Done Wrong

...ates with guys who shoved their hands down my pants in public. One time when a guy asked for my number in Target, he began to fondle my nipple when I was putting it in his phone. I’ve been sexually harassed at work and pressured to have sex after saying no. I’ve looked to some older, wiser friends and mentors for support about some of these experiences, but I am often told that I should “enjoy the attention while I’m young” or that I should expect this behavior because of how my body looks and how I dress. Some of my friends have told me not to take things so personally and that some guys just see me as their gay Black fantasy come to life. Is this really what I have to look forward to in my romantic journey? Parts of me wonder if some of my challenges are about my blackness. I know this is not always the case, and honestly there’s a feeling of shame to even bring this up as if I’m using my race as an excuse for my problems. But my experiences have been so different from my white friends and mentors that I’m unsure. I’m seeing a therapist who is a person of color who has been helping me with my blackness and sexuality. But my big question for you is this: Am I doing something wrong? Or am I navigating the same challenges other queer people of color face? All Around Confused Your therapist is both better qualified and in a better position to help you parse the challenges imposed on you as a queer person of color, the challenges imposed on you by your experiences growing up, and the challenges you may be imposing on yourself. But I will say this: there’s nothing shameful about wondering whether your blackness—along with other people’s racism, your own internalized antiblackness, and other forces beyond your control—may be interfering with your happiness. But I will say this, AAC: You deserved better from your family and friends growing up; you deserve better from your friends, mentors, romantic partners, sex partners, and strangers at Target now. You should be able to wear what you want without guys touching you without your consent. No one should be pressuring you to have sex you didn’t explicitly say yes to and/or have already explicitly said no to. And if being someone else’s “gay Black fantasy come to life” was something you enjoyed doing—if stepping in and out of that role was something you wanted to do for yourself—that would be one thing. But you shouldn’t be consigned to that role by strangers, AAC, and it troubles me that your friends think you should have to tolerate it, much less embrace it. As for whether you’re doing something wrong… There are guys out there who’ve done everything right and still haven’t managed to find—into their mid-30s—a relationship they want. Remember, AAC, it’s not as simple as finding a guy who wants the same relationship model you do, i.e., the loving and monogamous model over the loving and non-monogamous model. You have to find someone who wants what you want and that you’re sexually compatible with. It should go without saying that sexual compatibility is hugely important in sexually exclusive relationships, but I’m saying it because people enter into sexually exclusive relationships with people they don’t click with sexually all the fucking time. (Seriously, some weeks it’s half the mail.) But sexual compatibility by itself isn’t enough. You also have to find someone whose career, life, and family goals align with your own. And at some point, AAC, you will have to compromise. You may find a guy who wants monogamy but also other things (kids? poodles? tit rings?) that you do not. Or you may find a guy you click with sexually, emotionally, and socially but who doesn’t want monogamy or won’t want it forever. You may not want it forever. To make a relationship work over the short term, you will have to negotiate and make compromises; to make one work over the long term, you will have to renegotiate and make additional compromises. Two final things… First, I’d like to invite gay or queer Black readers to jump into the comments thread and share your experiences and insights with AAC. And if you’ve never seen the film Tongues Untied, AAC, you might want to sit down to watch it. Marlon T. Rigg’s 1989 documentary about what it means to be Black and gay in our culture is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago. Everyone should watch it. Would you mind reminding your gay male readers that it’s rude to take pictures of strangers in public? (I guess men do this to masturbate to them later?) I’m a straight man who has lived in Seattle for four years and what gay men do to random male pedestrians here ranges from nuisance to battery. It’s usually innocuous: I’m walking down the sidewalk, a gay man and his friends see me, whisper together, start giggling, then one of them pretends to take a photo of their group when they’re really taking a photo of me. This happens every half mile. Other times, gay men straight up just take my picture. Sometimes one will step directly in front of me, hoping to bump into me for a “meet cute.” Yesterday, I was walking, and I see three 50-year-old men huddling together, and when I looked up all three were taking my picture. I ignored it, but I hate it. I kept walking but three other gay men were up ahead, and they stepped directly in front of me to block my way. One of them intentionally took a big step to the side, and when I was still passing, elbowed me “accidentally,” then turned to me laughing and said, “Oh, sorry!” I’m sure most gay men would claim to never engage in such behavior. But when they get in groups, they allow their friends to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. It’s cowardly and it needs to stop. Sneakily Taking Other Peoples Pics Is Completely Shitty Gay men in Seattle: Let straight guys walk down the street in peace, please. Don’t look at them, don’t take their photos, don’t step in front of them, don’t bump into them, and don’t laugh when they’re walking past you, lest they assume you’re laughing about them. And since you can’t always tell straight guys from gay guys, bi guys, pan guys, ace guys, omni guys, etc., etc., etc., I’m afraid this long list of don’ts applies whenever a man happens to be walking by. Cisgender, transgender, agender, bigender, etc., etc., etc., keep your eyes down, your phones in your pockets, and your elbows to yourselves. There you go, STOPPICS. I hope that helps. But just to be clear: Looking isn’t the same thing as leering. No one should be touching you without your consent, of course, and there’s nothing “meet cute” about intentionally running into someone. And conspicuously taking someone’s photo can be a form of leering, and assholes have been known to use their phones that way. But street photography isn’t a crime; it’s been an art form since the invention of the camera. And sometimes a group of gay men will notice a guy, check him out, then return to the conversation they were having—or the laugh they were sharing—before they noticed the cute guy walking down the street. As we saw in the first letter in today’s column, gay men sometimes treat other men like objects. But that’s a problem with men generally, not gay men specifically. If you were to join a support group in Seattle or anywhere else for people who can’t walk down the street without attracting unwanted sexual attention from men, you would find yourself in a room filled almost entirely with women. So, while I’m happy to remind gay men not to be creeps, STOPPICS, that’s a reminder all men need. Why would a straight, married grandfather post pictures of his feet on a gay foot-fetish website? As a gay foot-fetishist, I can hardly complain, as I am the one getting the benefit. (Some of these guys have extraordinary feet.) But their motivation? What would put the idea into their heads to do such a thing? None of the straight men I know would ever think about doing this. I just can’t get my head around this. Fapping Over Older Toes Possesses Enjoyable Recreational Value First, a few questions for you, FOOTPERV: Is there a gay foot-fetish website that exclusively features straight grandpa feet? Or are we talking about a regular gay foot-fetish website with a section devoted to straight grandpa feet? Or was a particular gay foot-fetish website suddenly flooded with photos submitted by straight grandpas? Can a girl get an URL? As for what might motivate a straight grandpa to share photos of his feet… There are hundreds of thousands of hot straight boys on TikTok actively courting attention from gay men—straight boys with good hair and abs who are coy about their sexualities and/or actively misrepresenting their sexualities for the views, clout, and free underpants—so I think we can safely infer the existence of a few straight grandpas who would be willing to share photos of their feet. All of us, old and young, live in the attention economy now, FOOTPERV, and a straight grandpa with great feet might want some attention bucks. And since very few people can be identified from foot photos alone, the usual bar to sharing pics on a fetish website—being discovered, judged, and shamed by the whole gang at The Villages—is lower. As for what put the idea of posting his feet pics on a fetish site in grandpa’s head in the first place, FOOTPERV? I’m guessing a queerbaiting grandson came for a visit and showed grandpa his TikTok. [email protected] Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast. Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at savage.love.