Straight Pride

The thing was, Alex liked gay people.

He wasn't good friends with any, because he'd grown up in the countryside and people were traditional and slow to accept change, but he didn't need to be. He'd read enough in the news and through his own research to sway his mind in support of them and, when he came to university, he'd been keen to make friends in the LGBT community and affect real change.

So finding out one of his flatmates was gay was pretty sick.

Finding out Christian was a fucking asshole was not.

Alex tried, really, he did, but there was only so much he could put up with. He'd made the effort, he'd been rebuffed and he could've accepted that. What he couldn't accept was being left out of group events, the pointed, snide remarks and the silent treatment when they were alone together. It felt awful and Alex honestly didn't know what he'd done to deserve it.

Neither, apparently, did Christian. Because he'd just huffed and rolled his eyes when Alex asked him about it.

"He's an asshole." Lyssa said simply. "Just because he's gay doesn't mean he's nice."

"But he's probably had to put up with bullying himself." Because Alex still couldn't believe what she was saying. "Why would he choose to do that to me?"

"Why do bullies do anything? Because they like having power over someone else."

"And, for whatever reason, I'm that someone."

"You're an easy target, Alex, a naïve boy from the country."

He wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not. "Thanks?"

"Your problem is you're too nice." Lyssa shrugged. "You're not going to do anything back to him because it's just not who you are."

That much was true but Alex couldn't imagine the rest of his first year as it had been so far. Sure, he'd made friends and joined societies and he was getting on well in his course but he hated his flat. He'd always thought he'd make amazing friendships with his flatmates but Christian had been vicious and left him out of flat things. The rest of the guys were nice but they didn't care enough to include him and the first week, without lectures or societies, had been the loneliest.

"How do you feel about homophobic slurs?" Lyssa asked, tapping her nails on the table.

He considered it for a second before shaking his head. "No, I couldn't. That's mean."

She made a face. "Okay, fine, I get it. What about excluding him from things?"

"I wish that was a choice. We only have the flat in common and I'm not close with them. I couldn't trust any of them to be on my side."

"Have you tried ignoring him?"

"How can you ignore someone who already ignores you?"

"Huh, you sure don't make things easy, Alex." She sat back in her chair, thinking hard for something they could do. "What does Google say?"

It wasn't something Alex had ever searched up but they were desperate and they looked it up together. There were quite a few people insisting avoidance or taking the high road but Alex had tried that already for the past two months. It hadn't worked. There had to be something else they could do.

"Apparently, compassion and understanding is the way forward." He wrinkled his nose, dropping his phone on the table. "Yeah, no, Google's a bust."

"I read something interesting," Lyssa began, grinning when she saw she had his attention. "Bullies, apparently, lash out because they're scared and afraid. Which is weird because Christian is one of the most confident, vocal people I know but it makes sense, doesn't it? He's near militant about gay rights, and it's for a reason."

"That doesn't help me, Lyssa, I'm not stooping so low to do something homophobic."

Lyssa smiled, slow and sweet. "Who says you have to do something homophobic? I bet you'd annoy him just as much if you did something heterophilic."

And Alex really did want to help out the LGBT community but, before he could do that, he had to sort his own affairs. And that meant Christian.

One of the first things he'd noticed about him was just how passionate he was about gay rights. At predrinks once, a guy had made an offhand comment about gay people and Christian had gone on a full blown tirade. Alex hated confrontation, and so did a lot of other people, so it'd been an awkward ten minutes while he laid into this drunk guy.

So, yeah, Alex was expecting a pretty big response when Christian heard about straight pride day. He was actually kind of looking forward to it, too.

"What the fuck is this?" Christian stormed into his room, eyes livid and hands shaking.

Alex had been resting on his bed, reading, not expecting news to travel so fast. He took his time sitting up, a slow grin spreading across his face. "Oh, so you're talking to me now?"

"I don't think I want to, considering you're a fucking homophobe."

Another thing, Christian used the homophobia card like it was going out of fashion. Alex hated it, because he was the exact opposite of a homophobe, but that had never stopped Christian.

"And what have I done today to displease his majesty?"

It was almost comical the way he looked, puffed up with indignation.  "You organised a straight pride day. Do you even know what that means?"

"I think it's a day when you take pride in being heterosexual. It's kind of what it says on the can, you know."

"It's a day for homophobes."

"Oh, right, this again." Alex rolled his eyes. "Everything is homophobes with you, isn't it?"

He sneered, "I'm not afraid to call something out for what it is."

"Well, call it out where I'm not. Get out of my room."

"You're an asshole."

"Takes one to know one!" Alex shouted at his back.

More than ever, Alex needed the day to be a success. He wouldn't be able to live it down if it failed and he knew for a fact that Christian would never let it go. So he started actively promoting it, talking to the guys in student media, and stirring up almost as much controversy as he did support.

By far the weirdest thing was the feminist society coming to talk to him. They were surprisingly a lot more chill than he'd thought they were and, after a morning sat down in the café, the vice president and social secretary had left, happy to help him. Overnight, the number of people interested in his event tripled.

"Wow," Lyssa said, when she'd seen the number break the double digits. "We might actually get somewhere with this."

"I heard you had the local newspaper interview you."

She lifted a shoulder carelessly, "I said all the things they wanted to hear. You know, raising awareness in an unorthodox way and promoting the idea that you can be straight and supportive, despite what some might believe."

He laughed, "You could try harder to sound like you believe it."

"All that matters is that other people believe it. And the university did, didn't they? I mean, they're letting us hold the event despite everything."

"Mm, speaking of which, the feminist society were interested in having a stall."

She looked at him in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah, they're all about equality."

"Huh, I wonder if we could get anyone else interested."

