Yes. That would be when I lived in Roanoke, VA. Horrid. I’m sure it’s a lovely place if you’re straight, white, racist, homophobic, and Christian. And old, too, seeing how the population is like 60% geriatric. My friend, Al, is black and he refused to drive or go to certain parts on the outskirts of town because there was serious Klan (or whatever) activity. Apparently, black people got into heaps of trouble with the country rednecks, like dangerous, violent, killin’ kind of trouble. That blows and frankly, should not be happening in this day and age.
I felt like such a freak there. I would dumb down my vocabulary to fly under the radar and they would STILL stare at me like I had three heads. The people at work were fairly nice to my face, but apparently gay slurs were said about me (and other insulting things) behind my back. It felt like a really, really bad version of high school. (My real high school was a million times more awesome)
What a hell-hole and a total pit of despair for me. So glad I no longer live there and I never, ever, EVER plan to go back. Well, maybe I’d go back to visit my buddy, Jon, but I’d be all ‘God, I f*cking hate this place’ the whole time.