Reply #125: K&R Well done. [View All]

[Indi Guy]

I worked on a cruise line in the Caribbean. At the crew bar, I heard an acquaintance of mine (from the island of St. Vincent) say, "All gays should be killed." So I asked him, "Would you be willing to kill a gay man?" He said that he would.

I asked him, "What if you had a gay brother, would you kill him?" He paused & thought, and again he said he would. So I said, "You know that there are places in the world where you could be killed for being "different;" Being a Black man, he understood perfectly what I meant. He said, "Yes, I know."

I left him with, "I'm not going to ask you the question again right now. Just think it over & tell me your answer another time.

(The only reason I'm mentioning that I'm straight is to put what happened next into context). What I didn't know was that a gay friend of mine overheard the conversation. He walked up to me with tears in his eyes, & told me that he couldn't describe the feeling in his heart at having been defended in that way. I gave him a big old hug; now I was speechless (a rare event).

Well, a few days later my friend from St. Vincent came up to me at the bar & said. "No, I wouldn't kill my brother if he were gay." I smiled at him, and shook his hand with both of mine. We were good friends afterward.