#89gate

prefacing with this: you don't have to take me seriously, I am heartbroken over the finale, so I am coping. but, being cursed with analysis skills, I can't not make this post. I've just noticed way too many things.

okay so. I feel like I'm going insane but conformity gate is so real (to me). even my brother was saying that the vibes were so off in the epilogue. it felt like Camazotz.

it starts off by showing us Robin, looking a lot more feminine (femme lesbians exist btw!! but Robin has always been shown to express herself in a more masculine way.)

she's also wearing a huge cross earring on her left ear (I'm not able to see what she's wearing on her right ear). the only other person who wears big cross earrings like hers is Tammy Thompson.

Robin's dialogue is highkirkenuinely suspicious, too. I'm sure if you go back to it you'll feel like something is off.

the first thing they show us is Steve, now coaching baseball. BASEBALL. in case you're not sure why that's alarming to me, baseball (and sports in general, but mainly baseball) has always been shown in a negative light in Stranger Things. it represents conformity, abuse, and violation. in season 1, we see Jonathan talk to Will about how Lonnie played baseball with Will, but never did anything Will actually liked. in season 2, when the party is looking for Dart, Will gets assaulted and violated by the mindflayer on the school's baseball field. in this same season, Ted tells Mike "you're on the bench, son" and Mike gets irritated and upset with Steve when Steve uses a sports analogy. he says "this isn't a stupid sports game!!". Mike also shows some hostility towards Lucas for playing basketball.

and then in season 5, we see Max in her memory labyrinth. she's in the rainbow room, but she tears through a poster to get to her memories. it's a baseball poster, and it zooms out to show us Mike.

and to open up the epilogue with Steve as a baseball coach is just so weird. and then Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan's outfits are all very Mr Whatsit suit like. very weird.

and just for good measure, because she really haunts the narrative, Tammy is singing the national anthem in the scene we see her in. on the basketball court. and the epilogue has so many American flags up everywhere? it just feels so weird and intentionally Camazotzy.

also, they told us to watch Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (ESOTSM). Mike is dressed exactly like the main character, Joel, and Will is dressed like the main character's girlfriend, Clementine.

this is something they've done before, like dressing Lucas and Max in outfits that the main couple from That 70s Show wears.

If you don't know what the plot of ESOTSM is, basically, Joel and Clementine break up, and Clementine undergoes a procedure that erases her memories of Joel. Joel, heartbroken upon finding out, undergoes the same procedure and erases Clementine from his memories. Joel has to go through each memory.

I feel fucking insane, but birthday gate is screaming at me.

when people saw Holly wearing under armour, they went to edit it out. but birthday gate? no, it's still the same date on that camrecorder. they didn't bother to cut that out, and they keep making references to it.

and then, they make Henry share the same birthday as him?? like, no, you can't "forget" a characters birthday and make the antagonist have the exact same birthday as them lmao. you have 365 days to choose from. they definitely didn't forget... but it's unaddressed... so what the hell?

I truly, truly think this might have something to do with ESOTSM. when we see the "For Will" mixtape promo, it says "bar" at the top, with blue and yellow lights. We see Will meet Carlton at a bar, but there are no blue or yellow lights or a mixtape. Rink 'o mania (rink of craziness or insanity, which is how I feel right now) famously has blue and yellow lights, and it also parallels the gay BAR shown in Dawson's Creek (the show the D*ffer's love Dawson's Creek). It was Jack McPhee's first time at a gay bar, and Jack McPhee is paralleled to Mike, not Will. (see here)

Mike obviously isn't in this bar where we see Will and Carlton, but he is the one telling the story. In Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, Joel (Mike's name was originally going to be Joel btw... which is the main character in Eternal Sunshine, but also a character in The Last Of Us. Joel is Ellie's father figure, and Joel from tlou actually parallels Hopper. With all the familial mileven parallels, this is quite interesting to me), and Clementine have a very important scene at a bar.

there is an argument at said bar (like the "in the closet (at rink 'o mania)" argument) and some other stuff takes place there. because Joel's memories are actively being tampered with, some people who are in that memory were not in the original memory, and there are a lot of out of place things because obviously, we don't remember everything like it's a photo. they have to start the process a few times over again, actually. I think there are 3 times we see this bar, and each time, the memory is a little different.

