One story my husband shared with me was when he and my dad stopped into a local bar after working hard on home renovations all day. They planned to get some dinner and have some beer after a hard day's work but needed to wash their very dirty hands first. So they went back into the bathroom and washed their hands. Well apparently that was too "gay" for the owner of the bar and they went over to the bathroom and started saying things like "I don't know what you think you're doing in there" and "I just need to make sure you're not doing anything funny". So they ended up just leaving while the guy yelled at them saying they had to buy something.
A slightly different version of this concept also happened to my husband. At one point, 2 of our lady friends were talking about fashion and my husband, who is MUCH more fashionable than I am, chimed in. They proceeded to tell him that he's "not allowed to have an opinion because he's a man" which is the most double standard bullshit I've ever heard come out of any of my friends mouths. It's stuck with me for a long time now because I think it keeps me honest with myself about standards and reminds me to think about how opinions change when you flip genders.
Dance. In a troupe full of girls. Honestly, it was me and 15-20 girls.
Other boys literally called me gay for dancing, while they went and played whatever sports they did and then all went into a locker room and showered together etc.
I honestly never understood how they thought dance was gay. I don't understand it now.
I've had a colleague say that tea is "homo water". I'm aro/ace, but most of my colleagues don't know that. Similarly a straight colleague of mine got mocked for wearing pink (but not feminine) shoes. After some of these incidents we've kinda started pushing back against this nonsense by deliberately triggering these people and calling them out, which has worked so far.
unisex clothing == male clothing
so still cant buy anything with colors or style or anything even mildly feminine without the gay thing being thrown around
Playing tennis.
In jr high I had some friends who played football say my other friends and I on the tennis team were gay for playing tennis.
I had to point out to them that the tennis team was co-ed and we regularly made out with our female teammates on the long bus rides to tournaments.
While those on the football team were constantly manhandling each other, showering together and slapping each other on the ass to say "good game." But the tennis team are the gay ones?
They got mad, but dropped it.
Wearing a chain.
Chain necklace? Gay
Chain bracelet? Gay
Chain wallet? Also Gay
Chain mail. Well now you're a dork. And also Gay
I got called gay for wearing a kilt in america. What's funny is I had my girlfriend as well as a female friend with benifits with me at the time. I didn't even bother responding.
I've heard plenty of guys say that doing any kind of ass play, even with a female is gay.
Wipe your ass.
I remember kids telling me I was crossing my legs in a gay way. I asked them who said so, and they said their teacher. That was the first time I realized some bullies grow up to be teachers.
Wore a maroon coloured hoodie
The dude who asked me this also stared fixedly at the crotch of my board shorts and asked me "where's your package, man?" upon me exiting climbing out of a (cold) plunge pool
I clearly looked confused, so he says "where's your piece?"
Dude clearly spent a fair amount of his time cataloguing the outlines of flaccid penises through boardshorts for whatever fucking reason.
I was offended, ish, till I heard the growers vs show-ers thing. Mine retracts while not in use, it's quite convenient.
Around 2010ish I was thoroughly enjoying some Bells Two Hearted and other IPAs. My brother (2 years older) tried arguing that bud light is man's beer, and my beers were fruity and girly. It certainly doesn't matter to me, but the irony of choosing bud light, out of all the macro beers, is just 👨🍳😘>
Have a wider choice of underwear. Some beautiful individual in another thread put me on to “gay” underwear… comfort settings I’d never dreamed of. I’d feel contained performing CPR in these badboys. Apparently this clothing change is the first step on the road to man love - according to the absolute brains trust I’ve had the pleasure of working with for the last couple of months.
Use ranch dressing. I was informed that was for gays and city folk only. I really had no response to that nugget of wisdom.
All of the comments here are reminding me of how life was 20 years ago and also before I was married with kids.
I genuinely don’t fucking care how feminine somebody thinks something I’m doing is if I’m comfortable or enjoying myself. I’ll drink pink drinks all day if it fucking tastes good LMLML bro.
I was just walking to work one day, when I got heckled in the street by some random guy singing at me:
"Earthworm Jim, you're so much fun to play. Earthworm Jim, you're tall, you're thin, you're gay!"
I've never been more seen.
when I finished high school and was talking with friends about going to uni, a few of us were talking a out renting a place together when we got into uni to be close (instead of 2 hours away like we were). another friend we should never do that because people would think we are gay. obligatory he is a Christian fundamentalist who is highly likely gay himself
These are all example from decades ago growing up in the 90’s.
I was called gay for not liking soccer, like it’s gay to not watch men chase a ball in shorts.
I was called gay for wearing UGG boots as a dude. Like if we even want to accept gay as an insult, I would argue the person bothered by such things as what shoes one is wearing is more fitting of an insult.
Fun fact. When I had a house mate who was gay, it was very difficult not to use gay as a word for something that wasn’t fun. Like this show is gay. He didn’t mind, but still wanted to stop.
Are we talking gay or gay?
That word gets thrown around a lot without actually meeting homosexual. Most of the time it's just used as a tasteless replacement for lame.
wearing colorful clothes (wtf)
It's a tie between licking ice cream and saying something is adorable.
Fuck my bf in the ass...
Use my fancy tea cup at work
Bathrobe.
Cry.
Sucking dick.
One time at school I decided to randomly put a flower on my shrt from outside, then my friend started frantically saying "That's gay bro! Take it off now" and refusing to walk with me in public if i didnt take it off
Wear a kilt?
TBH I've never tried and nobody told me it was gay. But I'm a sweaty person and I would love to air out my crotch except for fear of social criticism.
Wear white socks. Srsly.
Using black eyeliner.
Listening to Frank Sinatra singing about women by a guy who used to play grab ass with men. They always find something to project their insecurity on to.
Use a tote bag
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The one and only thing was the way I held my wrists/hands when I was younger/into my teens. What's super weird is it was my dad who brought it up and mentioned it a lot but he is super supportive of lgbtq+ that's the weird thing to me.
I can do anything.
Sleep with my buddy on same bed.
Kiss my homie
kissing your son
Looking at my fingernails while my fingers were on top of my palm
