Hey, everyone,
I’m a gay allosexual greyromantic. I experience very narrow romantic crushes every five years or so and I really don’t know what to do about them. Here’s a brief history of my romantic and sexual orientations.
In my 20s, I became comfortable with the fact I was gay, but I was still stuck in a very heteronormative view of the world. I saw casual sex as somewhat immoral and undesirable. I tried to date but couldn’t find anyone.
In my 30s, I started having casual sex and quickly realized that I didn’t want a boyfriend. I loved casual sex and never formed any romantic attachment to any of the guys I had sex with, even though I found them physically attractive and even though many became friends with benefits.
I’m now in my late thirties and have recently discovered the aromantic spectrum. Hurray! However, I’m not fully aromantic. Over the years, I have had about three strong romantic crushes, and a few others that weren’t as deep. Each one of these guys turned out to be straight or, quite possibly, too deeply in the closet for anything to happen.
It turns out that, when it comes to sex, I’m attracted to a lot of very different types of guys. But when it comes to these romantic crushes, there is only one type that does it for me, and it is a ridiculously narrow type. I’m talking a specific eye colour, hair colour, skin tone, personality, body type, and age range. I think I finally realized how this type came to be. It was a movie I saw when I was coming to grips with my sexuality, and one of the characters in that movie seems to have imprinted himself onto my brain. Whenever I meet a guy who fits that character, my brain produces these romantic feelings that I otherwise don’t develop.
I can imagine myself spending the rest of my life alone and being happy… but I can also imagine myself in a long-term relationship with the guy I have a crush on and being equally happy.
These crushes are pretty devastating when they do happen, because they have never been requited. They linger and they make me feel like I may be missing out on something.
Then again, I can’t exactly create a profile on a dating app and list the ridiculously narrow type that I’m looking for. I’m also worried about leading a date on. Coming out as greyromantic on a first date and explaining the above seems overly complicated and likely to leave him confused.
If I were to try and explore this side of myself, how would I do that? I don’t experience romantic attraction to 99.99% of guys out there.
And if I keep not exploring this side of myself, how do I deal with these occasional but brutally impactful crushes I will keep getting once in a while?
I know this is a strange situation, but any help or advice you can give me will be welcomed. The friends I have aren’t part of this community and they haven’t been able to help.