homophobic homosexual (and related ignorance)

before we reach the person referenced in the title lemme admit something that probably shows me up as the nerd i am, but must be said: jon stewart is still one of the most doable white dudes on that short list, looking all distinguished and consistently smart+funny just like i like (and love when he's suited to complement+compliment the greying hair- sexy too bad!). and while on the topic, aasif mandvi's also too sexy, even if i'm even nerdier for finding him even more so for playing the mystic masseur...
that said, last week i had a bizarre (for me) experience (full disclosure: i may seem naïve because i have little to no patience for people i find stupid or otherwise unenjoyable company and have done an excellent job of eliminating such people from my life, thus rarely, if ever spend time with ignorance/bigotry; incidents like i'm about to relate don't come up in my existence so i receive stories of shit like this almost like myth, or the purview of people with the kind of power that corrupts, and am still shocked+appalled when i hear of worse, especially when it devolves into violence; this incident made me realise how wonderfully i shelter myself from jackassery).
so i'm apartment hunting. last week i saw a listing for something sounding perfect for my needs and within my price range. i call and the landlord say i could see it one time, mom had errands to run too so we ride together.
as he opened the door to show the apartment he asked about my job, checking that i could pay rent; i tell him i freelance in the arts. he seemed pleased, telling me as i look around the apartment that he used to (ballroom)dance and the front of the compound houses a dance studio- i start getting glad because is a bes' place, with bes' amenities and price, and now i hearing rehearsal space on the premises...then mr.cooper say we should adjourn to his apartment to discuss details because he wrapping up with a brand new tenant come to collect keys, who i should meet because his wife in the arts too, maybe we know each other...i get gladder because he seem interested and i definitely am.
we go by him, the tenant's "wife" is somebody i know well, worked with before, dude rings her so i can say hi, gladness all around. dude leaves, ma+mr.cooper figure out why they find each other familiar (bwee), we all chat a bit, then i ask what i need to do to retain the apartment.
after all this 20minutes smalltalk, he is to now tell me he has "reservations" about renting me the place. what i do for a living makes him hesitate because he doh want no "known gays" on the property. i was actually speechless for a hot minute when he drop that. ma jump in (so proud of her) asking him how he could say that, even if he disagree with the lifestyle people is people and to be treated fair+equal, they is folks too, etc.
mr.cooper say he's a "godfearing churchgoing" man and know it sound bad but he doh care, is how he feel, we doh understand what he's go through..so i ask...
he is to tell me about how the man who own the shop on the corner nasty and they have animosity and the man always trying to muddy his waters, ruining his reputation with rumours that he gay and persecuting him accordingly, so he doh want "known gays" on the property because they'll be associated with him and provide fodder for the cornershopman cannon...
i still flabbergasted- i point out that that's hardly the way to choose a tenant: apart from the sexual orientation of my friends+colleagues being irrelevant to me and moreso to him (should be, anyway) he concerned not with whether they actually gay, whether i know/think so, or even whether he think so, but whether the man in the shop on the corner think so, and how the ass is anybody to know who the man in the shop on the corner might think might be gay?! i say maybe he need to go by the cornershop and ask the man for a written list of everybody in the country the man think might be gay so he could show prospective tenants and ask if any of their associates on the list! this shit so absurd i still doh quite believe it, except i meet a fella yesterday who tell me when he went with his (male) pardner to see the same place, mr.cooper was very vocally concerned about whether they were trying to rent together!
on top of that, the other reason mr.cooper gave for not wanting my "known gay associates" around is that he doh want no "unwanted advances"- picture that statement coming from a very homely, short, portly, 60somethingish dude in ugly brown plastic oldman glasses, madras-plaid shortsleeve shirt and multiply-pleated khaki pants- i had to work hard to not buss out laughing and tell him none of my known gay associates would give him a passing glance, far less look twice to tender unwanted advances, plus my gay friends so hot he should say thanks if any of them even notice him! instead i politely suggest that anybody coming to me would be coming straight to me, passing his door straight, and if he happened to be outside they would simply greet politely and come to my door since they coming to me, not my landlord. none of that satisfied him and i was denied the bes' apartment on the premise of having known gay associates. in 2009. what the fuck?! plus, how come he wouldn't rent to me but gave keys to dude whose "wife" works in the arts? (i know they not married, but not muddying their living situation by telling their godfearing churchgoing landlord so) but what about her known gay associates? we know all the same people and her regular limin pardners more flamboyant than mine, so what the man in the shop on the corner go say?! yuh see how people ridiculous+scandalous! i feel the cornershop man must be telepath to mr.cooper about me+howshename zammyin a couple months ago...
i leave mr.cooper with he stupidness, and manage to forget for a minute where we are and start thinking i should report the incident as discrimination, until i reopen the express classifieds and see a listing running unaltered maybe a week now (full text): penal $900.00 preferably indian.
so i figure mr.cooper know better than me just how much discriminatory behaviour a landlord could get away with, especially in sweet trini where immigration laws amended as recently as 1995 still describe people as being "physically defective, idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded, dumb..." and consistently lump together "prostitutes, homosexuals, and persons living on the earnings of prostitutes or homosexuals" as prohibited for "prostitution, homosexuality and other immoral purposes..."
the more things change, the more they stay...sigh.
walk good.