considering the fact that rink 'o mania has a mindflayer shaped decoration over it, idk if this is a coincidence. remember: rink 'o mania is where all the time fuckery started.

where birthday gate started.

in the credits of that last episode, we see Mike and El holding hands while skating at rink 'o mania. Will was supposed to be between them, but he's not, in that drawing. they erased him

in the rink 'o mania scene, we also see El hitting Angela with her rollerskate, and this is a direct parallel to Henry hitting that man in the cave with a rock. she is then taken as prisoner, and Mike says "are the handcuffs really necessary?" because no, Mike, handcuffs aren't really necessary for you to be imprisoned. Holly and Max know that.

in the epilogue, when Mike is sitting next to Hopper on the bench, (where we have a big ahh American flag looming over them as well a red light turning green over Mike's head) he's wearing the exact same shirt that MJ wears in Spider-Man No Way Home... and in The Crawl, Will is wearing the same clothes that Peter Parker wears. at the end of Spider-Man No Way Home, MJ has her memories of Peter erased. she remembers everything except Peter.

there's also something to be said about Max telling Holly (who is Mike, according to Max) that she needs to look for things that are out of place in order to get out of that memory. Holly notices that the disc of the roundabout is supposed to be yellow, but in this memory, it's gray.

when we look at the playground, (play ground?? oh playgate) the swingsets are all different. we have a blue and yellow one, the one that Mike and Will meet on. in the show, we also see that the swingset changes colours and even physicality. we have a blue and white one, as well as a blue and red one. we have a two legged one, and we have a three legged one, and we have one where the swing seat is broken, and we have one where there's a bench next to it. it's so meta, as Max tells us to look for things that are out of place. the swingset is right there. don't even get me started on the dial being gray and then red.

and then, in the final scene, Mike says he sees Will the Wise in a faraway land where he finds acceptance in a big city.

this is quite literally SMALLTOWN BOY. Mike, that's YOUR song.

when Robin was talking about "the replacements", did she mean "make a deal with God and get him to swap our places", as in, Mike and Will swap places?

Mike introduces El to Mr Clarke as his cousin. Nancy also mentions having a real cousin named Eleanor.

Will and Carlton are the names of the cousins in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. "this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned UPSIDE DOWN." why are Mike and El framed as cousins and why are Will and Carlton, too, framed as cousins?

Will felt alone when Mike and El were together. now, Mike feels alone.

Will talks about how he just wants to play dnd and Nintendo in Mike's basement forever and ever. but Mike is the one who ends up doing this.

then, the songs Smalltown Boy and Should I Stay Or Should I Go are used for Mike and Will respectively. Will completes the Smalltown Boy prophecy... leaving his small town, and moving to a bigger city to find acceptance. Mike, however, chooses to stay in Hawkins. "If I stay it will be double." and, from California Dreamin', "you know the preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm gonna STAY."

also, Mike, our left handed character, wears his watch on his left hand this season. and Will, a right handed character, wears his watch on his right hand.

and in Mike's imagination, every ending feels sooooooo byler coded.

Max and Lucas go on their movie date, but in season 3, Will and Mike went with them.

his theory about El is that she's living a lovely life, at a place with 3 waterfalls (we only see her with two waterfalls though, and a rainbow over the cliff. El is rainbow brite and Mike and Will are her twinks lol.)

and Will? Will is our meeting someone at a bar. like rink 'o mania.

like the scenes from ESOTSM.

Joel, from ESOTSM? played by Jim Carey. Truman, from the Truman Show? also played by Jim Carey.

and Will is wearing a similar shirt to the one Sylvia, Truman's real love interest (as opposed to his fake, "perfect" wife who is only acting) (Will's eyes look brown in the picture below btw... which could mean nothing)

we also have this rainbow next to Mike and Holly, and the blue line says "reach for the clouds"

and Mike saying "she'll never understand. why I can't walk the stage" like OHHHHHH they think they're SO funny.

also, "It's Karen, she can't find Mike" is a direct parallel to season 1 when Will goes missing. Joyce calls Karen, and Karen says "it's Joyce, she can't find Will" and tells her that Will left around 8:15.

Robin walks behind Mike (and he is centred and focused in that scene) when she says "yay!! another kidnapping plot!!"

MIKE WHEELER BLINK TWICE IF YOU CAN HEAR ME.

