How To Make Gay Friends: An LBGT Friendship Gui — Skip the Small Talk

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I DIDN'T NEED GAY FRIENDS; I WAS WRONG
• HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS: AN LBGT FRIENDSHIP GUI
• HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS
• HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY
• GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT MEN AS FRIENDS
• CAN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN REALLY BE FRIENDS?
• HOW TO HAVE A GAY FRIEND

I THOUGHT I DIDN'T NEED GAY FRIENDS; I WAS WRONG

Raise your glass of weak vodka soda garnished wh 1/18th of a lime to the ever-so-important gay iend group. ) To be ank, havg a gay iend group is as important to queer life as iced ffee ’s a sad but te fact that growg up gay n be an isolatg experience. ) On top of that, take to acunt the hurdl of gay culture: beg the closet, g out, homophobia, ternalized homophobia, and velopg ep, unrequed csh on straight acquatanc om high school you barely spoke to, cludg that guy who was two years olr than you wh the dirty brown hair and always wore tank tops durg the summer and uld have moled and now is probably married wh three kids and I’m pretty sure his name was Ian.

Somewhere along this super gay marathon (and I’m reag om sertg a pole metaphor here, send ngratulatns at your nvenience), you slowly accumulate some like-md iends beyond the people you’re hookg up wh or datg, and beg to realize there are ed others who have wad through the same torrent of emotns and experienc you’ve enuntered. Prevly feelg like the sole gay the universe, like Sigourney Weaver walkg the halls of Nostromo at the end of Alien soaked sweat, you’ve fally found other telligent queer life. For the first time you realize there are others who unrstand what the heck beg gay is all about.

)Wh gay iends, you sudnly have others to miserate wh about eper tails that no straight iend, while passnate, uld ever be properly equipped to unrstand. )But more important than tradg war stori, a group of gay iends is there for you when you need them day-to-day.

HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS: AN LBGT FRIENDSHIP GUI

), your gay iends are there to get dnk wh on a Saturday night, followed by group msagg each other on Sunday morng that GIF of Kim Kardashian slidg unr bedvers. A member of your gay iend group will also happily be there to take a picture of you for your Instagram, and will be jt as happy to take the same picture 30 more tim wh only slightly different angl bee turns out ’s you who’s the importance of cultivatg gay iendships went over my head durg my personal evolutn, as I ially unrstood my own sexualy as much as I unrstood 11th gra math.

And like tryg to figure out the Pythagorean Theorem g a toaster oven stead of a lculator, navigatg my own queerns early on whout gay iends was a mostly futile effort. In fact, I never really grasped why a gay muny even existed my early days.

HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS

I had my own straight iends, pl gay culture seemed like somethg happeng on another pla. Asi om beg patient Instagram picture-takers and knowg where the bt parti are, gay iends provid a major key to further unlockg my ner-most tth and the legacy behd . Though me n make more than, please lift those watered-down vodka sodas wh those brown, brown, wiltg lim higher to the air and make a toast to the gay iends your life.

By the way, I have no gay iends and the person I like will never notice me. I’m lookg for new iends to meet and realized I lerally have no gay guy iends.

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY

I'm a long term relatnship which partly gets rid of the sire to meet other gay fellas, but I thk 's odd that all of my close iends are straight. In some of my most sperate hours for gay bondg, I’ve attend LGBTQ+-themed therapy groups my area.

Outsi of LGBTQ+-specific meetups, a great way to fd LGBT iendships is actually by attendg meetups that gay people typilly like. Every time you attend a Pri March, ftival or cent Gay Club Night, you may have noticed jt how many fellow queers live your cy. There are a few webs that list specialized LGBTQ meet-ups, but hontly, simply Google your hobby, cy, and the word "gay" and see what up.

Post notic general birdg, bikg, and crochetg areas to let folks know you'd like to enjoy your pastime wh gay pany.

GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT MEN AS FRIENDS

Jog a gay-rights anizatn is an obv way to meet gay people, but you uld broan out to anythg you're terted .

When I me out to my parents I started off by sayg "Hey one of my iends me out to me and said they were gay what should I do? For a long time, iendships between gay men and straight men – what some now ll “bromosexual” iendships – were unmon.

CAN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN REALLY BE FRIENDS?

Homophobia was likely one reason; another was that straight men probably assumed they didn’t have much mon wh gay men. Specifilly, we’re terted lookg at the reasons gay men and straight men bee iends (or rema iends after the gay iend out).

HOW TO HAVE A GAY FRIEND

We currently have a survey vtigatn unrway that explor some of the posive out of “bromosexual” iendships, cludg our theory that gay men and straight men n be optimal wg men for one another. Many straight men hated to beiend gay men, fearg harassment, rejectn om their straight iends or beg lled gay. The growg acceptance of homosexualy, however, has allayed some of the fears.

Gay men – particularly those nservative and ral environments – rema wary about tryg to beiend straight men, fearg prejudice-fueled rejectn. At the same time, many straight men still doubt that they’ll be able to relate to gay men any meangful way and, for this reason, may not try to iate a iendship.