When I was a 19-year-old freshman, my friends and I were only old enough to hang out at 4 Kegs, the Nut House or fraternities.

After a horrible experience with an acquaintance at 4 Kegs, I swore I’d never go again. After unattractive guys thrust into my friend Layla while she was trying to dance with us at the Nut House, we decided to steer clear. And after my friend Brooklyn held an entire conversation with a guy who confused her boobs for her eyes, we decided to skip fraternity parties. We’d almost given up all hope of partying when we discovered something new – the gay bar.

We heard some good things about Axis Nightclub, located in downtown Columbus, and were excited to experience something completely different than what we were used to.

We spent hours deciding on makeup and denim only to be disappointed when we were ignored all night by half-naked men.

Of course we were ignored, they were gay, but it was a relief that we could finally just dance instead of being grabbed by drunk guys.

One of my fellow editors had similar bad experiences at straight bars, so she decided to try a gay bar.

“Nobody grabs you and gay guys are fun to hang out with,” she told me.

It appeared we had beat the system. Not so fast.

One of my older, employed friends was telling me about her weekend, which included bar-hopping.

“A guy hit on me and tried to take me home.”

I was really happy for her and immediately asked for details.

“I was at a gay bar,” she said. “He made out with the bartender and then started hitting on me.”

WHAT? How did this happen?

I refuse to believe he was bisexual. In fact, I don’t even believe in bisexuality, that’s just selfish. Pick a side already. I think bisexual people know exactly what they want, but they’re just putting off deciding because they enjoy the attention from both sides too much.

Gay bars are supposed to be the one place straight women are able to go and not have to worry about guys’ lewd behavior and ulterior motives.

Straight guys ruined that like they ruin everything else. They misrepresent themselves in attempt to pickup women. It makes me wonder, if they have to go so far as to attempt to meet women at a gay bar, then what are they doing so wrong that they can’t meet women at a straight bar? On the other hand, at least these guys are ballsy enough to walk into a gay bar, I guess.

Obviously women are upset about this, but how do gay guys feel? After all, I’ve never heard of gay guys going to a straight bar to avoid getting hit on.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t tell someone’s sexual preference just by looking at them. My first quarter here, I tried getting a guy to ask me on a date only to later find out he was gay.

One of my gay friends told me he can tell if a guy is gay after talking to him. His track record for guessing is pretty accurate – he’s only been wrong once. He told me seeing straight guys at a gay bar doesn’t bother him.

I’m not sure how much of that I believe. Gay guys probably enjoy straight guys at bars as much as I enjoy a bisexual woman hanging around single guys.

What do you think? E-mail me at dolasinski.1 or comment on my interactive blog at blog.thelantern.com.