Last week at the conference in Philadelphia, one of my advertisers stopped by our booth and asked me to come by to answer a question his coworkers had. Their company is based in a small city.
One said, “On the way to dinner last night, we noticed that some of the street signs are made with rainbow symbols on them. Why is that?”
I looked at them puzzledly. “Seriously?” I asked.
They stared at me. “Yeah,” one said.
“It’s, uh, it’s the gay district,” I said.
“THANK YOU!” one said. “I told you guys! It’s like they’ve never been to a big city before,” he added.
I said, “You’ve never seen that? Rainbow flags? Storefronts with pretty colors? Guys who are much better looking than any guy you’ve ever met?”
“Seriously?” another asked. “Why do you know that?”
“Because . . . I’m aware of cultural symbols and I have lots of queer friends . . .?”
Walking back to my booth shaking my head, I muttered, “What did they think, it was the leprechaun district?”