Jarred's Slice of Heaven

Tina, who has been doing major overtime prompting me to write (thanks!), asked me another new question:

Have you ever been called a faggot or some other derogatory name, and also how did you react and handle that situation? Ohhh...and how old were you?

I've been fortunate when it comes to this sort of thing, actually.  No one has ever called me a faggot in person.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I have friends who call me a faggot on occasion.  However, these are friends, and it's a term of endearment when they use them.  In fact, one of the nicknames I jokingly gave myself (and is occasionally used by friends, though one admits they find it weird to say it) is "fagwitch."

The only time that I had someone throw the word faggot at me was online.  It was about a year after I came out to myself (so it would've been when I was 23 or so) and I was on a Telnet-based BBS.  Someone contacted me privately and was rude and basically asked me if I was a "gay faggot."  I just about fell out of my chair laughing that someone who barely knew me would do that.  I actually told one of my friends who was also online at the time.  She simply responded by saying, "Well, you don't LOOK like a happy bundle of sticks to me!"  Again, I just about fell out of my chair laughing.

Recently, there was an incident where someone used that word around me, but wasn't directing it at me.  His use of the word still is a mystery to me, as this person is not anti-gay, and yet I didn't get the impression it was entirely a term of endearment towards the person he was actually referring to me.  I'll also note that he and the manager (he works at a store I regularly frequent) both apologized profusely that night and on separate occasions later.

Of course, I was mostly confused and tired that night.  I had just returned from the monthly seance at the shop, which meant that I wasn't thinking entirely clearly.  So when this person saw someone else coming and said "faggot," I was totally confused.  At first, I thought he was talking to me.  This confused me because he and I didn't know each well enough to justify him calling me that, even as a term of endearment.  At that point, both he and his manager realized what had just happened.  And as I said, both apologized profusely.  (The offending person also got a serious talking to as well, from what I understand.)

After the fact, I was actually rather amused.