Should Straight Men Be Offended Over The Advances of Gay Men?

It is a tale as old as time: gay men hitting on men, some of them gay, some of them straight – and the straight men reacting in all sorts of ways to these advances. Propositions like this have given rise to all sorts of situations, from straight men respectfully declining, to those who react murderously and killing the gay men who approach them (hence the reason why Gay Panic is a defense against charges of hate crime in some courts of law), to those who come on social media to ridicule – and out – the gay men who propositioned them.

Are any of these more negative reactions to gay propositioning deserved? Is it valid for straight men to be offended by the advances of gay men?

Twitter user @simsimmaaz recently took to the microblogging site to lecture straight men on how wrong it is to get upset over the advances of gay men.

“Do straight men know they can just say ‘sorry I’m not gay’ and leave it at that? The extra dramatics and homophobia is very tired and juvenile,” they tweeted in a thread that ended with the clarification that they are “not talking sexual harassment…that’s a reason to be upset.”

Check out the tweets below and the reactions of some of those who responded.

Let’s also take some time to reflect on the tweet of this person who thinks that the advances of a gay man who plays top means there is something wrong with his masculinity. (Because, of course, to be presumed Bottom is to be presumed less a man, right?)