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Lead Story What it's like to be straight in Hillcrest (Continued) -----♀♂----- The next day, I set aside a couple of hours to do a little more research. After the candor with which the women at the Corvette talked about loving men, I thought I was on a roll. But, I got cold feet. I was hetero-curious and felt guilty about it. I passed by dozens of couples walking up and down University holding hands. I couldn’t approach any of them. I was in and ashamed. So, I enlisted the help of Vyuz contributing writer Romina Cleary, who had lived in Hillcrest a few years back. I asked her to come along and do what I couldn’t: Ask straight-looking people whether they were straight. People reacted to her differently. Whereas Hillcrestians viewed me as some sort of media incubus trying to wrench sexual energy from the neighborhood, they viewed Romina as as a straight-friendly ingénue. With large round eyes and an unpretentious manner, she went to work,…and was perfect for the task. At Max’s 99 Cent Store, she spoke to Danny. “What’s it like being straight in Hillcrest?” she asked. “In the beginning, I had a phobia,” he said, “being surrounded by a bunch of gay guys. But they’re people, too. The way I see it, this guy might not like hotrods, but I like hotrods,…because I’m a hotrod guy.” “It’s just a preference of lifestyle,” he added. “As long as they don’t put it onto me, and I don’t put it onto them, then it’s not a problem.” “Have guys ever hit on you?” “It’s been a long time. I had it one time in Ichiban. This guy grabbed my hair and started playing with my hair.” “How did you respond to that?” “I just said, ‘You don’t have to touch me to tell me I have nice hair.’ I didn’t blow up on him or anything.” -----♀♂----- We stopped outside of Alibi, a straight bar at the Eastern end of Hillcrest. A couple of guys stood around smoking cigarettes. One of them was Renee, a transplant from New Orleans. Romina went to work. “We’re doing research on straight people who live in Hillcrest,” she told him. “Well, I just moved here two days ago,” Renee replied, seeking to qualify himself. “Have you ever lived in a gay neighborhood?” “I lived in the French Quarter. That’s pretty gay. Hell—I took dance for ten years!” “How do you respond when a guy hits on you?” I inquired. “All you have to say is, ‘No thank you. I’m not interested.’ No one’s going to scare me gay, or anything.” “I loooooove women. Believe me,” he continued. “I’ve got lots of wives—none of them are mine, but…” “Do gay guys sometimes wish you were gay?” Romina asked. “Well, I would hope so! I’m forty-five now. I was fetching in my youth.” -----♀♂----- We stopped in at the Living Room, where Romina walked right up to a guy and said, “You wouldn’t be a straight guy living in Hillcrest, would you?” I cringed and pretended to sift through the free magazines on the shelf. “Me?” he stated, perplexed. “No.” Romina’s straight-radar seemed to have failed her. (It had failed her in the past, she’d confided.) “Wait, what did you say?” he asked. “Am I a stray?” “No. Are you straight?” “Oh. I thought you said ‘stray.’ Yes, I’m straight.” Keith works for a city council member and was happy to talk about an issue that touched on freedom of expression and personal rights. I asked him the "percentage straight" question. “About thirty,” he replied. I asked him if he’d had any awkward moments being a straight guy in Hillcrest. “Not at all. None.” And if a gay guy hit on him, what would he do? “I’d say, ‘I’m not sure if what you’re doing is hitting on me, but I’m straight and just wanted to let you know that.” And so we left, having confirmed what I’d suspected all along: There are no stray guys in Hillcrest. -----♀♂----- After a few hours and a handful of conversations with random strangers, we found ourselves outside The Coffee Bean. I gave Romina the voice recorder and sent her into the fray. A few seconds later, she waved me in. Stephanie, the cashier, is a transplanted Rhode Islander who grew up in an unconventional family. “Homosexuality is so normal to me, because I pretty much grew up in a gay family,” told us. “I just happened to not come out that way.” I asked her what percentage of people in Hillcrest she thought were straight. “Ten to fifteen percent,” she said. About her being straight in a gay neighborhood, she stated, “I don’t care if people think I’m straight or not. I’m just happy that people don’t care. That’s the cool part about being around here.” For Stephanie, being hit on by a woman is normally never a problem. But, there was one incident when a woman at the coffee shop came on bolder than a triple espresso. “She was a real creep,” Stephanie recalled. “She said, ‘I like your mouth!’ I didn’t really care if I hurt her feelings. That was kind of rude.” -----♀♂----- There were so many more people we could have talked to—openly heterosexual couples enjoying a Sunday stroll along University. But talking about man-woman love was just a touchier subject than I’d imagined. I suppose, now that I live here, I’ll get a chance to see what it’s like to be straight in the ‘Crest. We’ll see whether I flaunt my woman-loving ways or not. One thing is for sure, my straight-radar will get better with each trip up University. ------ Leopard J. Ferry is a freelance writer in San Diego. He can be reached at leopardjferry@yahoo.com. Suggested Vyuz reading... Steve York, UCSD student pornographer, chooses law over porn | By Larry Knowles The bare facts about Brazilian waxing | By Romina Cleary What pilots look for in airports, women | By Rob Potochnik A serial networker walks among us | By April Labine-Katko |
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