Gays accused of discrimination in Provincetown

Well, surprise, surprise! I don't condone any discrimination, but let's see, there's 4 or 5 major gay meccas in the US, Provincetown being one of them, and everyone knows this. If you have a problem with homos, stay the fuck out of Provincetown. (and Key West, West Hollywood, San Francisco, and... please... AUSTIN, TEXAS!) I'm not planning a vacation to
Laredo or Tupelo. Think about where you're going folks!

Provincetown, New England's summer gay capital, is facing a rise in harassment and discrimination. But this time it's straight people who say they are being ridiculed as "breeders" and "baby makers."

Police Chief Ted Meyer said straight people complained of being called "breeders" over the July Fourth holiday weekend, and that in one serious incident a man was charged with assaulting a woman who signed a petition to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the only state where it is legal.

Equally troubling, he said, Jamaican workers in Provincetown say they have been the target of racial slurs.

Here's my advice: leave race out of it. That's not the issue here. Attitudes are the issue and there are better ways of dealing with it. Like this:

Steve Bowersock, 35, an artist who owns the Bowersock Gallery on the town's main Commercial Street, admits he sometimes discriminates against straight people he finds offensive.

"If there's a straight couple and I hear them in the background going 'oh fags', I'm like 'hello, where the hell do you think you are?' So in turn I get mad," he said.

"If I see someone nervous like a big butch guy, and you can just tell he's a redneck, I'll grab my partner and I'll kiss him. It's not being mean, but 'hello you're in our town'."

After the past few weeks of getting screwed right and left (but "without any lovin' " as my grandmother used to say), the queer community is obviously going to be uptight. I sure as hell am. But let's not become that which we despise most. We are better than that. Just be open and be yourself: If the tourists are comfortable, they'll stay, if they aren't, let 'em leave. But don't harrass. We don't want that attitude from the thousands of other "straight meccas" in which we live our daily lives.