I know this from strangers who find gay people offensive enough to elicit a remark-catcalls from cab windows, to use a recent example-as well as from countless casual social engagements in which people easily assume my orientation, no sensitive gaydar necessary. It takes only a glance to make my truth obvious.
But most people immediately read me (correctly) as gay. Nor am I typically perceived as androgynous, not in my uniform of Diesels and boots, not even when I was younger and favored dangling earrings and bright Jack Purcells. Gay men are more likely than straight men to have a counterclockwise whorl.Īs a presence in the world-a body hanging from a subway strap or pressed into an elevator, a figure crossing the street-I am neither markedly masculine nor notably effeminate.
