How to Have the Perfect First Gay Date

This is a guest author post by Peter Minkoff.

When first dates are concerned, I am never fully looking forward to those. First of all, I am extremely excited about meeting somebody new who might make me feel like the only person in the world (Do I hear wedding bells?), while, on the other hand, I’m probably stressing out too much about it. What if he doesn’t like me? What if I don’t like him? How many times have you complained about your date after the actual dinner or drink? Probably a couple, so let’s try to see how not to do that again. Based on my experience, these are the top 3 ways on how to have the best first date with any guy.

1. Do the necessary prep
First of all – don’t stress and plan everything in advance. It would be great if you could choose the venue for the date, as it’s always better to make him play by your rules and go to a place that you’re comfortable with. This definitely works for me, as there were a couple of dates that I had in rather unusual and uncomfortable places, which resulted in me not being quite in the mood. So, choose your venue first. After you settled that, it’s time to think about your outfit – make sure not to overdo it, as you don’t want to come across as somebody who’s trying too hard. Pick something that you know fits you nicely and accentuates the features you like about yourself. Also, get a haircut a couple of days before the actual date to look fresh but not straight-outta-the-barbershop, as it might seem a bit trying-too-much.

2. Keep the convo going
Now let’s talk about the most important part – the actual conversation. Let me tell you about the best date that I had, regarding conversation. It was a couple of years ago, and I decided it would be good to take him to my favorite coffee house, as I think that these daily cups of coffee are excellent for getting to know each other. So, we talked over a cup of my favorite and strongest coffee as I wanted for both of us to be fully concentrated on the date. It turned out that this guy likes coffee as much as I did, so this proved to be an excellent way to get the conversation started. We spent three hours at the same coffee shop, talking and laughing; and I still think of it as the best first date ever, mostly because nobody was interviewing anyone. We simply wanted to know more about the other person and shared our experiences.

3. Humor is everything
I always try to rely on my humor when it comes to first dates. Sometimes I tend to try so hard without thinking if my kind of humor is appropriate to the situation. There was this guy I went out with several years ago, which ended after the first date only because he was referencing so many instances of pop and gay culture that at one point I was like “OK, this is too much”. So, just keep it light and fun and all the puzzle pieces will fit to their place.

To conclude – be yourself but think about the other person. Even though you want to show him what you’re like, don’t be an open book – then why would he stay there? Good luck!

Peter is a gay lifestyle writer at Gay Republic* magazine. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.

Title photo by rawpixel via Unsplash

*you can also check out my guest article there (It's called 'When is the right time to tell him how fucked up you are' - online now).