I just wanted to share something that happened to me that started me on the path to being an MRA. This anecdote happened when I just started college. Even though I decided to attend the college in my city, I still didn't know anyone there and I was mostly shy and timid. As a guy who grew up gay in a redneck town, I felt most comfortable (at the time) spending time around women. In the first few weeks of the semester I slowly made friends with the woman who sat beside me. I may not be openly flamboyant, but at the same time my sexuality is still obvious, so this made her feel comfortable enough to become close friends after only a couple of weeks.

She and I had two classes together that semester, so we spent a lot of time hanging out together. Unfortunately, one of the two professors did not like men very much. She graded me and the only other man in the course much harder than the female students and she would never give us an opportunity to state our opinions during class discussions. (there were other things but I dont want to make this into a novel). This professor took notice of my friendship with the one friend I made that semester and I guess she wasn't too thrilled.

One day, about a week before midterms, the sexist professor asked my friend to stay after class to discuss an assignment and told me to leave so that she can discuss it in private. I waited outside the room in the hallway for several minutes for her to come out but then decided to go about my day without saying goodbye. The very next day, in the other class we shared, I noticed that she spontaneously decided to take a seat on the opposite side of the room than me. After class, I walked over to say hello, but she seemed unnerved by my presence and said that she has somewhere she needs to be. I shrugged it off and went about my day. The next day I noticed that, yet again she sat on the opposite side of the room from me.

Finally after a few days of getting the brush off she finally agreed to let me accompany her to her next class (like I used to do every day). Except this time she seemed very agitated and almost speed walked to her next class. I also noticed that she was clutching her books close to her chest as if in abject terror. When she reached the building where her next class was, she quickly wrapped up the conversation she and I were having (I dont even remember what it was now) and practically ran up the stairs and into the building. Again being a naturally paranoid person I brushed it off as just my imagination.

I tried talking to her one more time after that but could feel that she wanted nothing to do with the friendship anymore so I backed off and just let her be. She and I never spoke again after that, and I never even saw her again after that semester even though we were both English Majors. About a year or so later, I had found out that the day the sexist professor asked her to stay behind was when she told my friend that I was a violent predator and that if she keeps hanging around me, I would attack her either sexually or physically. The part that hurts the most, and makes me the most angry is that my "friend" chose to believe the female professor over the person she had spent half a semester building a friendship with.

Sorry this is forever long, but I just wanted to share one of my definitive MRA moments.