Azriel Dalman: Young Percy Jackson, Mr. Martin, and Garrett Graham celebrates Pride, tells gay kids "It gets better." With nude costars

 

In August 2024, 10 year old actor/model Azriel Dalman posted a photo on his social media wearing a Pride shirt.  A fan wrote that he shouldn't post anything "political" or "controversial," or people wouldn't want him in their projects.  He responded with a photo standing beneath a giant Pride flag, and wrote that if you think supporting LGBTQ people is political or controversial, he doesn't want to be in your project. 

 He (or his Mom) continued, thanking Disney and Hallmark for producing inclusive shows, and telling queer kids "You matter!" and "Things will get better!"

Being pro-gay hasn't hurt the career of the Vancouver boy.  Born in December 2013, he already has 57 on-screen acting credits, plus modeling and theater.  I'm not going to go through all of them looking for gay content, just the ones that stand out.

2021:

Foragers, the pilot for a post-Apocalyptic tv series.  Azi plays the child version of Malakai (gay actor Kaden Connors, left).  No information on whether his character is gay.

2022:

Moonfall: Aliens knock the moon out of orbit!  Azi plays the child version of Sonny (Charlie Plummer), the gay-coded teenage son of the focus astronaut. 

2023:

In Percy Jackson and the Olympians, on the Disney Channel (2023-24), demigod Percy (Walker Scobell, left), modern-day son of the God Poseidon, fights monsters and tries to prevent a war among the gods, with the help of his Camp Halfblood buddies.  He's straight, but there are LGBT characters throughout, including Nico, son of Hades, who has a crush on Percy, and the god Ganymede.

I have an idea that Walker Scobell is gay, but a brief internet search doesn't reveal anything.  

Azi plays Young Percy.  Fun fact: he has brown eyes, but when he auditioned, he wore blue contact lenses to look more like Scobell.  His resume now states that he can put the lenses in and take them out "all by himself."  

2024:

Azi stars in Miracle on 34th Street at the Arts Club.

He appeared in an episode of Shogun, starring Cosmo Jarvis  (left) as a British sailor shipwrecked in Tokugawa Japan. He plays the grandson in a fantasy sequence.  

He models an androgynous outfit at the International Kids Runway.  A fan writes: "things got better."  Did he lose a job because of his commitment to LGBTQ rights?.

He appears in three episodes of Holidazed, about families interacting on a cul-de-sac at Christmastime. In one family, Ted (Osric Chau) just got engaged to his boyfriend Marcus (Shawn Ahmad).  Then his old-fashioned, traditional Grandma comes for a visit, and he isn't out to her!

2025:

Azi has a recurring role in Good American Family, about the life of Natalie Grace, a woman with dwarfism who was adopted by "a good American" family but abandoned three years later, when they suspected that she was really an adult.  He and Saul Thomson play her adopted brother Ethan, whom she tries to kill. No indication of gay content.

In the short Our Monsters, two boys (Azi, Xander Wilson) team up to fight the monster in the closet.  I couldn't find a clip to see if there is gay content, but Azi tells us that Xander is "so cute we could just die."  

Is that "we" Azi using they/them pronouns, or Mom and Azi together?  Either way, the boy is definitely demonstrating an interest in boys 

More after the break

Edward Padilla: "Suburgatory" short guy hangs out with Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson, plays priests and Chicano Divas, has a husband and a d*ck

We're rewatching Suburgatory (2011-2014), about a high school girl transplanted from cool Manhattan to the ritzy suburban town of Chatswin, Connecticut. I have yet to understand the opening lyrics: "Last night I had a dah dah dah dah," which the subtitles translate as "perfect nightmare."  I don't like the low-key homophobia, with several "everybody thinks he's gay, har har" plotlines.  But it's a nostalgic pleasure remembering that era -- just 15 years ago -- when everything was bright and fresh and hopeful.  Plus there are lots of cute guys.  

Today I'm researching Edward Padilla, who plays country club lackey Jauvier.  He's not as swoonworthy as Joe Mande on Modern Family, but he's cute, and 5'6".  Short is short. 

Eddie was born in 1972, and grew up in San Diego,  He received a B.A. in Theater from the University of Southern California, plus a Master of Public Health from the Keck School of Medicine.  I couldn't find any photos from the 1990s except this one, which may be of another "Eddie Padilla."

His on-camera work begins with Mr. Jones (1993): Richard Gere, years after his iconic nude scene in American Gigolo, plays a mentally ill guy who starts a romance with his therapist.  Eddie plays a bellboy. 

His television work begins in Mexico with Tales from Beyond (2003) the Spanish version of the paranormal investigation show;  Te amaré en silencio (2003-04), a telenovela about a deaf girl; and the pilot Mi Vida Lorca (2004), which has nothing to do with the gay poet Federico Garcia Lorca.

Next he played a delivery driver on The King of Queens, a baby on The Drew Carey Show,a priest on Bones , a priest on Dirt, and a judge on Southland.while pursuing a career in public health.

Eddie's IMDB page says that he's best known for Man On Fire (2004), with Denzel Washington as a CIA agent who vows revenge on those who committed "unspeakable acts."   But he only worked as "Additional Crew."  Maybe it's memorable because of Denzel.

That explains the other movies on the "best known for" list: Colombian Military Officer in Mr and Mrs Smith (2005), with Brad Pitt; Test Site Technician in Spider-Man 3 (2007), with Tobey Maguire; and Addiitonal Crew on Get the Gringo (2012), with Mel Gibson.  

