Recently published in amNewYork, here’s a little etiquette 101 from CALA instructor, Kate Walter, on what NOT to say to the queer folk in your life.
Don’t assume a gay or lesbian person knows every other queer.
“My cousin, Jeff, told me that when a co-worker heard he is gay, she asked whether he knew her sister’s friend, Steve, a gay man in Chicago. Jeff, who lives in New Jersey, snapped: “Sure, Steve from Chicago. I met him at one of our gay conventions.”
Don’t tell people it is brave to be out.
“A married colleague, who identifies as a queer femme, hates it when people tell her it’s ‘brave’ for her to be out, as if she had a choice. Do we choose to be short or tall?”
To read Walter’s entire column click amNewYork
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There are so many of these – some more entertaining than others.
Like, “Are you two sisters?”
I used to get that question “are you sisters?” But my favorite story was when people ask my femme friend if her butch spouse is her son !
This piece was longer but it was cut for space.