Think Before You Add Your Two Cents

Today, a kind of strange thing happened to me.

I was sitting outside at a cafe with my cousin getting breakfast this morning, which was fun and normal. My cousin, a 25-year old female, went inside to the cafe (the reason for which, I don't remember, nor is relevant). While she was inside, a man across the street hollered at me and asked, "Hey man, is that you?!" I thought he was talking about the car parked near our table, but he said he meant the girl. I responded by saying yeah, but she's just my cousin. I don't think he heard the second part, because he nodded, laughed and congratulated me. "Nice job, man!"

My cousin re-joined me seconds later and I explained what happened. She laughed along with me. Literally, as soon as this happened, a guy drove past in his truck and screamed out of his window at me "You fucking faggot!" and sped off. I was caught a little off guard until I remembered I was wearing a pair of pink summer shorts, which I suppose might be showy enough to swing one man's opinion of my sexual orientation, which in turn apparently infuriated him to the point where he had to curse at me. Whatever. That's not my point.

Aside from the stark contrast in the two comments that were made to me from two totally different people in a two minute time span, I am a little baffled that these people felt compelled to not only make their own judgments about me, but to confront me with them. Anyone who knows me also knows that I am not dating my cousin and I am not gay; I could care less that people assumed these things about me, I just find it funny that these people thought they had to say something about it.

At the risk of devolving into some snowballing assumption, I wonder if there would be fewer conflicts in the world if people left their assumptions and comments to themselves. I did not feel personally attacked, but others might. I'm pretty comfortable with the person that I am, but some people aren't, and comments like the ones I heard today could be damaging, or at the very least bothersome.

I laugh when I think that just from my sitting outside at breakfast this morning, one person accused me of being straight and another accused me of being gay, just by merely looking at me in passing. I shrug it off and move on with my day, my life, etc. but I have to wonder what provoked these people into saying anything at all, much less making a judgment on me. It was a quick stream of events in my day, but it will be something that sticks with me for a while...