A man has used a mathematical formula to prove everyone is gay — sort of
Everyone’s gay, according to this equation (Pexels)
A post on Reddit which uses maths to ‘prove’ that straight partners are gay has gone viral.
The equation, which has prompted a huge reaction on Reddit, follows a study earlier this year which showed that no-one is 100 percent straight.
This latest offering is less scientific, but makes up for this obvious deficit with its hilarious contents.
It all makes sense — in a way (makorringa/reddit)
Redditors certainly seem to agree, with the post from Alexander — whose username is makorringa — attracting around 19,500 upvotes since it was submitted to the SuddenlyGay subreddit.
The premise is simple, if grammatically a little suspect.
If you have two men in a relationship, you have one gay couple. Therefore, a member of that relationship is half a gay couple.
A happy gay couple (Amir Levy/Getty)
The formula is, of course, the same for women.
So far, so logical. But here’s where the maths gets slightly… creative.
Alexander explains that, if we hold the previous sums to be true, “1 woman + 1 man = 1/2 gay + 1/2 gay = gay.”
Therefore, he argues that “straight couples are gay.”
Straight couples are gay, according to Alexander (Pexels)
Commenters were happy to accept this mathematical development, with one pointing out that “2 women = lesbian. 2 men= gay.
“1 woman + 1 man = LesbiGay. LETS BE GAYYYY.”
Another pointed out that there was a more inclusive result hidden in the portmanteau, writing: “Les bi gay.”
And others got in on the Halloween spirit, spoofing “Monster Mash” to write out fictional subreddits in a sequence which read: “They did the math. They did the monster math.
“They did the monster math” (reddit)
“They did the math. It was a graveyard graph. They did the math. It cosined in a flash.”
And even if, as many people in the comments have pointed out, the maths may not work perfectly, it’s important to normalise LGBT+ people and relationships through everyday subjects like maths.
That was part of the reason why Stonewall launched a guide earlier this year which was designed to help schools build an LGBT-inclusive curriculum to reflects the diversity of people’s lives and experiences in modern Britain.
The guide, which was sponsored by Pearson, included ways in which LGBT+ issues could be reflected in secondary school subjects.
It’s important that children understand LGBT+ people are a normal part of life (Scott Olson/Getty)
For example, the maths guidance suggested a lesson on codebreaking — incorporating the story of gay computing pioneer Alan Turing.
A maths problem about a gay couple went viral in April, after it was tweeted by Ireland’s Got Talent 2018 semi-finalist Paul Ryder.
The drag performer showed a picture of a question which appeared to be in a school textbook and read: “Craig buys his boyfriend a birthday present that costs €215.65 including VAT @ 13.5 percent. What was the original bill before VAT was added?”
Above the photo, Paul wrote: “Friend of mine is a teacher and just sent this to our WhatsApp group saying she’d never seen anything like it before. ❤️ “
