This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team. It features stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.
In 2008, Kate Elsley was working as a nurse practitioner in Redwood City, a suburb of San Francisco. Every day, she would commute from her home in the city, first taking a train and then walking the rest of the way to her office. Most days, the trip wasn't noteworthy. But in 2008, Proposition 8 had just been announced. It was a ballot measure aimed to outlaw same-sex marriage in California and her commute now took her past sign after sign supporting the ban.
"It was very emotional for me to walk by businesses or people's homes that had signs supporting Prop 8 because I just would always think, 'Why do they hate me?'" Elsley said.
She found herself imagining what it would be like to confront the businesses and homeowners displaying Prop 8 signs.
"I would want to go up to the front door and just sort of present myself and say, 'This is my face. I'm gay and I love my soon-to-be wife. And why do you think it's not OK for us to have the same rights that you do?'"
But then, one cold morning, Elsley got off the train and saw an older man silently standing on the platform opposite her. He was holding a sign that declared he was against Prop 8.
"I just was so impressed that he was brave enough to come out on a cold morning when he could have stayed at home where it was nice and warm, and to be standing there all by himself," Elsley recalled.
Worried she'd be late for work, she wasn't able to stop and thank him.
"But I am so, so grateful to him. It just felt like such an unsafe time to love who I did, and feel like people were against us and actively campaigning to take away something that I knew was going to make me happy."
Elsley and her wife have now been married for 17 years. But Elsley will never forget that cold morning in 2008.
"To this day, when someone talks about an act of kindness, I usually get tears in my eyes, and I wish that I could go back and meet that gentleman and say thank you. It was such an act of support and it really touched me deeply."
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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