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 ‘Jane’s not gay? But she looks gay!’ Rachel said, shocked.
‘No, dearest. Jane is writing a novel about her nasty punk boyfriend in the early ’80s and she’s married with two kids,’ I said, with forced patience.
‘Oh but marriage doesn’t mean anything!’ chimed in vapid Belinda, ‘hur hur.’
It had just fallen to me to explain to a bunch of entitled, well-to-do young women, that no, gay is not just one particular look.
‘So how does Jane look gay, Rachel?’
‘Well, it’s the short hair… and she’s just so rough. You know.’ She nods. Surely I understand. Jane still dresses like a 1980s punk kid and her hair is short. This makes her queer – of course.
‘Right, so who else looks gay because of their short hair?’
‘Well … Alicia. But Alicia is gay.’
Alicia – an out, queer, a tall thin woman with a shaved head – she surely proves the rule.
They would never voice these opinions in front of people they knew to be queer, but as a halfie, a bisexual, who, granted, Rachel greeted earlier in the year with, ‘You’re married? But you seem like such a single person. I thought you were gay!’ I am beyond being offended.
In a short story class, an older, female student had referred to Carlotta as ‘it’ and screeched at me, ‘It’s a man! Carlotta’s a man! God! It’s a man!’ and then refused to speak to me. I had tried in a horrified mumble to explain transgender, to ask for respectful behaviour—but this was ridiculous to her, and she told me I was daft.
Another older woman said, ‘Gay fiction? Do they write fiction? The gays, I mean…they write their own stuff?’
And a third, an ex-dancer with poetic aspirations, walked out of class during Angels in America, and the following week complained.
I was the only one who noticed she exited during the scene where Louis solicits some anonymous sex, but she assumed everyone had, and got into a lather trying to defend herself.
‘You think I’m homophobic now … but I just don’t want to watch that sort of crap. It’s unnecessary.’
Gay Male Teacher’s eyes widen. It is practically a declaration of homophobia, launching a defensive attack without a pre-empting offensive. She then announces watching Angels in America was a waste of time—and wouldn’t it be better if we were doing something productive instead?
Productive, indeed.
- Nadine Anderson-Conklin
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