i have such admiration for this friend of mine! prescott seymour is a drag queen living in new york who works under the stage name sutton lee seymour. he is part of the seymour family, which is the most admirable family on earth because they share every holiday, sunday dinners, etc. with each other. even the exes. and their kids. and stepkids. and futures.
little shop of horrors is a movie/play/movie about audrey II, a carnivorous plant cared for by a florist assistant seymour who named the audrey II in honor of his true love audrey. audrey is terrorized by the abusive boyfriend orin but finds the courage to leave–because there’s “suddenly seymour” the most popular song from this show is “suddenly seymour” which i can’t get out of my head right now. karma alert: audrey II ends up with a nice orin meal.
meanwhile, my friend works under the name sutton lee seymour sometimes. and he had this to write:
I have to tell this story, and please know it’s not praise I’m looking for. It’s change!
I was at my subway stop last night heading to my show, “in face” but in boy clothes. I do this for physical comfort, not from fear of being gay bashed. But last night I encountered a homeless man who decided to scream at me with hate once he saw my face (btw, I looked really pretty last night). I never really encountered this before.
I wasn’t afraid of him because he was on the Queens bound platform and I was on Manhattan bound platform. But he kept screaming, so I moved. But he wouldn’t stop.
And then something just hit me, I needed to do something. I considered going to the MTA folks in the booth but opted against that. Instead I left the subway station and went to the Dunkin Donuts and bought a cheddar, egg, sausage sandwich, a banana, a donut, and a bottle of water. Btw, nobody seemed bothered by my stunning face.
I went back up to the platforms, going to the Queens bound side this time. And I found the homeless man. And yes he did start yelling at me again. And I shut him up saying…
“This food is for you. Please eat up and remember it was a ‘faggot’ who decided to love you instead of ignore you today.”
And he didn’t do anything for a minute so I just left the food in front of him. And then he said thank you, which honestly surprised me because I was expecting more hate. And I left for my platform with no slurs coming from the man. And my train pulled up as I got back over and I saw him eating. And I headed to my show.
I realize that maybe this was risky, but there’s still so much hate out there that we can’t ignore it or fear it. And we can’t change hate with more hate. Only love. Will this change that man forever? Probably not. But I’m certain he won’t forget. At the end of the day, there are people who still need help. And hopefully, that man will think twice before he starts gay bashing. That’s my wish.
prescott, you are my hero!
arlynnpresser 