“Faggots!” The word pierced through the noise of the city and I couldn’t help but look around to see where it had come from. Vancouver is a fairly queer-friendly city, so it isn’t too common to hear slurs thrown around from strangers. At least not where I live.

I glanced around as I crossed the busy street and saw an older man crossing the same direction as me and my partner but on the other side of the road. When he caught my eye, he raised his arm, then flopped down his wrist in the universal limp wrist symbol for ‘gay’. He yelled again, but this time the sound of passing cars drowned him out.

As short laugh escaped my lips as I turned away from this absurd man standing on the corner yelling at two boys on the sidewalk. No one else paid him any mind.

“Was that directed at us?” My partner asked as he glanced back toward the intersection before turning toward the Shoppers Drug Mart, the closest store to home where we could stock up on snacks for movie night.

“I think so,” I shrugged.

“What an asshole.”

“I mean…he’s not wrong,” I laughed again as I followed my partner through the automatic doors and unzipped my sweater.

As I walked through the store my thoughts kept coming back to the man on the corner. There was nothing particularly interesting about him. He looked like an average sixties something man with dark, greying hair and he dressed in the typical Vancouver fashion, joggers and a light sweater.

He didn’t follow us into the store, and even if he had, I wasn’t worried about my safety with my 6’2 partner, which I definitely acknowledge is a luxury compared to other queer couples. But the thought I kept circling back to was _he saw me as a boy! _For a trans guy, who at that point had only been on hormones for a few years, it actually felt incredible validating to have someone see me as a boy, even if it came out such a vulgar way. But, _shouldn’t I be more pissed off by his words? _

My stomach churned as I waited at the same intersection tossing these thoughts around. _Am I allowed to be pissed off while also feeling validated at the same time? _

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I didn’t have an answer, so I texted one of my trans friends and relayed what happened.

Less than thirty minutes later, I was sitting curled up on the couch with my partner surrounded by a pile of snacks watching a rom com.