I was definitely scared as a kid. There were two openly gay men in our area (at least loud and social enough to be small town known that is). Their mannerisms seemed so unnatural to me.

As I got older though and spent more time around them it didn’t bother me at all.

The one guy (white guy, tall, very effeminate) was always hanging around partying at my exes house. He and I have been friends for over 20 years now. Legit one of the coolest and strangest people on the planet.

The other dude (black guy, very tall, very effeminate) came in my store all the time and he and I became friends. Around 2015 my car broke down. I borrowed my mom’s car and it broke down the first time I drove it. I was in a total panic because I couldn’t get to work. Dude overheard me dooming and glooming to my mom and freaking out. He walked up and said, “You’ve always been sweet to me so I’m gonna let you borrow my van as long as you need it.”

The van had N64 controller ports built in, so I put an N64 in there with a few of the best games for him. He was always hauling his entire neighborhood around in that thing and they were all stoked as shit when I gave it back.

I drove that van for around 4 months. My kids were devastated when I gave it back. All the rednecks had jokes, “hyuck hyuck, what did you do to get that van?” I came up with a good comeback. I’d look out and see what they were driving. “Let me take that Ford Ranger for a ride and I’ll show you, big boy!” Oh my god haha, they couldn’t handle it.

But yeah, back on topic. It was a fear because it was so unusual. I remember being horrified when the two dudes kissed in Big Daddy. It’s still a fear for a lot of people. They don’t want to see the world change, and it seems like a huge change when folks who barely existed in their reality are suddenly getting all of this representation in mainstream media. Because of the internet, everything is right there in our faces. They’re scared that their kids will be influenced into that lifestyle. I think that’s mostly because sexuality is more of a spectrum, and they’re afraid that it will awaken something in their kids that would have otherwise remained buried.

Then you got religion. That makes it even scarier because the preachers say they’re going to hell.

Have a good one bud.