Like he will take you on the best dates, he will give you the best cuddles and he will love you as much as he can

Ye!

Extension of this post!

I said before that Patton gets involved with LGBTQ+ orgs, and he does it pretty publicly because the more awareness he can help raise for these orgs, the better!

Virgil, several years down the road, supports similar orgs but quietly. He does a lot of donations and sponsorship stuff to help out too

Logan lives and dies by “Pride Is a Protest” mantra. He’s spoken at protest rallies for LGBTQ+ rights and such, and does his best to amplify the voices of those really at the front of the rights movement. 

Roman gets pretty passionate about asexuality awareness and visibility, especially because of the volume of misinformed interviewers he engaged with after he first came out as ace. 

Logan also becomes vocal about LGBTQ+ youth and mental health concerns. His whole philosophy is basically “I am in a position of social power and privilege where I can be safely out and vocal about these issues, so my silence would be my acceptance. And I refuse to accept this without at least trying to fight for a positive change.”

What I’m saying is that Logan has a bit of punk to him in this AU. I mean... they all do, but Logan especially.

Also like. I know you said “the boys” and probably meant the Core 4 but Remy? is always lowkey bursting with Pride (pun somewhat intended) at all the ways the boys embrace their own and each other’s identities

Once he was asked in an interview if he ever wished the boys were different when it came to that (namely that Logan wasn’t so vocal about queer justice issues) and he had half a mind to walk out of the interview. What he actually did was quirk an eyebrow at the interviewer and was like “honey, if you think I wish Logan was quieter about the issues he’s tackling, then you’re not listening to him in the first place.” 

One of Roman’s songs on the “Us” album tackled his internalized aphobia. He doesn’t perform it live very often because it’s... emotionally challenging for him to sing. At first because it drudges up a lot of those insecurities, then later on because it reminds him of how much he used to struggle with it.

Once in an interview with all four of them together that was dealing predominantly with queer identity and music, the interviewer asked “what advice do you wish you could go back and give to your younger selves?” and nearly in unison, the four of them said “it gets better.”

Anon, this is my favorite kind of ask so sorry if I just ramble forever about it: But! 

Headcanons about the boys lgbtq+ activism for the Boy Band AU

the boys go to pride every year--even before they all come out. Basically as soon as Logan comes out, they all start going to Pride every year. 

A couple years in, after all of them have come out, they get invited to headline some Pride Concerts, which is pretty cool and they get real excited about. 

It’s always some of their favorite concerts ever. 

Logan is the most politically vocal of the four of them, but none of them are silent on it. Logan just tends to be the most outspoken and also the most well-spoken. 

As they get older, years down the road, Patton gets pretty involved in nonprofit work for lgbtq+ youth (Trevor Project, GLAAD, etc.)

They definitely do Q&A pride panels sometimes. Sometimes just one of them is invited (like “trans musician panel” inviting Patton, or “ace musicians” panel inviting Roman, etc.) but sometimes all of them get invited. 

Logan and Roman are the most likely to attend protest marches, with Logan going the most often of the four of them. Virgil gets too anxious and nervous to attend lots of protests (though he has been to a few) and Patton usually stays with Virge if he stays out of it. 

Ask any of them, and aces, aros, and aroaces belong in queer spaces. 

Virgil has the lowest patience threshold for lgbtq+ ignorance. Logan is patient as long as the person is willing to actually listen and learn. 

Pride is Roman’s favorite time of year, tbh. He’s always Full Tilt Extra with it. He spent so long hiding, and not only does he never want to go back to that, but he feels like if he can be loud and proud but also vocal about that past of repression and hiding, then other kids will see him and realize that things can get better and they won’t always have to stay hidden. 

Logan reads a lot of queer theory because the best way to combat ignorance, according to Logan, is with straight facts

Remy goes to Pride with them a lot! He’s actually the first one that ties Roman’s ace flag around his shoulders the first time he goes to Pride sporting ace merch and just says “knock ‘em dead, gurl”

Roman gradually gets more vocal about his experience of being ace. He’s still never quite as vocal on queer justice issues as Logan is, but he thinks being ace is an important part of his identity that the media (especially in the beginning) kept trying to erase. So Roman just got Louder About It. 

