As my friend puts it: she fell in love and she’s going to Europe.
Tonight I went to her farewell soiree on the Lower East Side for about an hour or so to drink wine and share laughs. On the way back, I was crossing the street on Delancey alongside some blond-haired man on a bike. A white car decided to ignore the traffic light and cut in front of us.
“Faggot,” said a 30-something Indian man from the backseat.
He shouted another stream of hateful words as the car drove off.
Especially in lieu of the recent suicides of young men after homophobic harassment, I felt a little sick. I thought about turning to the stranger next to me. But before I could formulate any words, to my surprise, the man on the bike went after the beat-up white car. He pulled up next to it.
I paused to watch them exchange a brief conversation. I heard the biker say something along the lines of “What, do you seriously want to fight about this?”
But he seemed to be the bigger person. He biked away.
“Faggot,” the man in the car shouted again.
Sometimes the world is such an ugly place.
