Straight teen asks gay iend to prom | CNN

Contents:

• HOW ONE GAY TEEN AND HIS STRAIGHT BT FRIEND HAD THE BT PROM EVER
• STRAIGHT TEEN ASKS GAY BT IEND TO PROM
• IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?
• PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH

HOW ONE GAY TEEN AND HIS STRAIGHT BT FRIEND HAD THE BT PROM EVER

"My random roommate durg sophomore year happened to be gay. ' His buddi got all homophobic on him, so he asked, 'You guys have never msed around wh another guy? I'm gay, but I hooked up wh a handful of men and women my 30s.

In the end, they're still straight, and I'm still gay and happily married to my hband of 12 years. (piano mic)It says You're hella gay, I'm hella straight, but you're like my brother, so be my date. I've cid that askg Anthony would be somethg thathe would very much enjoy beehe always go to danc aloneand he always talks about how badlyhe wants a guy to take him to is straight and I'm gay, and that's okay.

STRAIGHT TEEN ASKS GAY BT IEND TO PROM

[Anthony] It all started outour sophomore year of high two years now, he joed stunt uncilof sophomore year and I had been stunt uncilhman and sophomore 'd always go to each other whenever somethg happenedand I gus we jt beme bt iendsdog that kd of, the both look so good on you door. I am the stunt uncil advisorat Dert Oasis High school district is very tolerantand our kids jt unrstand that's jt not acceptable to talk about peoplebased on factors they n't chango gay, straight, you know, know, and I thk the reasonthis story is so amazg is beethey were beg jt didn't thk was a big al, where the rt of the world is sayg you are so 's sayg I don't even get really tly didn't even get see my kids really brg about some chang jt, jt warms my some people 's jt really hard to grasp that the future's like turng around, like I get mak me happy knowg that I am fortable enoughto take a guy to the he's not even gay, he's jt mak me really happy'e if you would've told me that at eleven years old, I would've told you you're lyg to to have fun tonight.

Jt a is a ke that Anthony's nt bought I origally had , the sayg that I wanted on the ke wasYou're gay, he's straight. (pop mic)It's jt not normal for a straight guyto ask a gay guy to prom. (pop mic)I said well I'm stubborn and I wanted to go wh a guyand I wanted to show that 's okay to go wh a guy, which is why I waed for a guyand he didn't have to be gay and he didn't have to date meand I didn't exactly say I want a straight guy to ask me.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?

In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out. In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.

Gay Water, however, is out and proud. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny. “Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh.

PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH

He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail.

Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water. “Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch.

Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said. Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.