...okay so... maybe I'm starting to be convinced there's a secret final episode...

In this video I've compiled the references we get to Enzo's in seasons 4 and 5, and the dinner and dessert parallels. You don't have to watch the video to understand the post but I've added it for clarity.

The innuendos are literally the same but don't get Robin and Vickie's Enzos date and just Joyce and Hopper's? Why?

Homophobia? Quite possibly. But then why make the parallel in the first place? If they wanted to queerbait they'd already learnt their lesson with El/Mike/Will that tying queerbait to a beloved ship sinks both. They even say something similar themselves about the Dustin/Max/Lucas love triangle, and then they intentionally dragged out the Steve/Jon/Nancy love triangle so that both ships would sink. How easy would it have been to just have Robin and Vickie in Enzos for some brownie points?

So. Say that wasn't the case and we have another episode, wouldn't this read like a meta reference to two finales? Dinner first then dessert later?

At Enzo's Joyce and Hopper order filet specials. They don't get their promised dessert either?

We could almost say that... they eat meat... but they don't get pudding... I could swear that sounds familiar..?

Is Mike the person being told to stand still behind the bike stands?

But then the epilogue opens up on a shot of someone literally putting another brick in the wall, Dustin literally has a struggle with his teacher, and Mike's college dorm has yet another reference to Pink Floyd's The Wall. I don't think that's a coincidence. They've reenacted the whole song at that point.

Also! It goes further back than that! In season 1 Dustin finds the chocolate pudding the dinner lady has been lying about and hoarding. But what happens before they can eat it? Literally the same events that are paralleled in episode 8. The government finds them, El sacrifices herself, Mike is traumatised, Will escapes, everyone moves on with life but something's still off. They're the exact. Same. Events.

No one gets any pudding.

Are the Duffers the kids? Are they saying Netflix wouldn't allow their ending unless they did this? Is that what the pushback was in production? Is it social commentary that's been planned from the start? Middle aged white man audacity? Are they just not interested in breaking the cycle? Is Robin's apology to Vickie for lying to her but promising they can still get dessert together a meta way for the Duffers to apologise to us? Absolutely no clue.

But I'm hopeful dessert is still on its way.

Episode 7, just before the opening credits:

Episode 8, also just before the opening credits:

This is my own personal theory for how Vecna and the Mindflayer took over Hawkins. It started at the end of Season 4, and by the Epilogue of Season 5, all the characters were affected.

I'll do a basic rundown, and then get into my explanation below. For brevity, I refer to "Vecna and the Mindflayer" as "V + M".

Here's the basic rundown:

When Vecna opened the huge X-shaped gate (S4 Ep9), he caused everyone to breathe in the Upside Down spores – these spores made it easier for the Mindflayer to take over their minds later.

V + M aimed to take over the minds of everyone in Hawkins, but they started with the kids first. After that, they "cursed" our main characters to be next.

When Will saved Mike in Sorcerer (S5 Ep4) by remembering their childhood memories, he accidentally caused Mike to become V + M's prime target.

Everything that takes place in Hawkins is real, up until Shock Jock (S5 Ep5). Around the time Will is put into a trance by Vecna, reality starts "glitching".

Parts of S5 Vol 2 are real, and parts are not.

The Upside Down may not actually be a wormhole (there's a "hole" in the theory).

By the 6th of November (S5 Ep8), everyone is under Vecna's curse – however, the vision we are shown in the Epilogue is heavily centred around Mike, the heart of the Party. He is no longer the Dungeon Master; he is just a storyteller who isn't in control.

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THE UPSIDE DOWN SPORES

Whether it was real or not, that final battle was a total red herring; they may have defeated that giant roaring flesh monster, but it was NOT the Mindflayer.

Just take a look at the Abyss. It’s yellow, dry and hot. But the Mindflayer “likes it cold”, so why the hell would it ever stay there, when there's an option much more tailored to its preferences?

The Upside Down is always cold, it’s always dark, and its air is filled with mysterious, currently-unexplained spores. 

Throughout the series, characters ask countless times whether the spores are toxic. “Is this shit safe to breathe?” Nobody has a clear answer. Isn’t it such a coincidence that ever since the gates opened up, our characters have been acting “reckless”, and “not [themselves]”? We are told this multiple times, but we don’t have a definitive answer for why. I believe these two unanswered questions are connected. 

