Had a bit of a weird experience in my HOMETOWN WETHERSPOONS this evening.
I was sitting having a meal with my parents. There were two tables further into the pub that were next to each other - one has a group of women and the other a mix of men and women. Both groups were quite drunk, although i’d say the mixed group were worse given that one guy fell off his chair despite it being 6pm. At some point, another man on said mixed table made a paper plane and threw it at my table - I hadn’t noticed but according to my mum he had been staring at us and when he threw the paper plane had said there there was a message in it. I ignored it and didn’t bother picking it up.
Shortly afterwards, the woman from the other table came over and asked if she could have the paper plane and tried to throw it at this bloke and his table. A little while later, I heard the bloke saying something about ‘lesbians.” As the female table left, they made a point of saying they hoped me and my parents had a nice evening and left. We left shortly after where they were in the doorway, sounding angry about the fact that the guy had called their table “lesbians.”
I was quite oblivious while it was all going on but feel quite uncomfortable in the aftermath of it all. It honestly may have been a coincidence but piecing it together makes me feel like it is quite likely I was being targeted for how I look and the women were trying to defend me (without me realising anything was going on, of course!
) My parents were also quite dismissive of my feelings about it, saying that the guy was shitfaced and that people in the town aren’t “used to seeing people that look like me.” I’m lucky that I haven’t dealt with a lot of open homophobia or transphobia in my life but it remains shit being made to feel unwelcome where I grew up - I was called a tr*nny by a couple of lads when I was here for a period in 2020 as well.
I would say try not to let it upset you, but I know it's not that easy. Hope you're ok.
