Heterophobia
Last night talking with my housemate on the subject of Everyone Thinks I’m Gay, it was suggested to me that maybe I shouldn’t wear my earrings. I have two piercings in my left earlobe. For the last few years I’ve worn one small stud and a small ring.
So I took my earrings out, didn’t think much of it until this morning. I was getting ready to go out to the store, and I put my sunglasses on and checked myself in the mirror.
I look like someone who beat up nerds in high school.
OK, maybe it’s a stretch to say that what someone else thinks looks hetero equals what I think obnoxious fratboy looks like, but um…. still kinda uncomfortable.
“Don’t look hetero, because heteros are all bullying shitheads.” Yeah, maybe I’ve been living in San Francisco too long.
I was nineteen when one of the administrators at my college told me I was “too sensitive and intelligent to be straight.” It took me almost a decade to realize that that uncomfortable feeling I felt was offense, and that maybe I should have punched him in the nose.
Anyway, off to the grocery store.