The danger of accepting everyone equally
I'm awakened at about 1am one morning by a phonecall from my mate Eric (name changed to protect the meek). This is nothing unusual. Normally it'd be to tell me he'd just bumped into a D-list celebrity in the pub, or had climbed a church spire with a bottle of Buckfast in his hand.

But this phonecall started off quite different.

"Subchimp, help! It's 1am, I'm walking home from the club, and some bender is following me home and he's going to spear me in the arse"

Christ, I thought, he's obviously gone overboard with the tequila this time. I asked: " Okay, 1, How do you know he's gay? 2, How do you know he's following you? And 3, if he is gay, what makes you think he's going to shag you?"

Eric: "Cause he told me so."

Me: "Ah . . "

I could hear his quick footsteps down the phone as he trotted at lightspeed, but even then I was sure I could hear a camp voice shouting his name in the background."

Eric gave me a quick recap of the events. He'd come out of a nightclub with a group. While waiting on his kebab he'd noticed his so-called mates had started shouting homophobic abuse at some guy they vaguely knew.

Eric was appalled at his mates' behaviour and went over to the guy to apologise, telling him: "Sorry about that mate. They're just a bunch of pricks. We're not all homophobes though, so don't let them get to you. Have a good night."

At that Eric walked away.

The young gay gent took this as a come-on and started following Eric around. Eric put the guy straight, for want of a better phrase, and told him he wasn't gay. But the guy wasn't listening.

Gay guy: "How about I go home with you?"

Eric: "I told you, I'm straight, now please stop harassing me."

GG: "I don't think that's true. I'm coming back to yours."

Eric told the guy to leave him alone and walked away, only to have the guy keep following him.

This brings us back to the moment Eric had called me.

By now it's clear that he's not just paranoid. there is a gay gentleman following him with every tintention of shagging him against his will.

At this point I can hear another voice down the phone. "Who you talking to?". There's a brief struggle before the gay guy gets a hold of the phone and now starts speaking to me, telling me of his intentions.

Again I told him: "You do know that my friend isn't gay right?"

Gay Guy: "Yeah, but he'll learn."

Me: "Ok then. Well have fun. Say, could you put Eric back on for a minute please?"

GG: "OK"

Eric: "See? Told you?"

Me: "Eric, he's a fucking lunatic he won't take no for an answer. He's seriously got a screw loose There's only one thing for it. Run like fuck!"

Suddenly the phone is filled with the rapid footsteps of a terrified Eric fleeing up one of the steepest hills in town, with the would-be suitor's camp wails in the background: "Eeeeerrrrrrriiiiicccccc!".

Gradually the voice in the background faded and Eric made it home.

He'd dodged a bullet that night, but I later asked him why he'd phoned me. Turns out he'd rang the last person on his phone just to get advice simply because he didn't know how to react.

Had he been female, and followed home by a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer then the options would have been clearer. If a girl hits a guy who won't leave her alone, she's standing up for her rights.

But Eric ran out of options when the gay pursuer wouldn't take no for an answer. Words hadn't worked and had he hit him, Eric could have been up in court for an allegeged homophobic attack.

Makes you think.

With equal rights must come equal responsibility.
(Barry Subchimp, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 12:54, 6 replies)

It's not funny cos it's true
Clicks lots
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:14, closed)

yeah
but nobody is going to claim your friend was wearing a provocatively tight shirt, whereas the number of times the clothes a girl was wearing is brought up, or it is subtly hinted that she was a bit slutty is hardly marginal.

Click for the story though
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:35, closed)

What a well-written crock of shite.

( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 15:11, closed)

Buggery hells!
Almost literally. That would have been rape! And it was harassment! If a woman can get done for rape, why not a gay man? You were a witness on that phone. I'd have whacked his bloody head in with a shovel!
( vix0r was not Matthew on, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 15:30, closed)

A gay man CAN be done for rape
of another man, I mean. Sexual Offences Act 2003.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 16:00, closed)

Although
I would have not been that worried by this, as I'm sure I would be able to overpower a small single gay man, there are exceptions, like the gay men you see holding hands walking through Soho at the weekends, they are built like shit brick houses :O I would fear for my anal virginity if one of them got stalkerish.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Thu 8 Apr 2010, 11:23, closed)