Awhile ago I wanted to volunteer to work at an AIDS fundraising event because a very dear friend had died of AIDS. I'm a straight woman, which I didn't think would be any sort of a liability towards volunteering for an AIDS charity. Fundraising organizations can always use another volunteer, I thought.
I went over to the fundraising meeting which was supposed to be held at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Manhattan, New York. When I got to the room where the meeting was supposed to be held, it clearly wasn't happening: a drama group was practicing in there. Still, to be sure, I knocked, stuck my head in the door, and politely asked if this was the meeting place of the AIDS organization in question.
I was wearing a little pink dress with a white lace collar - another thing I didn't think would be any sort of liability - but the thirty-something woman who answered my question about about the location of the fundraising meeting seemed to think it was a reason to want to PUNCH me. She was looking me up and down, shaking her head, looking daggers at me and balling her hands up into fists. I never saw anybody look at me with so much pure hate.
Apparently if you are a straight woman and wear a pretty dress over at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, even if you are there to raise money for AIDS, you are ALLOWED to be a target of harrassment and even bullying. The lady looked like she wanted to haul off and beat me up and it was clearly my dress that was bothering her. She herself was dressed like she was trying to be Ragtime Cowboy Joe, with men's boots and all.
So all I wanted to say on here was this. I know quite a few gay and lesbian people who complain that they are not treated as equals in this society... But after this bizarre experience, I have to say that if you want to be treated as an equal, the first step is to start BEHAVING like an equal. Most women in their 30's - whether they are straight, gay, or any other classification - do not look other adults up and down, shake their heads at our clothing, ball their hands up into fists over it and look like they're about to go postal. I do not know the woman in question. I never saw her before in my life and hope I never see her again. I do not care what her sexuality is; it's none of my business. But what kind of a lunatic in her 30's needs to behave like a schoolyard bully over another woman's outfit?
And what, exactly, goes on at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center that that woman's brand of crazy behavior is, apparently, allowed over there?
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