Lakeview

I had a customer today, I swear he walked right out of Tales of the City and into my bank. Big guy, talking to his dog, 70s hair and shirt style. I thought to myself, "Armistead Maupin character," and then he gave me his driver's license. California. San Francisco. Castro Street. Named Jon.

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Better but slightly longer customer story: I read this blog called Towleroad on a daily basis. It is a gay politics/pop culture/sports/world interests blog. Thursday evening I got home from eating dinner, wandering the downtown streets, and spending quality time with my visiting friends Sarah and Kati, and I did a little internet reading before I turned in for the night. I read this particular blog entry with particular interest.

Background: last week, former Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee gave an interview in which he disagreed with the rolling back of the gays in the military ban, said that not-quite-marriage civil unions were unacceptable, and then flung this gem at gay couples who want to adopt (was against the law until this week in his home state of Arkansas): "Children are not puppies."

So the Hearty Boys didn't like that. They are a gay couple who own and operate several Chicago restaurants, a catering business, and have a show on the Food Network. And they wrote this really great letter to Mr. Huckabee rebuking him for his ignorant, mean-spirited diss on gay parents and inviting him over for dinner at their house. You know, so that he could see how their very normal, very loving, and very gay family operates. How very similar it is, indeed, to his own.

I read their letter on the blog Thursday night, and for no particular reason other than my own curiosity, I looked closely at the photo of the two of them. I've eaten at their restaurant before, they are kind of neighborhood celebrities, and I know that their business accounts are at my bank. So I was curious.

Friday morning at work a gentleman came to my teller window who looked kind of familiar. My first reaction was that he looks like the dad from Modern Family. And then I glanced at his checks. Depositing Hearty Boys checks into a joint account, Dan and Steve. So I helped him with his transaction, and then I said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are actually one of the Hearty Boys, right?" Which is kind of a super awkward line, but I was building up to something. And I was really excited that I had just been reading about him on the internets the night before, and now here he was, right in front of me! Cool.

He acknowledged that he was with a smile and a nod, and then I said, "I saw the letter that you and your husband wrote to Mike Huckabee. That was so wonderful and felt really meaningful and important to me." And he got a little flustered and a little embarrassed as any really normal, humble human being would, and he thanked me and said that his partner had actually been the one to write it. And then we had a further little exchange about how great the letter was and gay rights and his family and then we said goodbye. It felt so good to thank him, to just add my little voice to his bigger voice, speaking out for recognition and equality. It made my week.

As he walked away, I sort of regretted not telling him that my family all voted for Mike Huckabee in the primaries a couple of years ago. But now I'm sort of relieved that I kept that colorful little detail to myself.

Currently Listening to

Glee Vols. 1 and 2