Thank you so much!!

Exposure Therapy (about ace!Roman trying to come out to his bf, Virgil) is a fic I wrote this year that is very close to my heart. I had tried to write about my experiences with internalized aphobia before, but I was afraid to really lean into it. I decided to lean all the way in for Exposure Therapy, even if it meant laying bare some of the thoughts I’ve most struggled with. I think that vulnerability from a writing stand-point is why Exposure Therapy is much, much better than the other fic I wrote last year where I tried to deal with the same thing. 

One more detail-oriented Director’s Commentary thing I can add here is in the following lines:

“Again.”

Roman’s room.

“I need someone who can actually love me like an adult, Roman.”

“Again.”

Virgil’s room.

“You’ll be alone forever if you don’t get used to it.”

This falls during the more rapid-fire scenarios of Roman’s “coming out”. But I decided to have these rejection lines tied to their respective rooms with intention. Since Roman is generally seen as the “romantic” Side, I decided to have that particular note of rejection deal specifically with the concept of love. Virgil’s room–where Roman’s anxiety (and therefore his insecurities) would be most heightened–forces out Roman’s deepest fear about being ace: that it will always result in him being alone. 

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved romance. I love the cuddles, hugs, hand holding, soft kisses on the forehead, cheek, hands, caressing one's sleepy face, spooning chest to back to help calm one down, massaging each other's scalp to help relax... just that kind of stuff.

Everyone told me (society and family/friends) that meant that I had to have sex with that person. I wasn't allowed to just do those things with just anyone. It had to be a romantic partner because all that stuff was just build up. It wasn't important.

But it was!!! And it is!!!

Nothing makes my heart as happy as simply holding hands with my partner or cuddling with them after a long day at work for both of us or warming up their hands in my jacket sleeves because I'm naturally warm blooded.

Getting back to Roman, I love that so many of us see him like that, too. A hopeless romantic in love with love, someone who cherishes his significant other in soft actions like I listed before instead of what society would throw on him.

He's the romantic side-- he has to be sexual because sex is the truest form of love!

^^That's what I expected to see in this fandom but it isn't what I got at all.

Seeing Roman like this makes me so happy because I never thought I'd see someone like me in anything.

So anyone who has ace!Roman in their fics (not just Grae or Isa, literally everyone who has ever done it), I just want to personally thank you for not assuming a character based around romance has to like sex. My thirteen year old self thanks you-- and so does twenty nine year old me in the present.

Love you guys! ❤

Okay so long post is long but I had a Lot to Say about this. 

I’ll put it under a cut to spare anyone who isn’t interested.

Boy Band AU Taglist: @virgil-is-the-moodiest-mood, @withspaces, @iampengwing, @thecatchat, @bitchwannatryme

Coming Out to Each Other (the first time):

Logan and Roman know about the others’ identity since high school. But they never out one another to anyone else.

Roman is the first one that comes out to the band as “gay”. He does this a month or so after the whole “Virgil tries to resign” thing, now that they’re getting closer. He does it offhandedly, almost. They’re hanging out at a beach and a cute guy runs by and asks Roman for directions and when he leaves Roman’s like. “I’m so freaking gay.”

Virgil’s just like. “Same, which is how I know he’s out of your league” (teasingly) And Logan adjusts his glasses and is like “I prefer my men with a bit more sense than he did. How do you not know what ‘north’ means?” ((he was not a smart guy, just a cute one)) Meanwhile Patton, in swim trunks and a tank top sitting under the umbrella squints up at them and is like “I can’t say he was pan-dering to my tastes. [pause] Get it? Because I’m pan?”

Logan’s eye roll and Virgil’s snort makes Patton grin.

And for a while, that’s all there really is to it.

But then...