Myself

Growing up in a town of less than 1500 citizens offered little or no diversity at all. I grew up around others that belittled people for their beliefs, color of skin, or sexuality. When I moved to downtown Grand Rapids one of the first people I naturally ran into was my neighbor in the house next door. Right away when I met David I automatically knew that he was gay. Months went by without anyone in my household or me talking to our neighbors. After this long period of time I noticed one night that they were having a get together and I thought it would be a good time to say hi and finally get to know everybody a little better. This would be the first time that my friend and I have ever gone out of our way to party with a group of homosexuals.

Coming from only small town experiences, going to this party was slightly a big deal to me. I have never been at a party where I was practically the only straight guy there. I really didn't know what to expect of this. Were these guys all going to hit on me, would I freak out at the site of two males kissing, or would it just be a good time just like any ordinary party? These were some of the ideas that I was pondering but yet willing to deal with for I really didn't know what to expect by walking the 20 feet to my neighbor's house. It turned out to be an experience I would never forget.

Prior to entering the house I could tell my friend was obviously nervous. He even went out of his way to tell me that he was extremely homophobic and he wouldn't be able to deal with someone showing interest in him. I knew that I would be able to handle myself but my friend was slightly intoxicated and rambling on about how he didn't want to hang out with "fags". The only discrepancy that I had to make was the crazy techno music that was blaring out of the front door and onto the streets. After dealing with Brandon's bickering for about an hour we finally decided to enter the house at around 2:30 AM.

After we walked through the doors the first most obvious thing was that there were only 2 girls there with the company of about 20 men. Instead of trying to leach onto the only girls in the house I decided it would be a good idea to work my way through the crowd to find my neighbor David. After a little searching and losing my friend I finally discovered my neighbor in his kitchen. He seemed shocked to see me at first but came out to say that he was glad that we finally decided to come by and say hello. At this point I was still feeling a little uncomfortable but I figured I'd use my time wisely and get to know my neighbor a little better.

The whole time I was talking to David I kept thinking in my head "I wonder if he knows that I am not gay?" For one reason or another I decided it would be a good idea to let him know what I was thinking. He reacted in a jokingly matter saying how it was very obvious that I was straight and not comfortable at the party. This made me feel better immediately and I apologized for making it an issue. We went on to talk about how things were living in my hometown and how I wanted to get away from all the closed-mindedness that I grew up around. After throwing stories around for a while we both heard a rather loud argument going