I am the origin of the above post. And as many of you have likely figured out, the story I shared with the world in spring 2013 was heavily dramatised for comedic effect.
Until then, I had shared the story with mostly just IRL friends. They loved the story, always asking me to tell it again. And at the time of posting, they were the majority of my followers on Tumblr. I posted the story for them, to make them laugh. I didn’t even tag it.
No joke: I posted, went to dinner, came back to find it all over my dash reblogged from people who were Not Me.
Since then, I’ve seen it shared on Facebook, Youtube, Reddit, and others. My own mother shared it on Facebook without having the slightest idea (I still haven’t told her). The share that inspired this post the most, is whenever it crops up on r/thathappened. Because when it gets posted there, my reaction is primarily, “I mean, it did...but you’re also not wrong.”
The original experience happened in 2009 or 2010. While the clash between Gay Avenger + Creepy Guy did in fact happen in my proximity, I was nowhere near attentive enough to catch all the details in-progress. I was on the dance floor and hating every second of it (fact: I stopped going to clubs shortly after this, because I despise the experience), suddenly some guy is shouting and flipping out and running. I ask some people wtf just happened (I thought maybe it was some violent crime because I always assume the worst), they fill me in with some basic details to ease my anxiety, I move on.
Later, I fled the dance floor because I hated it there, and retreated to the upstairs area where a bunch of Elder Gays were singing Alanis Morissette karaoke. One of them gets to talking to me, I mention what happened. He spins stories of other such incidents, comments that many clubs he’s been to in his Many Years have a dedicated Gay Avenger (although he didn’t use that term) who takes it upon himself to repel creeps, and shares a few additional stories. Over the years, as I shared the story with others, I was told other similar stories that had happened at different clubs. All of these secondhand stories, I assume, were likewise dramatised.
What ended up posted on Tumblr was, essentially, the amalgamation of my experience, plus the stories shared with me afterward, plus my own storyteller flare. The whole thing was exaggerated and given some “oomph” to make my friends laugh. Because that’s who the target audience was: my friends, who I wanted to make laugh.
And then the whole train clapped.
I suppose the entire reason I’m even making this post is: I want to set the record straight. What happened in that story was not “real” in that it was a word-for-word account of an actual event. It was “Inspired By True Events” in a very, very Hollywood fashion.
But it was not wholly fiction. It has its origins in reality--as, I believe, many quintessential "Tumblr Stories" do. I had never anticipated the fictionalised account would gain the traction that it did; but it happened, and I want to put the reality out into the ether. Because it's important to me.
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