Just an observation...not a comment.

I’ve visited my boyfriend in his hometown four hours away probably between a half dozen and a dozen times in our year together. The southern metropolis simply doesn’t have an outspoken GLBT presence. My partner can’t even name a gay bar in the city. (He might have to tell someone where it is if he could!)

Apparently my boyfriend missed the memo this weekend. It’s like there was an unspoken convention everywhere we went.

Saturday night, we headed out to a wine bar. Unfortunately, it was a little crowded, and our stomachs were starting to grumble. We looked down the strip, and certain enough, there was a newly opened establishment, specializing in Turkish/Mediterranean cuisine. He had wanted to try it, so we parked and went in.

The little place was crowded, for its size. Of the six booths and half dozen tables, five booths were full and one table was taken. A waitress—a bubbly teen type, chipper as can be—stated that if we’d give her all of a minute, she’d finish clearing off the remaining booth for us. We happily consented.

During the meal (which was excellent, by the way!), I did what I have always learned to do in public settings: casually observe the other patrons. Mostly, it was what many would expect: husbands and wives out for a Saturday evening meal. One group at a table. Two relatively “comfortable” looking guys in a corner booth. WHAT!? (I swear my internal dialog was something akin to a Scooby-Doo cartoon! “AROO!?”) Okay. Moving along…another married couple, two guys just walked in the door…

It was at this moment my mind really started turning. What the hell is going on here!?

I posed my observation to my boyfriend by saying, “I’m just observing, not commenting, but there are an awful lot of two-male tables here.” (Let’s do the math: Several pairs of guys dining in corner booths on a Saturday night in an intimate restaurant with some rather unusual cuisine for the location. Typically you can leave this with “the gays”.)

While we dined, I had the view of the exterior window. At least two pairs of males walked by during the meal. And not goofing off, have nothing better to do teenage types. Two pairs of adult males. And there were no women nearby. And they were definitely headed in the direction of “trendy”. Again, I’m not commenting—just observing.

We finished our meal, and we headed to Target for the second time that day. While wandering aisles, I walked past the cleaning goods section, an area where you rarely see two straight men at the same time, unless they are using separate shopping carts. Besides, these two were obviously gay. The trendier side of Emo and the verbalized “totally wow” gave it away. Well, that, and the nearly dry-humping closeness of the couple.

Again, I’m not saying that the southern city has made a turn for the better, but it did my Queen City heart proud to see a few people that could easily pass for gay out and about.