I am a moderately-direct person, and I agree that "Are you free to hang out?" Sounds like a demand: Unless you have a good enough reason why you can't, I expect you to show up. This is, indeed, because it was the language used by some more controlling people in my past, and knowing that, I try to avoid a knee-jerk response when a perfectly nice friend uses the same phrase, but the knee-jerk is there under the surface. "Do you want to hang out?" or "I'd like to hang out with you." is an invitation, rather than a summons. You don't even need to prevaricate about why they may not want to. — Meg 1 min ago

+1. I can add, OP doesn't look like she/he is demanding her/his friend o be available but for sure is demanding a response and a yes/no one. For casual hangout, people prefer to answer "maybe" because there's a lot of IF: if I got money, if I'm on the mood, if Bob is comming to, if Alice is not comming to, etc. I guess people disapears because they don't want OP to be mad at a "maybe" answer and don't want to be questioned about the "maybe" motives. — jean 1 min ago

Apart from the fact I would be very careful using someone's image and personal information, the suicide would inevitably be in the foreground if you mention the person and their situation. Are you really 100% sure this is a good match to the charity's topic? — puck 1 min ago

Just a note of semantics: a frail elderly person is not facing "discrimination and bigotry" in the difficulty of opening the door. In that case you were helping a person where they faced a natural challenge, not discrimination and bigotry. — Luke Griffiths 2 mins ago

Refusing to acknowledge a person's existence is dehumanizing. It's okay to be monstrous to people only if they are being monstrous to you first. If a person is being a little bit rude by crossing a boundary in public, responding with ignoring their existence is an escalation of the pain. One is a faux pas, the other other is a serious insult accompanied by pain. Just look at them and give a firm response. Not in these literal words but "I hear you, but no" is the message you want to convey. — Luke Griffiths 38 secs ago

A statement of the form "If you date X, then I will not be your friend any more" is different than "If you date X, then I will take your air supply away". Air is a right and so threatening to take it away is coercion. His friendship is not a right so threatening to take it away is not coercion. One way to look at this is that Tom has just notified you of his policy. Perhaps it's not intended as a punishment to shape your behavior, but just disclosure of the fact that he won't be able to be friends with you while you date the coworker. — Luke Griffiths 1 min ago

"What are you doing on Thursday?" ... "Do you want to hang out?" — NotThatGuy 1 min ago