And of course there had to be a post about something gay. I saw this sticker on a lamp post in our neighborhood and it caught my attention. But the sticker is not what this post is about.
I went to the gym today for the first time in well over a month. I haven't decided what gym I will be joining yet (since my class schedule is still TBD), but I managed to get a free pass at Soho Gym, a chain located mainly around central London. I desperately need to start burning all those Krispy Kream donuts I've allowed myself to gobble down.
The clientele, unsurprisingly, was largely gay. After my workout I sat in the sauna for a bit where I overheard a rather ridiculous conversation. Two extremely muscular (in a bad way), old men were chatting about which of the branches of Soho Gym has more of a gay following. This led to one of the men saying how appalled he had been when at another branch he had heard a couple of muscular men use the word 'queer' in a private conversation. The guy seemed to suggest that the term had been used in a derogatory manner, but had not been directed at anyone in particular or used to insult any particular individual.
The second man in the sauna, asked him whether he reported it to the police. The first man shook his head. The second man reminded him that using the word 'queer' is a form of speech that incites hate and thus can be reported to the police as a crime-- which I found surprising and somewhat troubling (but I won't comment further since I haven't read what exactly the law entails). The conversation went back and forth for a bit longer. Before leaving the sauna the first man identified the men who had made the 'queer' comment as Polish, to which he added: "Fucking Polish people. They should go back to their own fucking country."
I had a hard time trying not too chuckle.
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