August 06, 2007

Work, Astoria!

Mister Bookworm and I had a brief encounter with an enthusiastic supporter of homosexuals this weekend.

I've mentioned in the past that on three separate occasions I have had people yell rude things at me for being gay.

1998 - I was in college and a frat boy yelled "FAGS!" when he saw me and my boyfriend entering a bar together.

2004 - Frat boys in an SUV in Athens, GA yelled to me and a friend of mine, "YOU MAKE A REALLY CUTE COUPLE TOGETHER!" I'm not sure if that was really intended as an insult or not. I think it was.

2006 - Some kids in Cooper Square here in NYC yelled "FAGGOTS!" at me and a friend as I escorted his drunk ass home one night.

Well, we had the opposite of these things happen to us yesterday.

We were walking down the street to brunch holding hands and chatting when a woman on a cell phone approached us from the opposite direction on a bicycle. She was gabbing away and riding on the sidewalk.

When she got close to us she said, "Oo! WORK, Astoria!" And then she blew right on by.

I didn't even understand what had happened to us, it was so fast.

Mister Bookworm found it particularly amusing that she pronounced "Astoria" like "ASS-toria."

We both took it as a compliment, though.

Posted by Flibbertigibbet at August 6, 2007 03:42 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I don't get it... what does "Astoria" mean?

Posted by: Tiberius at August 6, 2007 08:04 PM

Astoria is the name of the neighborhood in which I live.

Posted by: Flibbert at August 6, 2007 11:54 PM

So is "Astoria" synonymous with "Gay"?

I am assuming that it is a predominantly gay neighborhood.

Is that like saying "Oooo! Work Castro!" while in the Castro District of San Diego?

Posted by: Tiberius at August 7, 2007 10:26 AM

No, it's not. It's a predominantly Greek neighborhood, actually.

There's nothing especially gay about the area.

She just saw us as a gay couple and chose to applaud our openness (holding hands) with that bit of encouragement.

It was unexpected and is something on a non sequitur, that's also why it was notable here.

Posted by: Flibbert at August 7, 2007 10:32 AM
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