HOMOPHOBIA: THIS TIME, IT'S NOT AS USUAL

A friend in Houston forwarded me this email last week:

On Saturday evening my boyfriend and I were driving on Kirby. While stopped at the traffic light on Westheimer, we kissed, only to be interrupted by someone honking their horn at us from behind. When we turned around, we saw a guy and his friend yelling at us. They yelled that we were FAGS and that we should die and go to hell. They followed us down the road yelling and harrassing us. They made a right on Shepperd but not before letting us further know their views on homosexuality.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens quite often without us being able to do anything about it. These idiots didn't realize, however, that they were in a bright yellow hummer that had their company phone number, 713 TICKETS, in big font . The first thing we did was call the number to find out who was driving the car. It turns out the owner and one of his assistants were the people shouting at us. The receptionists apologized for his boss' behavior and gave us the boss' name, Kent Maree. His assistant, who was also shouting obscenties at us, is Max Velazquez.

A friend of mine, who is black, called Kent this monring to ask if this is the way he treats all minorities. Kent responded by saying that it is a free country and he can express his views as he wishes. He also let my friend know that Fags choose to be fags and they should burn in hell. Since this is a free country, I urge you all to please give Kent a call and let him know your opinion on the way he expresses his views and his business practices. Pass this on to as many people as you know so that they too can give Kent and Max a piece of their mind. Their number is 713TICKETS.

Thanks for your help.

Of course, real homophobes are, indeed, big idiots, but they're usually not this stupid. Wanting to do my small part, I did a little Googling and found these ticket scalpers' website:

http://www.713-tickets.com/

It turns out that the company is called Front Row Tickets, a fairly high profile outfit in the Bayou City, so it was weird that the owner would be such a moron--I mean, at the very least, it's bad business to alienate a demographic with lots of spending money. But homophobia is irrational, so I guess losing business wasn't on this half-wit's mind at the time. Anway, on their site I found their email address:

frtc@713-Tickets.com

I sent this info back to my friend and suggested that a nice little spam campaign of free speech might be in order--I mean, it is a free country, right? I didn't hear anything back from her about that, but she did let me know that the spat actually raised enough of a ruckus such that it made it into a gossip column for Houston's alternative weekly wanna-be. You've already heard the gay guys' version, so I'll skip that and excerpt the ticket scalper's version:

Rashomon on Westheimer

"When we got here [to the office] one of my employees said, 'Kent, did you shout and scream at some people?' I said, 'We honked at somebody to go at the light, but we didn't roll down our windows and shout obscenities.' 'They called here saying that you screamed "Fag" at them,' which is totally not the truth."

And

Maree has a slightly different version of that conversation, saying he told her, "We're all here. We have to live together. And we have to, you know, live together and get along." He says, "Nobody said anything about fags burning in hell and all that kind of stuff."

Maree told Hair Balls that Caldera would be issuing a retraction under threat of a lawsuit; instead Caldera filed a report with the police.

Click here for the rest (and scroll down to the last gossip item).

Well, I must admit that I find the gay guys' story to be much more detailed and compelling, so maybe I will send off an email of protest. Or not. It seems to be cooling down. Still, it's nice to hear that this all too familiar tale of the street harassment of homosexuals twisted in a more empowering direction. For once, on this front anyway, it sounds like the good guys won.

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