Interesting thread.
Has anyone ever fronted these people up and politely asked them something along the lines of, "well, I'm sorry about that, mate, but I'm diabetic so need to inject. Just so I can understand your position, can you tell me which bit of it you find disgusting and why? You're a grown adult so why does me flipping my t-shirt up a few inches for a few seconds bother you?"
I imagine most will just say, oops, sorry, didn't realise. People who mouth off are usually cowards when you ask them to explain.
But then there'll be the nutters who'll get all aggressive about it and their argument will boil down to nothing more than, erm, well, it just is, isn't it.
Depending on my mood at the time, I'd either just walk away and ignore it, or go ballistic. Depends also on whether he looks like he's done some prison time or not - will stand my ground but not if there's a chance of me getting beaten to a pulp - judgement calls!
I think the lippy ones are the same insecure half-wits who mouth off about breast feeding in public.
Maybe it's something to do with an inate fear of illness. Most people at some level, conscious or sub-conscious, worry about getting ill. Maybe seeing us inject just takes them into a place where they are confronted with the reality of illness, and they don't like being that close to the reality of it - it makes sub-conscious fears too real and there and now and in their face.
I'm not trying to justify the behaviour of these tubes at all, far from it, but I recall a few occasions where I've been at hospital for a checkup and seen some seriously ill people being wheeled around, and, to be honest, seeing the brutality of what illness can do to people has left me...what's the right word?...unsettled.
So, they're maybe saying they're "disgusted", but what they mean is that they're actually "scared" as it reminds them of the tenuous uncertain nature of their own mortality.
Sorry, that's too elaborate an excuse for them - they're probably just tubes who like mouthing off until they settle down to watch the next episode of Jeremy Kyle.
Anyone who's played GTA V might recall one of the (hysterically funny) talk radio phone in contributors - "I don't need to know about something to have an opinion on it!" I think there's a bit of that going on with these guys.
I've only had something like that happen to me once. Pre-pen days, was picking up a script, pharmacist holds up the box of BD syringes, asks as a check, "are these your usual syringes", elderly guy behind me says, "bloody junkie!". He was in his eighties, so I let it go.
That's the only time in 29 years of this I've had any comment. I think that any newbies who are anxious about public injecting should take comfort from the fact that things like this are blindingly rare, and the contrary is true: staff in my local bar know I'm T1 and have said, look, man, if you're dropping and run out of sweets, just wave and we'll get you some apple juice or grab those Tunnocks wafers on the bar, no charge, likes. Never gets that far (they don't know I carry a sweet shop in my pockets!), but it's good to know that the vast majority of people out there are good people who will help me, not like the tube the OP dealt with.