The Network

Every so often, when someone finds out that I'm gay, they'll pull out a fact along the lines of, "Oh, my best friend/uncle/random classmate is gay/lesbian, too!" and then they get really excited and either look at me for confirmation that I, too, know this person, or they immediately start plotting how to introduce the two of us.
Every so often, when I'm feeling a bit snarky, I'll jab back with a comment like, "Oh, yes! I've seen him at the meetings!" Fortunately, I've never had anyone actually believe me.

But I'm only half-kidding. There's a network. I don't know how it happens, but I'll go to add someone on facebook that I meet somewhere, who happens to be gay, and they'll have several friends in common with me that I'll know from some completely separate social circle... but the only people from that circle will be gay. And then later, that person will start to show up in other people's mutual friends... I don't know how it happens. But it seems that they all know each other... and I say "they" because I have not observed this phenomenon in myself. And perhaps that's because I've been in Oklahoma for such a short amount of time compared to the people who have lived hear for however-many years... and perhaps it's because I'm not capable of judging myself accurately. At any rate, it bewilders me.