Chasing Games

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I was just reading in Women from Another Planet? about someone's experience with the childhood game of "boys chase the girls / girls chase the boys". When neighborhood kids played tag when I was little, I used to hang around the edges, with someone else between me and the one who was "it", in the hope that I wouldn't be chased. I wasn't a fast runner, and I didn't like being chased or having to chase others, so I never wanted anyone to go after or catch me.

On the school playground, when kids played "boys chase the girls / girls chase the boys", I thought it was a modified version of tag, with a whole category of people being declared "it" for a while and then switching. I never knew what made one group be "it" or what caused the switch. I didn't get chased, so I only knew what was going on because somebody would say the game was on or that it had changed. I also didn't see others actually getting caught, so I didn't know what happened when someone did. I don't remember if I even thought about it.

Did I not understand this game correctly? If not, is it just because I'm gay? The author seemed to think it was her Aspieness that made her not clue in. Does that mean NT gays understand the game when they're growing up, even though they don't have reason to play it the way the straights do? What am I missing here?