Well, I look fairly butch (short hair, men's clothes), and I have a sticker on the back of my car that has a rainbow and different coloured bears (it's actually a Grateful Dead sticker, but doubles as my gay pride sticker).

I was driving home and some guy starts tailgating me. I pull into the right lane to let him pass and he pulls up along side me. Suddenly he throws something out through his passenger side window at my (driver's side) window and yells out (my window was just barely open) "Stupid f**king Dyke!) and then roars off. I pulled out my cell phone and dialled 911. I followed him for the police until they got there and I continued home.

Police said that they couldn't charge him with anything, but that his name would go on the list and if he was caught doing anything again he would be charged under the hate crime law.

Scared me. He obviously lived close to me, and we have two boys. I just didn't want him harassing me at home. It took a while for me to stop being nervous and parking my car in with the rear towards the garage so no one could see the sticker.

My example would not qualify as a hate crime, but instead is a much more subtle form of hatred.

I was scheduled to sing a solo in my friend's church. They had a substitute organist for that Sunday and we were practicing together. The organist started asking nosy questions and I finally told her I lived with a female partner. We continued practicing without conversation.

An hour later she called me and informed me she wouldn't accompany me for the solo because I'm gay. I called my friend to back out of the solo in order to not cause problems, but my friend instead fired the organist and found another one - justice was served!

I was returning home from work and pulled into the parking spot at the complex where I lived. This twenty something guy was standing in the spot and didn't want to move...he finally did but gave me a hard time. When I stepped out of my truck, I was wearing work boots, dickies and a sweatshirt. I guess I looked to him like a stereotypical dyke. He yelled all the lesbian derogatory terms we've all heard before and then I told him I was going to call the police...he responded by ripping the cell phone from my hand and breaking my finger in the process. He launched it over the fence and proceeded to throw me to the ground and each time I got up he threw me down again. Finally he grabbed me and threw me in front of a truck that was passing by and didn't see what was going on. The truck managed to stop just in time and I wound up lying there with the front wheels of the truck up against my side. I was lucky. Because I was able to memorize his license plate they found him.....but in the end he was let go and he never was charged with a hate crime or anything else.......

Thank you all for sharing. My heart goes out to you. My friend was quite amazed with your stories. I think she going to use them all. She has asked for the place(state) where it happened and the year it happened. She also says thank you for sharing.
Love Neverover

New York, 2005