Bullying builds character like nuclear waste creates superheroes. It’s a rare occurrence… ―Zack W. Van
Bullying tended to happen any time I was involved in any sport.
In soccer, the boys kicked balls at my back and snickered. Both my team and the opposing team told me to quit because I sucked and it was my fault we always lost.
In basketball, the players wouldn’t pass the ball to me until the coach lectured them. Then they would single me out to whisper insults and hate to me any time I tried to be open and get the ball. Until I stopped trying to get the ball altogether and just lagged after the others.
Even in kindergarten, kids were terrible. I tried to join the girls and was always sent away. Whenever we played house, they decided that I was the dad and had to go to work. Whenever I came back from “work,” they would say, oh it’s the next day now, time for you to go back to work. Which meant anywhere but with them. I tried to be friends with one of the boys and he decided he didn’t want to be my friend eventually because I was a girl.
When I took swimming lessons at the YMCA, I was once in a class with six boys. They all decided they did not want to be anywhere near me. So even though we had two lanes to share between all of us, all six boys crowded in one lane and left me in the other one. This lasted until the coach made one of the unlucky boys join me in my lane.
All of that was nowhere near as bad as the bullying at swim team.
Post 21 in Socially Unacceptable: The Daily Life of a Queer Schizophrenic Wreck (2022)
This is an autobiographical series about my life, something I have wanted to do for a long time. I intend to add new content daily.
For the whole series, follow this link.
The Queer Schizophrenic 