RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: Iain Armitage: The young Sheldon Cooper speaks 8 languages, reviews musical theater, meets a lot of gay actors. But is he...of course he is.

I didn't like The Big Bang Theory (2007-19), featuring Johnny Galecki as the (relatively) stable center of a group of wacky nerd scientists who can't get any "big bangs." The hetero-horniness was incessant, and there were so many homophobic statements that I was more amazed than offended Wasn't Jim Parsons, who played the neurotic physics savant Sheldon Cooper, gay? Why didn't he protest? (Apparently he was closeted until around the fifth season.)

But I liked Young Sheldon (2017-24), about Sheldon Cooper's childhood, growing up in East Texas in the 1990s with a conservative Baptist Mom, a macho football-coach Dad, a macho muscle-building brother, and...you get the idea.

I grew up in the Nazarene Church, which taught that Baptists were much too liberal. I could relate.

Plus there were lots of cute guys. Sheldon's older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) had musclebuilding plotlines before they switched to a "getting a girl pregnant" story arc.

Dad, Lance Barber, was a chub with a bulge.

Next door neighbor Billy (Wyatt McClure) was too young to be hot, of course, but he had that puppy-dog cuteness that makes you say "Aww, how adorable!" I figured that he would eventually come out, but instead the writers decided to give him a crush on Sheldon's sister.

And how about Rex Linn as Tom Peters, the longsuffering principal at Sheldon's high school. Wait, this is Simon Rex.

There were no gay characters -- with or without Jim Parsons as executive producer, this was still a "family friendly" (non gay) show. But also no casual homophobia. Just a few references suggesting homophobia, as when someone suggests that Sheldon might be...you know, and Dad angrily yells "NO!"

And in Season 5, Sheldon tells his roommate Evan (Motoki Maxten) that he doesn't want to date girls because they are a distraction.

"So you're into guys?" Evan asks nonchalantly.

"No, they're a distraction, too?"

Actually, he turns out to be asexual hetero-romantic, although this is never specified on The Big Bang Theory.

Roommate: "So you like guys?"

Sheldon: "No, they're a distraction, too."

The adult Sheldon is interested in heterosexual romance but not interested in sex (although he agrees to do it with his girlfriend as a birthday present). The term for that is asexual hetero-romantic, but it is never explored on Big Bang Theory.

But I'm pretty sure that Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon) is gay.

More after the break

Born into a wealthy show biz family, Iain began his career as a critic, posting reviews of musical theater on Youtube. This (and his parents' connections) got him five acting roles in 2017, plus a recurring role in Big Little Lies (2017-19) as Ziggy, son of rape victim Jane Chapman.

Plus the Young Shaggy in the animated Scoob! (2020), the pig from Charlotte's Web brought to life in Ghostwriter (2022), and 141 episodes of Young Sheldon.

He also found the time to study Russian, Armenian, German, Spanish, Italian, Assyrian, and Sinhalese. Not French?

Now 17, he is the subject of lots of gushing fan posts: "Does Iain have a GIRLFRIEND? What kind of GIRLS does Iain like? What GIRL is Iain dating?" But that's just heteronormativity, the belief that heterosexual desire and practice is universal human experience. Fans may know "gay" as a theoretical concept, but the idea that any particular person might be gay never occurs to them.

But it occurred to me.

Not just because Iain met Walker Scobell (the gay actor currently starring in the Percy Jackson series)

And Jordan Fisher. I don't know who that is, but Boymaster Fake Nudes gives him a cock.

And Boss Baby Brody (Brody Hudson Schaffer), the 10-year trans boy who won America's Got Talent Best Male Dancer Award and the City of West Hollywood's Rainbow Key Award for LGBTQ Representation (at age 8).