what being gay looks like

[rm]

via reannon:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12811907
A gay couple faces police action for kissing in public in Salt Lake City.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12790543
A gay couple is kicked out of a restaurant in El Paso, also for kissing.


I keep trying to formulate a sentence to go here, but I don't really have the time. But this is what being gay looks like when it's not on your television, when it's not in New York City or San Francisco or what is truly not that much more than a handful of cities, when you're not in a neighborhood where it's safe to be queer, when you're totally average and when you're living in America.

Comments

[contrarywise]

Yep. Sad but true. City prosecutors dropped the Salt Lake City case after kiss-ins and other protests, but your point still stands. Also, there's the Fort Worth gay bar raid that happened on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

While I live in a suburb of a relatively queer-friendly major city now and don't usually feel that I'm risking my health and well-being if I kiss or touch a partner of any gender, I've been physically threatened, had garbage thrown at me, and been verbally harassed any number of times for being perceived as queer and when hanging out with queer friends (no kissing involved) when I lived in a major metropolitan city in the southern U.S. that has a huge queer population. The existence and visibility of queer communities in a city are no guarantee that anti-queer violence can't and won't happen, even in otherwise queer-friendly neighborhoods.