Gavin McHugh: The gay-vague kid from 9-1-1 is now a teenager, with male friends and risque comments. Bonus Tyler cock and costar butts

 

This post on Tumblr caught my attention: "Gavin, Ryan, and Jennifer at the ABC soirée"

 I dated a guy with cerebral palsy shortly after coming out (hint: those crutches produce huge biceps), so I am interested in the representation of disabled actors, especially gay disabled actors.   But first I had to find out who these people are.

Ryan is  Ryan Guzman, who played Eddie Diaz on 9-1-1 (2018-25).  In the U.S., you call 911 for emergency services, firefighters, paramedics, or the police. Actually, the police come for everything.

Eddie is a firefighter with a dead wife.  He is involved in several new relationships, including a gay-subtext one with Buck (Oliver Stark), who helps him co-parent his son.  Eventually Buck comes out as bisexual.  

During the spring of 2025, fans and reviewers predicted that the two would become a canonical couple, but apparently all they got was crumbs (minor queer codes that go nowhere).  

Left: Ryan's butt

Jennifer is Jennifer Love Hewitt, who played Maddie, a 9-1-1 dispatcher and Buck's older sister.  She moves in with him after leaving her abusive husband, and eventually marries the paramedic Chimney (Kenneth Choi) 

Gavin is Gavin McHugh, who played Eddie's son Christopher in 105 episodes.  He had only one centric, a two-parter where he is swept out to sea by a tsunami, and Buck tries desperately to rescue him.

 Otherwise it seems to be mostly Eddie getting upset when the boy is too old for trick-or-treating on Halloween, or having a flashback and scaring him so much that he goes to stay with Buck for awhile. Eventually he moves to El Paso to stay with his grandparents.

Gavin was born in Riga, Latvia in 2010, and adopted by an Atlanta family when he was 2 1/2 years old.  In 2015, they moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting opportunities for his older siblings.  

Flynn (second from the left) has appeared in The Fifth Wave, Shameless, Hot Summer Nights, and Kevin Probably Saves the World. 

Logan (second from the right) has appeared in Hot Summer Nights, Survivor's Remorse, and Your Worst Nightmare. 

Lia (center) played Sprite in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's The Eternals, with characters named Ikarus, Ajak, Gilgamesh, Druig, Karon, Eros....and Ben (Haaz Sleiman, being hugged while gay and Muslim in Breaking Fast, 2020). 

More after the break. Caution: Explicit.

Gavin began tagging along on some of his siblings' auditions, and soon was getting his own offers. He has appeared in commercials for Adventist Health, Lincoln Financial, Honda, Target, Walmart, and Tommy Hilfiger.   9-1-1 is his only on-screen series to date, so I'll ask Question #1 about that.

Question #1: Is Christopher gay? 

In Episode 8.6, Christopher wants to look his best for the big school dance, and Eddie thinks he may have a "first crush" situation.  He consults his friend for advice.  No one specifies that the crush must be a girl. 

Later, after a long workday of crises, accidents, hostage crises, and so on, Eddie and his friend check on Christopher.  He's outside the school, talking with three other kids, two girls and a boy.  Then he heads in, next to the boy, while the girls hang back.  It's not clear which, if any, he has a crush on.

In his last appearance, Episode 6.1, Eddie and Buck see a Facetime of Christopher's birthday party.  His grandmother says that he invited some friends, and names a boy and a girl.  Again, we can't tell if he is interested in either.  Since tv series usually make teenagers aggressively hetero-horny, the absence of heterosexual interest is a queer code.  I'm going to say "Sure, he's gay."

2. Is Gavin gay in real life?

His Instagram posts are about family, with a few male friends.  Here he introduces Tyler, who is starting fire school and "makes the best burgers by the pool." 

But the fans who comment are mostly girls, and he posts "I love my country" and "Family is everything," two statements that sound heterosexual.  I'm not sure why.

Here Gavin is ready for the Big Homecoming Dance, with no mention of a date.  

And check out this risque post: "Come get ready for bed with me."  Um...ok, sure, if you want to.

One of his followers praised his "innocence" in this post, presuming that he doesn't realize that the request could mean something more intimate than watching him brush his teeth.  But the impish smile suggests that he knows exactly what he's asking. 

I'm going to answer #2 with "maybe."

3. Any unclothed photos?

As of this writing, Gavin is 15, too young for that sort of thing, so I'm posting a potential Tyler (left) and a random wheelchair dude (below).

See also: Mason Cook: The "Speechless" star turns bohemian-hipster, and shows us his biceps and dick

Siblings, Episode 1.1 or 1.3: Dan falls for a guy who uses a wheelchair, so he pretends...with real n*de wheelchair guys

James Stockdale: Disability advocate, solicitor, Caliban, gay guy who refused to make out with Dylan Llewellyn

"The Eternals": The First Gay Character in a Marvel Movie, Plus Conversations in Ancient Babylonian