The Lady Doth Protest Too Much

I worked for Wal-Mart for a while when I was in my mid 20s, and I can recall being in the break room with a few co-workers one particular day. Someone mentioned something about visiting California, and this one guy who was maybe a little younger than me said he would never go anywhere near California. I asked him why, and he actually stood up, rubbed his behind--it was a rather nice little behind, too--and said, “I don’t want anyone going in back there.”

I found the comment, and the accompanying gesture, so ridiculous that I almost laughed at him. I didn’t bother explaining to him that gay men, as a rule, are not rapists and that most men in California are straight just like everywhere else.

I got the sense that what he was afraid of was that being around openly gay men would be tempting to him and that he might actually have to admit he was, on some level, interested in the idea of being with a man.

Sometimes, not always, but sometimes there is something to that Shakespeare quote "the lady doth protest too much.”