When the Upside Down’s atmosphere leaked into Hawkins, and everyone breathed it in, it made it significantly easier for Vecna and the Mindflayer to slowly infiltrate their minds. Remember how Will first got possessed? HE BREATHED THE MINDFLAYER IN. 

That’s why spores appeared in Billy’s mind when he was flayed. That’s why Vecna and the Mindflayer opened the massive X-shaped gate in Hawkins. Everyone breathed in those “springtime snowflakes” in Season 4. Now, everyone is ultra-susceptible to the hivemind. Perhaps that’s why the military has quarantined everyone and forced them into mandatory medical checkups.

Now… let’s go back to the Mindflayer for a moment. If it doesn’t live in the Abyss, but in the Upside Down, then what's the significance of the Abyss? It's significant, because the Upside Down is technically NOT a wormhole at all…

THE HOLES IN THE WORMHOLE THEORY

Remember what Erica said? “Wormholes are neat because they allow matter to travel between dimensions WITHOUT touching the space between.” The Upside Down is the space between. How is it possible that everyone can not only touch it, but travel freely within it? 

As Dustin and Mr Clarke point out, wormholes are supposed to be extremely volatile, and collapse immediately after being created. Why is this wormhole so different? Dustin questions this himself. Sure, the “exotic matter” is keeping it stable, but what is the exotic matter, how did it get there, and what is keeping the exotic matter stable? Furthermore, why is Will framed in the middle of the wormhole at least three times throughout the show, suggesting he is somehow responsible for the so-called “exotic matter”? Additionally, why are the diagrams in Dr. Brenner’s journal so detailed when he’s “not much of an artist”? Finally, Dustin never fully decoded the journal, which means that canonically there is still information the characters do not know. 

This wormhole theory is full of holes. It’s clear that what we learned in the show is NOT the full story.

I believe that Vecna planted a fake journal as evidence for an incorrect theory that he knew would throw everyone off from his real plan. At most, the Upside Down is simply a dimension sandwiched between two other dimensions; our world and the Abyss. It is shaped like a wormhole, but it isn’t truly a wormhole. Will has something to do with the “exotic matter” holding it together; he’s framed in it for a reason. 

The Abyss may be real, but that final battle wasn’t. Where were the Demogorgons? They were shown roaming the terrain in Season 4. 

NOVEMBER 6TH

By November 6th, everybody was put under Vecna's curse. The title card we saw was all wrong; it didn't say the time, and it didn't say the location. This is a strange departure from the show's previous style.

This would be the PERFECT moment for a parallel! We all know how much the Duffer brothers LOVE their parallels. It would add to the intensity of the moment... so why no parallel?

It's almost as though they're not in Hawkins, and their sense of time has been disrupted. Where do we know that is "stuck in time" (possibly even completely timeless)?

The Upside Down.

As for the claim that Vecna wasn’t expecting an attack? MY ASS. He manipulated them into doing exactly what he wanted. By letting him follow through with his plan on November 6th, they fell right into his illusion. Vecna told us himself. He told us exactly what would happen.

“I have travelled far and long beyond our dimension. In my travels I discovered another world. A world far from earth. This world is much like ours, only good, free of monsters and darkness. It is the light.”

That's why there were no Demogorgons in the Abyss. That's why nobody got injured like they did just days ago. They had ridiculous plot armour because there was no darkness allowed.

“As the light reaches the darkness, the light will expel the darkness."

In the Epilogue, Jonathan says, “It’s too much light, it needs diffusion,” then puts the curtain back up. When light is diffused, it appears softer, it spreads more, and it REDUCES HARSH SHADOWS. No darkness allowed.

"...Your loved ones will be saved, and you… you will be heroes.”

Holly's loved ones (Mike, Nancy etc.) were "saved" when the worlds merged, along with everyone else in Hawkins.

What song plays during the credits? Heroes.

“Tomorrow… tomorrow it begins.”

And it did.

WHO FIRST?

Since the spores infected everyone in Hawkins, Vecna and the Mindflayer have had easier access to their minds than ever before. They were going to take over everyone’s minds, so it was never a matter of “who”, but “who first”?

