Back in the mid 80s I did a co-op with an organization in Atlanta that was similar to Habitat for Humanity but smaller and far less competent. That summer we hired this enormous 6'4" farm boy from rural Georgia as a carpenter. He was naturally a typical redneck which I assumed was going to be a problem since our crew was run by two lesbians. As it turned out, Scott's sense of loyalty to the people he was with overcame his conservatism and he was cool with it.

Scott's idea of fun was to get into bar fights. Every Monday he would come to work with a black eye or two and maybe a busted lip; given his size I always assumed the other guy was dead. His best friend on the crew was a guy who played guitar in a hair metal band, and Scott started borrowing this guy's red leather pants and matching vest and going to college bars in downtown Atlanta. Guys there would assume he was gay and start shit with him and Scott would obligingly beat the shit out of them. I don't really condone violence, but Scott's actions here didn't make me lose a lot of sleep.

Well.....yeah. The gays couldn't be known as being gay. Being gay back then was a path to violence.

Whereas the straight guys in show business couldn't dress like straight guys because......uh......cocaine?