Exactly, tbh i myself was in a basketball team and I'm bisexual but guys tend to be curious... I used to hold a grudge against dudes who do that lol but when u realise it, it's teens exploring shit. Porn addicts.
The amount of guys I knew who did stuff with their teammates and then blamed it on getting high or drunk -.- Like babes this has become a weekly thing. But at the same time homophobia is super rampant within sports (especially hockey) so I can understand why a lot of these guys are in denial especially since some of them freak out over wearing rainbow jersey for one night.
Also, I feel like people forget as you said exploring sexuality is a thing. You can participate in a gay act without being gay (as weird as it sounds). Like Tom Hardy has talked about messing around with a guy out of curiosity and then realizing he's not gay because of it. Also, there's sex workers who sleep with the same sex despite not having attraction to them. Several people who are in the closet, sleep with the opposite sex without being attracted to them, etc. Sexuality is pretty fluid and a wide spectrum. And so far the author has been respectful so I don't mind them adding this aspect to the MC
Thank you for saying all this! I personally know someone who thought they were straight their whole life until they met their soulmate of the same gender. They are still together to this day and they don't even think too much about what their sexuality is because sexuality is fluid and the only thing they're certain is they're so in love with their partner
While awareness and representation are important, I feel like sometimes the gay community becomes too preoccupied with labels and neglect that fact that sexuality is fluid and a spectrum (a good example is the bi vs pan debate within the queer community and no one deciding on a definition). It's important to prevent erasure as many of the comments have stated but if you then turn around and erase someone else's experience or journey you are only hurting the movement. A lot of people meet their soulmates or people they are attracted to at different stages in their lives, that go against their pre established beliefs about themselves. I think we as a community need to focus on making sure there's a safe space for these people to explore and experiment that's judgment free. There's no one way to be gay, no one way to be queer, and no one way to be bi. Sexuality and gender are a spectrum (that can change at any time) and while it's important to push back against conservative and radical straight movements, it's also important not to force your peers in a box also.
Exactly, I think there's a lot of people in the queer community that experienced similar things. And the countries where they come from also play an important part. Figuring out about out sexuality differs from everyone, and sometimes one could take a lifetime. What matters is to respect each other, and just as you said, not to force a label on other people
TBH this is probably one of the few times I don't have an issue with the author claiming a character is 100% straight and that's because of sports and specifically hockey culture.
While most people would acknowledge 2 men messing around with each other is at the very least on the gay spectrum, it's actually crazy common for men specifically hockey players to mess around with each other and it's because of p*rn. A lot of these guys are p*rn addicts or grow up in a predatory sports environment where they essentially remove all emotions from sex and see it as something completely physical and something done to someone else. This is why you hear about 'straight' men participating in threesomes, orgies, g*ng bangs, etc and claim they are straight because there was someone else in the middle (they often view sex as them doing it to someone else and with unequal power dynamics). Also because there's the myth that 'true sex' only happens when there's insertion, a lot of men will 'help' their buddy out via hand jobs and think nothing of it (heck we even see the myth that as long as you aren't 'taking,' you aren't truly gay). It really falls down to a variety of issues some being the lack of or cr*ppy sex education, p*rn addiction, the predatory environment often found in men's sports, r*pe culture, homophobia, etc. But knowing the MC grew up in a hockey environment and knowing hockey dudes personally, it's actually not surprising to see him view himself as straight despite messing around with men.