This past weekend two men living in Columbus, Ohio, went to a popular pizza truck called Mikey’s Late Night Slice and waited in line for pizza. They were holding hands and standing close together to keep warm, laughing and chatting. Then a man in front of them turned around and told them to cut their “gay shit” out. They were startled, especially as they were in a very gay-friendly area.

What happened next is what I hope one day will ALWAYS happen when people observe hate and harassment on the streets.

One of the men wrote about the incident for the Huffington Post, saying,

“Almost every single person in that line made it known to him it was not OK for him to speak to us like that. By happenstance my friend John, who is also gay, was standing in front of him and as he continued his rant about being disgusted by us we both let him know that this was our city too and that we were not about to stand down to his bigoted ideas, especially not in one of the gayest neighborhoods in town. As he continued it was actually the straight people in line who spoke up that were so awesome.

I didn’t expect to see allies so willing to chime in and let this guy know that his hate speech wouldn’t be tolerated. The best part though was as he grew more irate and vocal the guys who work the truck stopped what they were doing and leaned towards the window and told him they would not serve him because he was spewing hate. They said they support everyone in our community and that he should get out of line because they would not be serving him. He begrudgingly got out of line and walked away escorted by a friend who had been hanging back.”

Hooray!

He went on to say, “I think stories like this shared by our LGBT friends and allies are important because it gives people hope and courage. It shows that the arc of the moral universe does bend towards justice and we are not alone in this struggle.”

Absolutely. I’m so glad they shared their story.