Feeling defeated
I'm a Gemini (M27) and I went on a date recently with a guy (M29) in the Astrology community. It wasn't off a dating app. We just share a mutual friend.
I'm gonna be honest, I knew very little about Astrology going in. All I knew about it was my birth sign. I've seen people online and stuff treat it like religion, then I saw people saying it's not.
I don't know. I don't care.
Went on the date and everything was going really good. We did the basic back and forth you do on every date, but it wasn't boring! Easily the best start to a date I've had in a while. We were both in a good mood, I think. At least in enough of one to laugh and joke about classes.
Once that was out of the way, we started talking about stuff that actually interested us. And he brought up Astrology. We bounced back and forth about it. I'm an open-minded person, so I didn't wanna treat them like their interests/beliefs didn't matter. I wouldn't want someone to do that to me. Eventually, we got around to our birth signs. He asked what I was, and I told him I was a Gemini.
I could tell right away that he didn't want to hear that. He frowned and said something along the lines of "But you're so nice?"
Cue confusion. But I didn't want to be disrespectful, so I didn't prod. Looking back, I probably was within my rights to catch an attitude, but confrontation and I aren't friends. I basically ran out of questions by the time dessert came, so he started asking me about past relationships.
He asked if I was a cheater. I said no. Then he told me he didn't believe me. As if he was genuinely gobsmacked at the idea that I wasn't a POS because of the month I was born in.
I went pretty quiet after that and just let him talk. It went downhill from there. I'm not comfortable typing out everything he said or asked. I just felt really uncomfortable. It triggered a lot of the bad feelings I have about growing up in the south and being visibly gay and the crap I got for that, even from family. But I didn't wanna leave in the middle of the date, because he's pretty popular in our friend group. And if he was willing to assume my intentions or straight up insult me or my body to my face, I didn't want to give him more ammunition to use behind my back.
It's been a few days now. Neither of us reached out after. Which is good, cause I just feel drained like I had a phone call with my father.
I know Astrology is super popular, and I don't date much, but I can't help but feel defeated. Is this a common conclusion in the community? Is there anything I can do about it? I don't want to be pressured into lying about my birth month just so people will want to tolerate me in a relationship. It's really easy for me to fall into the glass half-full mentality.
TL;DR: Told my date I was a Gemini and it went about as bad as it can go. Now I don't know what to do.