehow I've been blessed with a really good stare... when weird and possibly dangerous confrontations like that come up, I stand there staring at the other guy(s), trying to come up with a snappy comeback, but really it's the dead stare that starts to freak out the guy. After nice long pause they back off, calling it a joke or some other excuse.

[MichaelAlan]

I live in Southern California...not Compton or south-central L.A. but still i have learned: Rednecks, homophobes, and alcoholic mechanics LOVE fighting, are too cowardly to initiate physical contact, are insecure about thier manliness and sexuality, and drive trucks. Stereotypes you say?... Maybe.


Mike

[Mr PC]

Hey, I drive a truck, you stupid faggot!

[bobbydj]

Yah! I've seen you in it. This is yours:

[Mr PC]

LOL

Yeah, but can you guess which one is me???

A few years ago I saw part of the gay pride parade here in Cincinnati, and there were a couple of guys from the "Brown County Gay Alliance", Brown county being very rural, somewhat remote. These guys looked like ZZ Top biker guys with long beards and wore coveralls, sitting in the back of an old pickup. Yet there they are, living out in the sticks. Not the easiest life situation for a gay guy, I'm guessing. I would bet that they felt confident that their neighbors weren't at the parade.

PC

[inverseroom]

Not to get you riled up, PC, with political stuff, but I think a lot of people who, prior to the election, still felt compelled to keep their bigotry to themselves, now feel much freer to let it all hang out, in a way they haven't since before the Clinton years. Members of my own family and their friends, on Thanksgiving this year, made a bunch of jokes and comments about "blacks" and "Mexicans" and at one point my dad told a story about one of my mother's employees, a gay man, that involved mercilessly mocking his very effete way of speaking. I don't think they realize that I'm not merely annoyed by this, but utterly repulsed--they figured it was just a matter of politeness. I've been upset by this ever since.

I suspect that white middle-class Americans like my family are terrified of change, and they feel it coming, and know it's coming soon, and that it will make their lives more difficult. We will all be poorer in the coming years, and the weakest among us will blame gays and dark-skinned people instead of our own complacent fat-assed selves.

Your story is really, really creepy, monster face.

[swingdoc]

Not to get you riled up, PC, with political stuff, but I think a lot of people who, prior to the election, still felt compelled to keep their bigotry to themselves, now feel much freer to let it all hang out, in a way they haven't since before the Clinton years. Members of my own family and their friends, on Thanksgiving this year, made a bunch of jokes and comments about "blacks" and "Mexicans" and at one point my dad told a story about one of my mother's employees, a gay man, that involved mercilessly mocking his very effete way of speaking. I don't think they realize that I'm not merely annoyed by this, but utterly repulsed--they figured it was just a matter of politeness. I've been upset by this ever since.

I suspect that white middle-class Americans like my family are terrified of change, and they feel it coming, and know it's coming soon, and that it will make their lives more difficult. We will all be poorer in the coming years, and the weakest among us will blame gays and dark-skinned people instead of our own complacent fat-assed selves.

I'm curious as to why you think this is? It sounds like you believe there's been some sort of cultural gate that has been opened in some way.
Mark

[inverseroom]

Not to get you riled up, PC, with political stuff, but I think a lot of people who, prior to the election, still felt compelled to keep their bigotry to themselves, now feel much freer to let it all hang out...

I'm curious as to why you think this is? It sounds like you believe there's been some sort of cultural gate that has been opened in some way.
Mark

I suspect a lot of conservatives regard the election as a referendum on "political correctness." Political correctness lost, therefore we don't have to pay it lip service anymore. Take note of this idiotic fake debate about saying "Merry Christmas." A lot of people (me among them) don't really say it much anymore except to family, because I live in a community with lots of non-Christians, so "Happy Holidays" covers not only New Year's and Christmas, but also Hannukah or whatever. It's a sort of polite catchall. But a few columnists (like the syndicated Kathleen Parker, who even Republicans must regard as an idiot) decided that not saying "Merry Christmas" is a liberal plot to destroy Christmas, and Christianity along with it, so they were going to defiantly say "Merry Christmas" to everyone, who cares if they're Christians or not.

Well, fine--but this would not have been an issue if Bush had lost fair and square. It's part of a general mood of we-don't-have-to-take-it-anymore. Like Bush and tsunami relief--man, it would have been SO easy for him to instantly cut short his vacation, return to DC, gotten up in front of the cameras and given away half a billion bucks. Imagine all the international capital he could have recovered by just being decent and compassionate right off the bat. Instead, he stays in Crawford, offers $15 mil, doubles it when everyone complains, makes it $350 when they keep complaining. He didn't even call up the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand to offer them solace. The fact is, he doesn't HAVE to do the right thing, the decent thing, the compassionate thing, because nobody's going to make him. This is the sense that I think is going around the country--fuck political correctness, who's gonna make me do it? Not you liberal pussies.

[cassettefetish]

I would be kind of glad to see political correctness be done with. We have more important things to do than worry about offending people. Fuck everyone.