One other one who messaged me was taken by his household to a Hooters in Atlantic Metropolis, aged solely about 9. His household was in all probability already realizing he was homosexual, he informed me. “Our waitress was very fairly, they usually stored wanting her to flirt with me, or have me flirt along with her,” he mentioned. “‘Wouldn’t you need to date a lady that’s that fairly at some point?’”
Because the household was leaving, he informed me, the waitress stopped him on the way in which to the toilet. She requested him if he was OK. When he mentioned sure, she smiled. “I’m 30 now, and I stroll by that Hooters any time I’m in Atlantic Metropolis, and I give it some thought,” he mentioned.
A bunch of Hooters workers echoed these accounts. Lucy Wilkinson, herself a queer lady, mentioned she finds it “heartbreaking” when she watches fathers and grandfathers routinely drag in boys who didn’t match their thought of masculinity, both as a result of they have been homosexual or just not fairly macho sufficient. Ms. Wilkinson says she focuses on younger boys who may be homosexual, or just uncomfortable, going out of her technique to welcome the boys within the hopes of letting them really feel that they have been in on the joke.
What explains the connection between Hooters waitresses and younger homosexual males? Maybe these ladies — so usually stigmatized as nearly intercourse employees, so accustomed to society’s sidelong glances — see kindred spirits within the boys who aren’t fairly “proper.” Or possibly it’s easier: a waitress’s knack for studying a room, turned tender for many who want it most.
Just lately, I ventured again to Hooters for the primary time since that lunch with my grandfather. Two nights in a row I drove out to Queens for the chain’s sole remaining location in New York Metropolis, the place I reside. From the meals, to the music, to the ladies, all the pieces was simply as I remembered. One factor that struck me, nonetheless, was the abundance of households. From my seat on the bar, I noticed 4 units of fogeys with kids, some so younger they needed to be placated with iPads to remain of their seats.
