I swear it wasn't a prank.

[spacebug]

"Hello, School of Music, thanks for holding, can I help you?"

(a slow, gruff, older man's voice)

"Yes... my... wife and I recieved this mailing... and it has some events..."

"Uh huh." (preparing to look up times, dates, ticket information...)

"...and... there's this thing... about the Gay Men's Chorus."

"Yes..."

"...Now, what's that all about?"

"...Uhm. Well, it's the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus..."

"So, are the rest of your ensembles het'rosexual, then?"

(a little taken aback)
"Well, not specifically..."

"I mean, I don't care a whip what people do in their spare time, you know, but why d'ya gots to go and advertise, you understand? I don't need to know how people are having sex. That's a... an... affront. That's an affront. Could you pass that along for me, please?"

"*ahem* I'll see what I can do."

"You'll tell someone about that?"

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do. Thanks for calling."


I always wish afterwards that I'm more prepared for this kind of thing. I always come up with better things I could have said a half-second to a few days later. I mean, really, what's the difference between this kind of group designation from, say, a specifically Christian Men's Chorus, or something? Oh well. At least he didn't seem like a horrible bigot, just older and set in his ways.

Comments

The solution...

[happydoc.livejournal.com]

This is a good point. What sort of world do we live in when people can go around calling things whatever they want? It's just not safe for the children. To this end, I propose a program inwhich every person or group must submit all activities and names of activities to a government monitored board that then distributes mandatory surveys to all registered citizens. While this will mean everyone in this country will spend countless hours approving or rejecting the activities of everyone else, as I see it, this is the only way we're going to make sure stupid old fuckers don't get offended.

We must all do our part to save the feelings of stupid old f**kers or as a culture, we will have to live with this unending conflict and stress.