In the end, they had a total of eight stalls on the concourse, which was a far better turnout than anyone had expected. There were lots of different activities from speaking to the feminists to playing games to adding to the wall of handprints in the colour and pattern of the straight pride flag. Alex might've shamelessly stolen the idea from a gay pride event but turnabout was only fair.

"Hey," Lyssa sidled up to him. "You haven't seen Christian around, have you?"

"No. I don't think he's coming to the concourse today."

She made a moue of disappointment. "That's a pity. There are some real homophobes who came along and I wouldn't mind inflicting them on him."

"Alyssa." He said.

Lyssa threw up her hands in defence, laughing. "I'm kidding, obviously!" And more quietly. "I wouldn't do that to them."

He sighed, saying. "If there are homophobes, we have to do something about them. We're the event organisers."

"No one ever told me that was part of the job description."

"Just come with me, Lyssa."

She grumbled about it but she dutifully pointed out the two guys she'd been talking about. They looked just like normal students, standing off to the side of the concourse, but they were talking to another guy and getting agitated. Alex doubted they'd start anything in the middle of campus, and he really hoped they wouldn't, but he'd been proved wrong before.

"Afternoon, gentlemen," he drawled, coming up between them, "what seems to be the problem here?"

"This faggot's trying to ruin straight pride day."

Well, so much for not starting anything.

Just for clarification, Lyssa asked, "By faggot, you mean this guy over here, right?"

The guy she was talking to looked like he actually thought Lyssa was on his side, smiling and nodding, "Yeah, that guy."

"Well, he's actually a lot cuter than you and your friend," Lyssa said sweetly, "and I don't like you referring to him with homophobic slurs so you can go fuck right off."

"What?" he demanded.

"I'm the organiser of the event, I can decide who's ruining it," and she took a sharp step closer towards him, lips curling up when he flinched. "Go away, I don't want you here."

"Whatever," he scowled, grabbing his friend and tugging him away, "your event's shit. You're probably one of them anyway."

"Homophobia's a sign of your own repressed sexual desires." She called after him cheerfully. "Have fun with your boyfriend!"

And watching Lyssa successfully emasculate someone was something that would never get old. Alex loved it.

"She's not normally like that." Alex assured the guy stood next to him. "She's usually a lot more subtle when she insults someone."

"But some people wouldn't know subtlety if it hit them in the face." She continued, moving them inside the union. "Do you want some tea, a cupcake?"

He nodded, taking a bite of the cupcake before asking, "What do these have to do with straight pride?"

"Nothing." Alex admitted. "But students like free food and we need today to be a success."

"Why?" And, before either of them could answer, he was barrelling on. "I mean, you're so different to what I was expecting and you stood up for me against those guys. Why would two people like you want to organise a straight pride event, knowing what that movement is mired in?"

"We're trying to raise awareness in an unor—"

Lyssa stopped him. "Truth is, we're just trying to piss off a gay guy. If you knew him, you'd understand. Christian is an awful, terrible person."

"Blond hair, blue eyes, has that whole Draco Malfoy sneer going on?"

"You know him!"

"I'm President of the LGBT society, of course I know him." And he extended a hand out to them. "Shaun, by the way."

"What did he do to you?" Alex asked, recognising that resigned tone.

"He didn't do anything to me but he outed one of the guys."

"Isn't that one of the worst things you can do?"

"He said it was an accident."

"He lies." Alex hissed.

"Probably." Shaun inclined his head in agreement. "But I can't assume that without proof and, as President, I can't deny someone access to a society that's meant to include and support."

"That's bull."

He shrugged. "That's the Presidency."

"Is it really that hard being President?" Lyssa asked. "I looked it up, all you guys do is meet up every other week."

"We do more than that." Shaun said, and then, "Why don't you come along to a meeting and find out?"

Lyssa arched an eyebrow. "Really? You're inviting the two co-founders of our university's first straight pride day to your LGBT soc meeting?"

"That sounds bad but," and he grinned, "didn't you say you wanted to piss off a certain gay guy?"

Alex and Lyssa shared a look and then she was answering for them with a smile. "Well, who are we to refuse an offer like that?"

In my head, Alex and Lyssa go along to the meeting not expecting much but they both get a kick out of the shouts of outrage because, to most people there, they're just the Straight Pride founders. Shaun likes them, though, and everyone else comes round. Christian doesn't.

Lydia's kind of 'ehhh' about the society because they really don't do much. There isn't any planned expansion or activity inside the society and, when she mentions it, Shaun challenges her to do better. So she gets them featured as society of the month and, later, has the university celebrate LGBT History month (February in the UK). And, when the VP's overloaded with course work, she takes over and pushes for transgender toilets, publicising them as unisex stalls so she could win over more people. It works and membership is through the roof (maybe they open to non-uni students, too - Lyssa could find a way to do it).

More members leads to more funding and there are a wealth of activities they can put on. From club nights and movie screenings to high school visits and buddy systems with LGBT teenagers, the society's never been so active.

It's on a trip to the local gay club that Alex and Christian get into an argument, as per, when Christian storms out. He bumps into some drunk guys and he's got a sharp tongue and no restraint so he riles them up to the point where they punch him. Alex, though he's non-confrontational, jumps to his defence.

After that, their relationship changes.

Christian realises Alex isn't such a bad guy and, maybe, he's been a bit too defensive and too quick to attack or judge people. The change is slow but he starts relaxing more and he learns how to take a joke and how to handle an uncomfortable situation like an adult. Alex stops being contrary as well. Against all odds, and surprising both of them, they're best friends by the end of second year.

With straight pride day, Alex thinks it's a great gateway event because it's not as full on as gay pride but it's a good introductory step to it. Shaun disagrees because of the history of straight pride and Lyssa takes his side. The uni doesn't hold one again.