Never thought I'd be posting in here. Funny how life can go sometimes.
Anyway: I have a friend who is, despite being one of my newest friends, pure awesomeness. I love her to bits already, and anything I can do to make her life better, I will. Including helping to get rid of the whole 'single' thing I can already tell has been a source of frustration in her life for years.
Minor problem: She's gay, and I'm a guy. As much as I'd love to, for obvious reasons there's nothing I can do about the above on a personal, individual level. Still, I've no problem going to gay bars and / or Pride events with her for the sake of moral support and letting her know she's not alone in there, but that's where the second problem comes in: She's very shy. Any more than about 5 people talking in a room and she does a psychological 'nope' out of the situation.
The great thing about Pride events as well as most of the gay bars we've been in so far is that they're often a case of every LBGT person in the region descending on a town center / nightclub etc., which makes it a total clusterfuck. As cool as this is in general, it's exactly the kind of environment my friend will shut down and keep to herself in the corner when put in. I don't blame her: I do it myself whenever I'm in a room so busy I can't hear myself think, let alone hold a conversation at normal speaking volumes.
Me going with her to all the usual events just seems to result in the pair of us sitting quietly in the corner and not actually going up to any girls to say hello. Makes the whole point of being there with (and for) her a bit pointless, which is why I'm currently looking around for anything LGBT-friendly, but on a much smaller scale (see: 5 people above). She's not shy in smaller groups at all, but regular small groups run into the old problem of most people not being gay and therefore from a simple probability standpoint, the people she meets via regular small-time shit aren't likely to be sexually compatible here.
So, looking for a super-cosy LBGT-friendly activity / event to try. Does what I'm describing resemble anything that already happens in the LBGT community, or is this something that will need a bit of organising? I draw the line at setting up grown-woman play-dates here (after all she is an adult, gay or not, and the actual starting of relationships is up to her), but if I can find or make the conditions in which she's comfortable breaking the ice with other girls, that sounds a hell of a lot better than what I'm currently doing.
No, there will not be any watching or recording. Or retarded chat-up lines out of me. No guarantees about retarded chat-up lines from her, though. :P