My [20F] friend/acquaintance [25?M] outed me: should I confront him?

Non-Romantic

Hey guys. Some background on me: I'm 20, studying at university, and am a lesbian. I work in this café where there are lots of employees, and ranging in age from around 19 upwards (most of the employees are around their late 20s though). I've been working there for almost 3 years, and because of my awkwardness and fear, only a handful of the employees know I'm gay.

A few years ago, this one guy that works there kind of bullied my sexuality out of me. We were at work drinks, and basically he just kept asking me questions about my relationships until he wore me down (keep in mind, this was the first proper time I'd ever spoken to him). I had pretty shitty anxiety at the time, so, though I felt a bit violated when he continuously asked me these questions, in some way I thought it was my fault for being anxious and weird about the situation.

Time has gone by, though, and I've barely spoken to him. I never really thought about that incident after the EMBARRASSMENT and bad feelings subsided after that event, and we didn't ever really work together, so I never really saw him.

Flash forward to a few days ago, and there were work drinks and a party/dinner in the evening. I arrived at this bar cause a friend of mine (who didn't know I was gay – I was scared to tell him) had texted me to meet there instead of going straight to the party. There was only 4 of us after I arrived: it was me, my friend, another friend of mine, and this guy (who's more of a distant friend/acquaintance). Not 5 minutes into sitting with the group, the weird distant guy says, across the table (we were diagonal from each other): hey, have you got a girlfriend yet? I felt awkward, and I knew everyone had heard. I just said, kinda calmly, 'nah, I'm single' (was hoping maybe that could be interpreted neutrally? Look, I'm scared to talk about my gay-ness). He then said, 'you out yet?' and he had this kind of mean-ish attitude. He then just kept going, saying like 'you told me like 2 years ago, you still not out? Still in the closet?' like it was something I should be ashamed of. My other two friends – the one next to me, my closer friend – was looking kinda awkward, but my friends kept talking to each other. It was suggested by someone that I swap spots with the friend next to me so both my friends and me and this other guy weren't talking over each other. I go to sit opposite the guy, where my friend was sitting, but the weird guy scoots over so there's space on his side of the bench (that's already being sat on by 2 people – it was in a small booth) and says I should sit next to him. I didn't really want to sit next to him, but I gave the situation the benefit of the doubt and sat next to him anyway. After sitting down, he continued to ask me incredibly invasive questions (asking me about why I haven't come out, my sexual experiences, if I watch porn), and then started lecturing me about my sexuality (his girlfriend is bi – as if that gives him some unique insight that I'd have no idea of). It was obvious, throughout, that I wasn't enjoying the conversation and didn't want to answer questions, but I was trying to stay civil and kind-ish. Eventually, one of my friends interrupts and asks if I want some more beer, and I say yes, and said something like 'thank gosh for interrupting, the conversation is way too intense'. The weird invasive question guy then says something like, 'oh really?'. I briefly considered backing down but was like, actually nope, I'm really uncomfortable and this is uncalled for (so I said ‘yep’ or something).

Long story short, of course my friends then knew (we were pushed up close to them in a booth, after all). Later, my better friend asks me about it, and we have a heart to heart. I think he was offended that the other guy knew and I hadn't told him (and for nearly 2 years!) but was really supportive and didn't mind my sexuality. I'm glad my friend knows, but I don't feel in any way comfortable about what happened. I've felt sick to my stomach for days, and the whole experience left me feeling very violated. In no way do I think that the aquaintence's actions and what he said to me was okay. Just before writing this reddit post, I wrote out my feelings about what happened, and expressed how what that guy did was not okay to do (as if I was speaking to him, or writing him a letter). Should I send it to him? And if that's too formal, should I confront him in a different way? I want to be able to stand up for myself – too often people, particularly women, get pushed around, and I've been pushed around quite a bit in my life but never had the self-esteem to stand up for myself – but don't know if it's a good idea. I don't want to make the whole work situation and friendship group weird, and bring that confrontational element/drama into relationships. In saying this, I don't know how I could pretend what he did didn't happen if we ever met face to face again – I'm not going to pretend it was all okay.

Not sure what to do :/


tl;dr: This distant friend/acquaintance outed me in front of friends and I was left feeling violated. Should I say something?

Posted Aug 25, 2017, 11:42 AM UTC

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