And… again, Vecna told us already. He went for the kids first, taking advantage of their “weak” minds to use them as “vessels to reshape the world”. They’re not just vessels, though. Children have their own power; their imagination and optimism. He connected them to the hivemind and immediately took control, using their combined power to construct an elaborate false reality, free of monsters, and full of comfort and happiness. 

(No wonder Will was the first pick; a sensitive, imaginative artist who turned his drawing of Castle Byers into reality.)

After that, it was ridiculously easy to take over more and more people’s minds without them even knowing they’d been taken over. Our main characters were next, since they were the most likely to stop Vecna. Mike was especially important, given his connection to El, and especially Will, Mr. Honest-To-God Real-Life Sorcerer.

Please rewatch Shock Jock (S5 Ep5), and fast-forward to the moment that Will is thrust out of Vecna's mind. Everyone runs towards him.

When Mike goes to reach out to Will, he suddenly pulls his arm away, and his sleeve GLITCHES FURTHER UP HIS WRIST. Vecna already has some form of control over the characters minds by this point, because they've been acting "not [themselves]". Now it's like Vecna is editing Mike in real-time, preventing him from getting too close to Will and breaking the vision.

Remember: even if you don't see him, Mr. Whatzit could still be there.

During Volume 2, reality began to glitch more and more. Objects changed colours, characters stole each other's lines, and it's really difficult to tell what's real and what's fake.

After that, it was easy for our characters to relax into their comfortable happy illusions; they defeated the big, bad monster without even a scratch on them, they drove back into Hawkins as heroes, somehow bypassed the military, moved on from El's explosive death, graduated with confetti and a speech, and they all lived happily ever after.

I reckon this quote from Mindy Flair on WSQK’s final day sums everything up nicely...

“Spreading, connecting, becoming something larger… we really took over this town, didn’t we?”

Everyone's trapped by Vecna's curse now. But who will get them out? Well, the person who is the key to keeping them all trapped...

MIKE: THE HEART, THE BRAVE, OR THE STORYTELLER?

“Getting to Mike, now that was the key.”

When Will saved Mike, he did so by remembering their childhood memories together. However, by doing this, he accidentally cursed Mike to become Vecna’s prime target.

Vecna knows all of Will’s thoughts, his memories, his secrets. Vecna knows that to Will, Mike is “the heart of the Party,” and “without heart, [they’d] all fall apart.”

Did you notice how Mike was totally absent from Will’s second memory flashback when he woke up from his trance?

When Vecna tormented Will with his vision of a future where everyone drifts away from each other, he was able to bypass the strength that Will found in his happy memories with Mike. Now, Vecna has found ANOTHER way past: Will is living a future that is absurdly comfortable and happy; he's already happy right now, he doesn't think he needs to be saved, so he doesn’t need to remember his happy memories.

Meanwhile, Vecna uses him as a vessel – a builder. (Will is an illusionist, with the innate power to construct subtle false realities.)

Will is the builder of Vecna’s illusion, sure, but Mike is the storyteller. He may not be consciously controlling the narrative, but by keeping Mike trapped in his vision, Vecna is able to keep everyone trapped; therefore, Vecna must tailor the vision to suit Mike in particular, more than anyone else. This is why the Epilogue centres on Mike.

Mike is the guy who always notices when things are off. He comes up with plans, gives advice, and even though he can lash out sometimes, he still fiercely protects the people around him. He is deeply connected to both Will and Eleven, the two people who are most capable of defeating Vecna.

If you can get to Mike, you can get to everyone.

This is where Mike directly parallels his sister Holly. Remember, Max tells her, “You’re not like your brother – you ARE your brother.”

Henry tells Holly she’s clever, and that he’s glad he saved her first. Because if you save the clever one first, then the others will follow their lead; if the clever one thinks it’s okay, then everyone else trusts them. The same applies to Mike.

This is why Mike is the MOST IMPORTANT character when it comes to everyone escaping the vision. Mike is allowing the narrative to stay out of his control. He knows something is wrong, but he chooses to believe things are fine. That's why Mike's new label of "master storyteller" is incredibly fitting.

As long as Mike keeps telling the story that everything is fine, everyone will believe him.

"I believe," "I believe," "I believe."

Mike chooses to believe a lie, therefore he cannot discover the truth about his false reality. As long as everyone believes him, they can never escape.

