Key West Cops Rock

On Key West's bustling Duval Street, drag queens and go-go boys can be found standing in front of gay bars handing out fliers and posing for photos, more often that not with highly amused straight tourists. It's a hectic, high-energy scene on those sidewalks, where gays and straights move comfortably among each other. Gay boys cat-call straight boys, straight couples cat-call drag queens - it's all rather other-worldly.

It's therefore rather worth mentioning one small incident we witnessed in which two very intoxicated men yelled something derogatory at a couple of drag performers we were chatting with outside of one of the clubs. I didn't hear the actual words, just their tone, so I've got no idea if the insult was anti-gay, anti-drag, or even anti-fat, as the two queens were of the larger variety. The above-pictured cop, who was just a few feet away undergoing a photo op of his own, immediately barked a command to his horse, who took several sideways steps and trapped the two jerks against the wall of the building next door. It was the coolest trick ever, prompting a passing woman to exclaim, "Wow! Is that horse from the circus?" The crowd loved it. And what would have been the only bit of ugliness we saw during the entire trip was instead turned into something of a highlight.

RELATED: One-third of Key West's police force is openly gay, including the above cop and their chief of police.

UNRELATED: Special shout-out to JMG reader and Key West cop Joe, whom we met at the airport as we departed.