I try not to bang on about my own life. But sometimes enough is enough. Yes, I’m going public.
I’ve always been considered a good tenant. Rent and bills are always paid on time, I keep the place clean, don’t hold wild parties or play loud music, and can usually be found under my doona well before midnight most nights of the week.
So why do I keep finding myself trapped in some bizarre house of horrors?
Home is supposed to be where the heart is. Not somewhere you dread. I started to wonder what I may be doing wrong; and why I keep enduring the emotional abuse and harassment.
I’m the last to go looking for bigotry. I try to be objective. But after my landlady recently learnt of the demographic of this very publication, and promptly asked me to leave, the elephant in the room could no longer be ignored.
It’s homophobia. Unadulterated, narrow-minded, thigh-slappin’, tobacco-spittin’ homophobia.
I was trapped with a fundamentalist born-again leading a double life in my last place. I couldn’t have cared less, as long as he kept his dirty paws to himself. But he was terrified the Pentecostal family would find out. Heaven forbid the church should discover that instead of falling to his knees for the Lord, he was falling to his knees for a trannie hooker named Roberta.
And now I find myself cooped up with a sweet old lady who answered my ad in the local paper. An old dear eager to keep up appearances, regularly hosting charity functions — the benevolent pillar of local community.
But ever since she learnt her tenant is a flaming homo, she can’t bring herself to look at me — except to pocket my rent. Yes, lack of immediate alternatives has me trapped in yet another prejudice based mêlée.
Little old granny has also taken a shine to harassment, divisive measures that aren’t a ‘breach of law’ — and as such, I must endure. The police can’t really do much. But I don’t want to end up a statistic either.
I think she’s worried she might catch gay, which probably explains why she’s always drowning the place in Glen20 and metho.
Don’t put up with homophobia at home. Organisations like Twenty10 and the AVP are great resources for advice. In the meantime, it’s cool. I’ll cope.
It’s what we do — right?
info: Twenty10 Can be reached on 02 8594 9555 and the AVP on: 1800 063 060. Visit http://www.acon.org.au/anti-violence and http://www.twenty10.org.au/ for more details.
Thanks guys … yep, I’ve used Sharespace before, usually with pretty good results … I think I definitely need to go back to sharing with a gay-friendly household, at the very least.
Meanwhile, I guess we’ll see if I’m able to hang onto my sanity between now and getting out of here!
Cheers for the support & for the comments.
I dont mind when you go on about ur on life as its so strangely interesting or it could be that the things u write are easy to relate to and usually i find motivation from…….. i hope u find a much nicer gay friendly new home xoxo Lee
We are survivers and we do “cope” However I hope we will see a day where we do not have to put up with this sort of thing. I am sick of having to “cope” with the prejudices of others. I wish you well Damien and hope you get out ok and find somewhere you are proud to call home. Have you tried Gay Space ? There are a few compatibilty websites like this for gay housemates. I have used them with various results but at have never ended up sharing with psychos. Perhaps you could give them a try, as you say nobody should have to put up with it