Throughout the show, lying/hiding vs. telling the truth are HUGE themes. "Friends don't lie" has been repeated since Season 1. Moreover, bravery and truth are associated with each other; Henry himself tells the kids, "You are brave enough to know the truth." Well...

Mike "the Brave" has NOT been telling the truth.

I'm just gonna say it. Just like Holly felt her Holly the Heroic persona was a lie, Mike believes he is too scared, and can never be Mike the Brave. He is queer and in love with Will Byers, and he is too scared to admit it.

“Just as you lie to Jane, you also lie to yourself.” This line was spoken directly to Hopper, yet it also applies to Mike, who was deliberately included in the scene.

That’s why it was so important that Vecna separated Jane (possibly keeping her stuck in her own personal vision), and kept her away from Mike before the Epilogue portion of the vision began.

Just like the director of the Truman show manufactured Truman's trauma to keep him trapped in his show, Vecna manufactured trauma for Mike, leaving him wracked with guilt about Eleven’s death, keeping him helplessly stuck believing in a false story; meanwhile, everything else is so perfect that he doesn’t want to move on, either. Just like Will, his false reality is full of "comfort and happiness"; he doesn't want to remember his trauma, or his happy memories – and with Eleven no longer directly in his life, he won't confront the lies he had been telling her, either. That's in the past now. He can tell himself she’s living happily far away, move on like everyone else, and keep himself in limbo, never confronting the truth.

But he needs to.

It is only after confronting the truth that Truman is able to confront his false reality. The same is true of Mike.

He needs to face the false reality of "comfort and happiness" that he is trapped in. He needs to confront the trauma and lies he's kept suppressed for years, admit his queer love for Will, and get himself and everyone else out of this "Never-Ending Story".

It's all on Mike.

THANKS + BONUS PREDICTIONS

Thanks for reading my theory! You must be just as insane as me if you were willing to survive that avalanche of text. Now, I don't believe any future episodes are necessary for all of this to make sense. However, if there are any more episodes announced on Jan 7th/12th (which I sure fucking hope for!!!)...

...Here are some bonus predictions!

Mike is the KEY to escaping the vision. Vecna keeps you trapped with your trauma, secrets and lies; Mike is a "storyteller" (AKA a liar). He needs to stop living in fantasy, accept his reality, and admit the truth about his trauma, his queerness and his love to truly become Mike the Brave.

Eleven is still alive, but she has been separated from the others. Vecna can't let her enter anyone's mind, or she'll break their illusions.

Will is broken out of the curse with music from a tape labelled "For Will" (this merch hasn't appeared in the show... yet). Mike probably made this tape with Jonathan's help.

Mike and Will play "central roles" in the finale, as Shawn Levy mentioned in an interview. Byler is not just canon, but crucial to saving everyone from the curse.

Bonus notes:

I've been cooking up elements of this theory since Season 5 Vol 1, and it was only after the finale dropped that it all came together – in part thanks to the conformitygate tag, which helped to revitalise my excitement for the show and provided me with some evidence that I hadn't noticed before!

So thanks Jess, and everyone else who has participated in the conformitygate tag. I wouldn't feel so excited, and my theory wouldn't be this comprehensive without you all!

.-. . .- .-.. .. - -.-- / .. … / .- -. / .. .-.. .-.. ..- … .. --- -.

let me ask you simply, do you know what the word “comform” means? Are you sure? Here’s the dictionary definition:

Comformity gate was built off of the idea that Micheal Wheeler is stuck in a mindscape of his own or Henry’s and is living out a false reality whilst CONFORMING to HETERONORMATIVE society.

I completely understand that the theory has gone mainstream. I am glad that it has gained so much traction. What infuriates me is that everyone in the GA is straight washing this theory that has its roots in the queer community. That is unacceptable and incredibly disrespectful. That’s like if Will came out to that entire room full of people and then they spat on him. Honestly, if you didn’t know that it was originally (and still technically is) a byler fan theory, that’s totally okay. Ignorance is something that exists and you can’t necessarily blame anyone for being ignorant, per say. HOWEVER, the people who do know where this theory originated from and choose to contort it anyway need to either shut the fuck up or grow the fuck up. Gay people exist, a lot of us are goddamn smart, and we deserve as much recognition and respect as any other group of people.