cebii

OT

I got an email from Harley-Davidson encouraging me to encourage women I know to ride. I took their Rider's Edge course last year, courtesy of my beloved who knows me better than anyone. The ad reminded me of that course.

I had eight classmates, five guys and three other women. I doubt straight women do this, but when I am amongst strangers I often try to figure out who is gay and who is straight. The female teacher was gay (no brainer) one of the other women was married to one of the guys (no brainer.) That left one woman who was older than me and didn't read lesbian, but her motorcycle experience was driving the truck that pulled the trailer for a Harley riding women's group on their long trips. That reads lesbian. Off hand, I can't think of any straight all women Harley groups. The last woman was younger than me and I really thought I picked up a gay vibe from her, in that sort of energetic urban professional sort of way, but the two fresh out of college guys she was with referenced her boyfriend multiple times, so I put her in the 'whatever' category in my brain. To each their own, right?

I am pretty 'out'. I referenced Holly and the kids during our introductions and during the class time. I figure the more casual and matter-of-fact I am, the more everyone else will be as well. It works pretty well for me. I've never been challenged or yelled at or anything.

On night two of class, the younger woman, (don't remember names, I'll call her Lisa) sat next to me and was really nice. For no reason. I played along. Never hurts to make friends with people. The next day we started riding and that made us all too tired to be overly communicative.

Anyhow, to get to the point of the story, Sunday was the test day. Lisa had had so much trouble with the clutch that her wrist was killing her and she chose not to test. I got to the last task and laid out the bike - automatic Fail. So, I sat off to the side with Lisa as we watched the rest take the test. She told me what she'd been dying to tell me the whole time - she was a dyke. She'd had a 7 year relationship with a girlfriend who dumped her. She was dating this younger guy sort of out of boredom. It killed her to see me being so out and she had to keep her mouth shut. She was very very apologetic about hiding her true self. She was embarrassed. But she was having fun with these fresh out of college guys who partied every night. We spent the rest of the time sitting on the fence speculating about the older lady with the Harley riding female friends.

Kind of depressing - so attractive, intelligent and fun to be around and settling for someone she didn't really care for. I guess it makes sense to think that she didn't want to be with a woman until she healed. Oh well, to each their own, right?

Anyway, that is what the Harley ad made me think about.

posted by cebii @ 1:43 PM