Gay-hating Barber Shop

Here is my experience at Lombardo’s Barber Shop on Friday November 10:
1508 Union Street (at Van Ness)
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 441-0356

I got in the chair, and here is the conversation that ensued:

Barber: So you live around here?

Me: Yeah, Larkin and Union.

Barber: Where you from originally?

Me: I’m from Maryland. I moved here a little over a year ago.

Barber: So what brought you to the city?

Me: Well, I just decided that I needed to move on. So I checked out a couple of cities and ended up here.

Barber: I just don’t see why anyone would want to live here, what with all the fags and lesbians and the high cost of living.

Me: Well, gay people don’t really bother me. And I work in IT, so I was able to easily find a job, so the high cost of living doesn’t really bother me either.

Barber: Well I’m a native San Franciscan, and I’ve seen this city go downhill with all the fags and lesbians. I don’t agree with live and let live.

Me: OK, I don’t want to listen to this while I am getting a haircut.

Barber: The nice thing about this country is that there’s freedom of speech. I’m just waiting for all the fags and lesbians to be wiped out by a fag disease.

Me: All right, let me out, I’m going to go.

Barber: Well I’m almost done, you might as well stay.

Me: All right, well I sure won’t be coming back here.

I wanted to start cussing the guy out and get in a fight with him. But instead I sat there, trying to get my heart rate back to normal. I knew that a more effective way to combat this would be to let as many people know about this as I could.

In retrospect, however, I should have just left when I said I was going to. But hindsight is always 20/20.

I urge you all to not patronize this barber shop, and if you live in the area, let other people know about this horrible place.