That’s “Mr. Faggot” to You
When we started this race, my partner pointed out that we’d be driving through the deep South with Gaywheels.com and Glee.com stickers on our car and that we might encounter some trouble. To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t given it much thought but after he brought it up, I mentally prepared myself for some stares, glares and perhaps even a little harassment while driving through the Southern States. Surprisingly, we encountered very few, if any, issues. Yes, the State Trooper in FL refused a photo and we got yelled at by an angry Pickup truck driver but neither could be clearly attributed to the fact that we were a gay team. As a result, those incidents elicited very little reaction from Team G.L.A.M. and we left the Southeast with nary an emotional scar. Well, it is apparent that blatant homophobia cannot be attributed to any specific geographic location. We experienced it indirectly today in AZ and NV.
After a wonderful breakfast and fantastic send off from Saint Pius X High School in Albequerque, we set off on our next challenge. You see me with the fabulous headdress and shirtless in the photo to the right? Well, our first challenge was to find the Big Tepee on the border of AZ and NM and take a picture in front with an Native American headdress on. We got bonus points of the photo was taken with the subject in nothing but their underwear. Being that I am a kind person, I chose not to subject you to the entire photo of me in my GAP underwear featuring soccer balls. After all, you might be eating while you read this!
Tepee, headdress and public humiliation behind, we motored on to solve our next clue in Winslow, AZ. It was there we had find “Standin’ On the Corner” park and sing the Eagles’ song while having a photo taken with EZ….taking it EZ…..get it? I am NOT making this stuff up.
Our final destination today was Henderson, NV and we settled in to a long last stretch across AZ on I40 and then up over the Hoover Dam to Henderson just outside of Las Vegas. During the ride we noticed a few vehicles acting a bit odd. There was the White Ford F-150 that kept following us and taking photos of the rear of the car (where it says “gaywheels.com”). Then there was the big rig that was tracking us for miles and honked angrily when we exited to refuel. We didn’t waste too much of our breath on either incident.
It wasn’t until we arrived in Henderson that a fellow Fireballer shed some light on the weird behavior we experienced. Team #3 told us that the CB channels were going wild talking about the “faggots in the Saab”. It seems our friend in the 18-wheeler had an issue with us driving around with Gaywheels.com on the rear bumper and decided to share his disgust with anyone within CB range. Thankfully our friends on Team #3 defended us and got into a shouting match with the long-haul drivers who were expressing their disgust that two gay men were taking part in a race to recover missing children….you know, because we are all pedophiles.
Two things happened when I heard this; first, I got really upset. The trip has been so great so far and all of our competitors have treated us with such respect that this incident really threw me for a loop. Secondly, I was overjoyed that Team #3 defended us so vehemently. It is amazing that these guys who we met less than a week ago were willing to go to bat for us. Would they have done so before they met us? Who knows? All I can say is that I feel comfortable knowing that Team #3 and all the other Fireballers are out there with us and that I feel confident they’d all do the same, as we would do for them.
Tomorrow is a track day here in the Las Vegas area. Evan is going to push the Saab 9-3 to its limits again and everyone is looking forward to seeing what he can do. As of today, we are #2 in the Luxury class and 9th overall. Wish us luck!