The Time my ex boyfriend took the side of a Nazi over me by Sheila Schmoop

25 years ago I was in the greatest relationship of my life. I was dating this great guy who worked as a stand up comedian, we were dating a total of one week and we were madly in love. We would display our affection publicly, we gave each other pet names, we like to kiss in the booth of our favorite coffee shop, we practiced a lot of “puppy love” romantic behavior. I felt some animosity, mostly from his friends but I didn’t mind because we were so deeply in love that I felt they were just going to have to get used to me. This all changed one afternoon. The political climate was much different in the mid to late 90s as it is today but I now realize that the man of my dreams by today’s standards is a Nazi sympathizer. My ex boyfriend today is one of the most powerful men in his branch of the entertainment industry, he is well respected by his peers, and he continues to make appearances on television including starring in his own talk show on a prominent streaming service. When we were dating he was a veteran stand up comedian who tackled a few show business milestones (appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, had his own television pilot with a major network). As I mentioned above we were serious from the get go but that afternoon changed everything. We were out to lunch and as I said we were not shy about our public displays of affection. There was this soup restaurant that the city could not stop talking about, my boyfriend at the time wouldn’t shut up about it and he insisted that I‘d try it. I heard a rumor about the owner/chef of this small restaurant that he was a vigilant Nazi. I’m ashamed now but at the time the term “Nazi“ wasn't enough of a buzz word to cancel our lunch plans. So my boyfriend and I are on line waiting to place our order, we’re in the middle of showing our love when I hear a loud voice shout from behind the counter “No Kissing in my line!”. I quickly raised my head to see who interrupted our moment of intimacy. When I saw who it was I immediately knew that I would not stand for this public humiliation. I looked at this man and I exclaimed that “I’ll kiss wherever and whoever I want to!”. He responded by asking me to leave his restaurant, not before he placed a year long ban on me. Which I was fine with because at that point i did not feel comfortable supporting this man’s business, so I turned to my boyfriend; told him ”let’s leave“ and my boyfriend responded by looking at me, then looking at the chef, and then looking back at me and he uttered these four words “Do I know you?”. Crushed. I stormed out of the soup store that day, I never talked to my ex boyfriend ever again. What a jerk. As for the Nazi, his store was shutdown after his recipes were leaked onto the internet. In a weird way I’m glad that all of this happened. I want people to remember that Nazi sympathizers are just as bad as Nazi’s and we have to find a way to deplatform hate speech without losing sight that just because someone doesn’t show any signs of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc, doesn’t mean that they aren’t a Nazi or one of their

sympathizers. Take it from me, I thought I met the man of my dreams when in reality he was just another jerk chasing me in one of my nightmares!