I donāt know why Iāve been obsessively thinking about the concept ofĀ āgaydarāĀ
Actually no itās because a straight family member used the term likeĀ
āoh I have really great gaydarāĀ
and it made me feel really grossĀ
and it took me like a full hour to realize why.Ā
When heterosexual people say that,Ā
it feels like theyāre bragging about their ability to clock us, you know?Ā
like a straight person is telling me that they can spot us queers at 50 pacesĀ
and iām immediately going to be uncomfortable with that,Ā
whereas when other queer folks talk about being able to spot each otherĀ
itās a tool for survival.Ā
Like hereās the thing right?Ā
being able to tell is important sometimes.
Ā
A couple summers ago I was in a very very small town in Nova Scotia, CanadaĀ
(like 6 buildings small)Ā
and I met a woman in the library who was probably a little older than my actual mother.Ā
She was there most days using the wifiĀ
because she lived across the street in an apartment without internet.Ā
We sat at the same table a few times and spoke briefly about life in passingĀ
and after a few of these not-talking-about-gay-stuff convos I was pretty sure she was a part of the lgbtq communityĀ
and I slipped in a casual pronoun re: an exĀ
and she just looked at me,Ā
and saidĀ āoh thank fuck, I thought so.āĀ
and instantly started talking about her girlfriend,Ā
it was like this huge wave of relief washed over both of usĀ
because we were in a small rural town and both hovering in this really queer space and unable to talk about it.Ā
Anyway she was really rad and took me to the closest big town to buy me a tim hortons coffeeĀ
because she found it reprehensible that I had been in canada for more than 3 weeks already and hadnāt ever had it.Ā
Almost instantly it was likeĀ
āoh okay we have this thing in common that other people may not be cool withĀ
but we can actually exist and not hide shit without the fear of violence or angerā
but when itās a straight person
theyāre pretty much just letting you know that they can spot the fact that you seem āabnormalā to themĀ
thanks for letting me know.Ā