YES! “We Need More Stories of Men Standing Up to Street Harassment.”
“I didn’t even know if she was LGBT but it didn’t matter.”
Location: Bethesda Metro Station
Time: Morning Rush Hour (5am-9:30am)
Long story – so today I was on an elevator in Bethesda going down to the metro with two women. I heard the normal looking older woman ask the younger woman if her bust was bigger than her waist. I wondered out loud what was going on. The young woman had a short haircut and very professional clothes and shyly replied the old woman was berating her for being a transvestite. I had heard enough and let the old woman have it. How dare she question the gender identity and impose her view of what a woman should look like on a complete stranger. We argued the whole way down and to the train entrance and I screamed she was a hateful, bigoted, pathetic person as loud as I could in front of people waiting to get on the elevator.
At the train platform, I spoke with the young woman and she was visibly shaken. I apologized she had to endure the old woman and she thanked me for sticking up for her. I didn’t even know if she was LGBT but it didn’t matter. If there’s anything I’ve learned from my job, it’s that you’ve got to stick up little guy/girl, the minority, the invisible, and the voiceless or else no one will.
BTW, feel free to mention I’m a man. We need more stories of men standing up to street harassment.
Submitted 5/19/14 by “JTL.”
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