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Joined: Aug 2013
That's a sad story and I'm REALLY sorry you had to go through that!! It MUST'VE been HORRIBLE!! :-(
Well, one night in the summer of `85 or 6, my band decided to have a private party in the house where we rehearsed because my singer and bass player both lived there. Just a few weeks or so before this, I'd taken to wearing a leotard, tights/pantyhose and a short skirt to play gigs because even shorts were too confining on my legs to play drums the way I do. There were other reasons (besides being like you), mostly to do with physics, I guess you could say, and my ability to play better. Well, shortly before we were ready to start, I went upstairs to change into my playing gear. A few moments after I went to get the rest of the band (the house was FULL of people by then) and let them know I was ready, I started hearing some voices calling me a faggot, then they started chanting "kill the faggot!!" (The ONLY way I could be gay is if I was a girl!! Maybe some day!) Then they started chasing me through the house and this massive crowd of people!! There was only about 4 or 5 of these Oi boys, but, I guess I got a tad scared or something. I just wanted to avoid a conflict, so I ran back upstairs and hid in a dark room, but the door had no latch or anything, so I had to hold it shut with my foot and body. They came upstairs and started searching the rooms for me and found that the door I was behind gave a little, so they figured out I was holding it shut. One of them managed to reach his arm in and throw a can of beer on me (he missed, for the most part) and then one or more of them tried lighting a match and throwing at me to catch the beer (and ME!!) on fire!! After a few more minutes, they gave up and ran off yelling that they were going to get me, and, just to play it safe incase one was still waiting in the hall, I went to other end of the room and climbed out the front window, off the porch roof and dropped onto the porch right beside my singer who was talking to a bunch of people!! He asked what was going on, I told him, he (a Viet Nam vet) ran inside and scoured the place and we couldn't find those assholes!! Apparently they ran away. Moments later we started the show and had no further incidents.
About 10 or 12 years later and, by now my reputation of wearing a skirt to play, was kind of a big drawing point for us and all of our fans not only loved the skirt, they DEMANDED that I wear it because it just wouldn't be a TWL show with out it, to them. Well, we were playing a New Years Eve gig, I think, and, I could get changed backstage and just climb out through the small door onto the stage right into my huge drum set. This I then did! Well, I no sooner sat down behind the drums when some other punker/Oi Boy saw me in a skirt and decided to try and tackle me for being a fag!! He never got to me, but he tackled my guitarist WITH guitar who then fell back onto my right bass drum with the small of his back!! And that tilted my drum towards me in such a way that it snapped my brand new bass pedal off the drum!! The owner of the club, a big biker dude, ran over to the stage, grabbed the asshole and gave him such a ROUSING bums rush out the front door nearly breaking the entire door in the process and told him to NEVER EVER come back again!!!! I think I had to play with one bass drum that night and I use both of them a LOT!!
I don't recall if it was that same night or another New Years Eve gig in the same venue, but, this one winter, it was kind of warm out after midnight and, as we played first this time, I had time to go a block from there and catch a bus home. So, I quickly jumped into a pair of pants (dress pants, actually!), but kept on my black leo, which looked like a skin tight tank top. Who would question that? It was warm, so I just held my coat. While at the bus stop, these two slightly drunk (I think) black guys came out of the alley in front of me and kinda gave me an odd look as I said hi to them in a friendly manner. They ignored this and went around the corner onto the main street a few yards away. There was a fenced in parking lot beside where I was standing and they went around it onto the main street then, all of a sudden, this huge rock, at least the size of a baseball, came flying past me from their direction!! So much for this being the friendliest city!! I've never found it to be so!!
There WAS one other incident back in Feb. `84, that had to do with the black spandex unitard I was wearing. I was coming from the mall a mile from here walking home to get ready to go to work at 11:00 at night. I was showing my new unitard to my friends at the record store. I got as far the hospital between the mall and my town when this car came OFF the road about 60 miles an hour, hit me ON PURPOSE, fractured my leg and took a HUGE chunk of skin from my elbow, and kept going!! I couldn't walk and I could hardly stand up!! The ER was at least 200 feet behind me and up a tall grassy hill. I hobbled out into the slightly busy street to try to flag someone down for help, but, instead of stopping to help, they slowed down and drove AROUND me!!!! After 10 minutes of trying to get help, I ended up hopping to the ER on my own up that tall slippery wet grassy hill!!!! Of course, the police apparently never bothered to look for the guy because I never heard anything about it since then!! It only just now struck me that that incident could possibly be lumped in with the others because, each time, I was wearing something that mostly girls wore.
