Purple is the gay colour. Wearing purple means you’re gay.

Everyone knows that. And everyone’s watching, so: be careful of what colours you wear. Gay is bad, obviously, you can tell from what they say. Just don’t talk like that, don’t wear that, have a thicker skin, and maybe they won’t notice you, won’t say anything, won’t hit you.

Be aware of everyone in each space, school, home, in between, stores, the library, watch how you appear. How you look, how you talk. How they look at you, just hope they don’t look at you.

Online, in that two/virtual/hyper dimensional space, it was just words. Nobody could tell how you sounded or what you wore or how you looked, and nobody you knew could see you. So you can use whatever colours you want and be fine. There’s even a clear list of “safe” and “non-safe”, but the worst thing that happens if you use one of those dangerous ones is that it looks a little funny on some screens. Not that you get punched.

So you’re free to shine yourself through a prism and see what colours come out the other side.

Steven Masuch is living with a lemon tree (pretty good) and his boyfriend (the best).