Men share celebs who first made them realise they were gay – and it’s a blast from the past
Many of us have been here. Sneaking off in the department store while our parents or guardians shop, and there it is.
The underwear section. Lines upon lines of scantily dressed people printed onto the packaging.
Or you’re leafing through a copy of a gossip magazine in the dentist’s office and a photograph of a certain celebrity has you thinking, uh, things.
As we all desperately try to distract ourselves from the unfolding collapse of the world around us, Scottish journalist Louis Staples asked Twitter a simple question on Thursday evening.
“Is there an image that you find intensely triggering because you were so into it when you were young and it was FORBIDDEN and you didn’t wanna deal your homo impulses but also couldn’t look away?”
gays: is there an image that you find intensely triggering because you were so *into it* when you were young and it was FORBIDDEN and you didn’t wanna deal your homo impulses but also couldn’t look away??? Mine’s this one pic.twitter.com/tJWjsAN78z
— Louis Staples (@LouisStaples) April 2, 2020
Staples, the deputy editor of the indy100, shared his own example of a young Jake Gyllenhaal, showing that even back then, he was 65 per cent eyebrow.
Countless scores of queer men came together to share the images that were their sexual awakening back in the day, and they’re honestly eye-opening.
Basically, X-Files heartthrob David Duchovny proved popular. It was the red trunks, probably.
pic.twitter.com/qyK1xEOOOI
— Owen Jones ? (@OwenJones84) April 2, 2020
And that Mark Wahlberg Calvin Klein shoot made a lot of folks realise they were queer.
That one was big for me but this was the original. Who could have guessed that in 20 years we’d have a bunch of instagays to make this image look truly tame. pic.twitter.com/M9NSt9KfPt
— President Hudgens (@kcuah_d) April 2, 2020
Chris O’Donnell in the 1997’s Batman & Robin was apparently a lot of guys’ pin-up poster boys, even former twink Tyler Oakley’s.
this one— tyler oakley // schedule pinned (@tyleroakley) April 3, 2020
Basically, anyone remotely white, male, tall and with a square jawline has a lot to answer for in the queer male world, apparently.
Fodder for thought, huh.
— Jesse (@jessebrian09) April 3, 2020
Yep – *that* Chris Evans photoshoot… https://t.co/8e5iptFnYJ pic.twitter.com/TvEXzTetbA— THOM ✌🏼 (@THOMLS) April 3, 2020
pic.twitter.com/GIwRfVoveQ
— Lawrence Murphy (@LadyQuendalin) April 2, 2020
Freddie Ljungberg for Calvin Klein had me WHIPLASHED and pretending to support a football team I absolutely did not care about https://t.co/nxocGDaM7l pic.twitter.com/EKfxvkoTNT— benjamin dean (@NotAgainBen) April 3, 2020
pic.twitter.com/7BtMKxkr6z
— Yuko the Dude (@yukothedude) April 3, 2020
pic.twitter.com/h8Nh67yPHh
— stephen (@stemcclellan96) April 3, 2020
https://t.co/6IRQX90i2V pic.twitter.com/AFehLui1bc— shibari borovoy (@estleaute) April 3, 2020
From what we gather, Chris Evans was personally responsible for the vast majority of queer male’s sexual awakenings.
Science.