The gay ally Brad Pit, the heterosexist Tobey Maguire, and the frothing homophobe Mel Gibson.  You're all over the map, dude.

I'd rather remember him for roles that actually involved acting: Jauvier in Suburgatory (2011-2014), a priest on Jane the Virgin (2015), a priest on Will and Grace (2017), a preacher on I'm Dying Up Here (2018), a priest in Pecados Ajenos (2021)...

Getting typecast, buddy?

The only queer content I can see is in Big Tony's Ballet (2020): In the 1950s, mobster Big Tony must deal with his 7-year old son's interest in ballet.  God and God's Husband appear 

And Quinceañera (2024): At the party celebrating her 15th birthday, a girl "confronts her feelings for a shy girl she met at dance practice."  Edward plays a priest, of course.

More after the break

The shirtless parking valets: A shock of joy on "Suburgatory" on the night before Thanksgiving. With Mohr and Parker butts and a lot of bare chests

When I was growing up, you almost never saw a bare chest on tv.  On the rare occasions when it happened -- Denny Miller surfs to Gilligan's Island, Ponch and Jon hit the beach on CHIPS, Kevin poses for an art class on Mr. Belvedere -- you felt an intense, palpable joy.  Not desire so much as understanding.  This is it, what we were made for. Beauty.  Truth.  The Eternal Masculine. 

With the advent of cable and then streaming tv, nearly every actor took off his shirt frequently, and some even put their butts and cocks on display.  And of course we can go online and see 100 naked men before breakfast. When you see it all the time, that shock of joy vanishes.  

But it returned on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011, the night before Thanksgiving, when Suburgatory aired Episode 1.8, "Thanksgiving."

Suburgatory (2011-14) starred Jeremy Sisto (left, showing his sausage) as George Altman, an architect who moves his teenage daughter Tessa (Jane Levy) from Manhattan to Chatswin, Connecticut.  She is not pleased, but she tries to find some semblance of cool amid the Mean Girls, Dumb Jocks, and Ladies Who Lunch.

It was not our favorite show -- mostly women in the cast, a lot of heterosexism, and some low-key gay stereotyping -- but it aired between The Middle and Modern Family, so we had no choice.

Left: George's butt.

In Episode 1.8, it's Thanksgiving in Chatswin, and Tessa is upset because Dad George has rejected their traditional Manhattan activities for dinner with the ultra-rich Dallas Royce.  In the B Plot, Tessa's friend Lisa is upset because her middle-class Mom, Sheila Shay, insists that she wear a "Puritan dress" to their Thanksgiving Dinner.

 When Tessa and Dad George arrive at the Royce mansion, they see shirtless valets parking the guests' cars.  

Whoa, that shock of joy came rushing back!  

Maybe because it was so unexpected.  Who hires shirtless valets?  Especially at Thanksgiving, when it's in the 30s and 40s out?  And there are twelve people at that party. Why do they need four valets?  

Director Alex Hardcastle was not even trying to be realistic. He presented us with a vision of masculine beauty to counterbalance the feminine vibe of the rest of the episode (spoiler alert: Tessa's friend Lisa spends about ten minutes of air time naked, in protest of that Puritan dress). 

The first Indian Valet vanishes immediately, but when George's friend Noah hands his car keys to the second, we get a bare chest and shoulders close-up.  He looks like a college athlete.

He disappears, but as Noah walks toward the door, we see the two Pilgrim valets, one extremely muscular, the other a rather thin twink.  No closeups, but they are visible for several seconds, organizing the various parking slips.

Later we get quick glimpses of the two Indian Valets at the Royce table,  so they must be Royce relatives co-opted for the job.  The Pilgrim Valets are visible at the middle class Shay table, so presumably they were hired. 

But who are the actors?  In 2011 I let the scene slip into memory, but last night I saw it again during a rewatch. With15 years of experience on this website, Nysocboy's Beefcake and Bonding, and Tales of West Hollywood,  I was equipped to research their other acting roles,  look for nude photos, and check their social media to see if they are gay. 

More after the break.

Minute-by-minute research of Kue Lawrence: his gay codes, gay adjacent movie roles, and nude co-stars. With a big reveal that changes everything

 

5:00 am.  I begin my usual sweep of my n*de celebrity, teen idol, and Instagram feeds, looking for actors with gay codes for potential profiles. Kue Lawrence looks promising: no girl-hugging and lots of guy-hugging photos.  They just keep going.  Dude definitely prefers masculine company.  I download six, and prep them for posting.

5:15:  On to Kue's Instagram.  Many more guy-hugging photos (I download another five), mention of several movies, and no girls except someone named Jenna, who turns out to be his sister.  Here they are going to her senior prom together.  Weird.  What straight guy would do that?  Dude must be gay.

5:30:  Searching for Kue and "gay." I find articles saying that he played a gay character in Sneak Peek and Hell of a Summer, but they are both behind paywalls, and I find no evidence that movies with those titles exist.  Maybe are descriptions of movies, with the actual titles inaccessible. So I'll check Kue's acting roles on the IMDB. 

5:45: Marshmallow (2025).  Troubled teen Morgan (Kue) is sent to summer camp, where he is bullied by a boy (Sutton Johnston, right) and meets The Girl.  Kue notes that he and Sutton are friends off-camera. 

I check Sutton's Instagram: no gay codes.

There's also a monster (Pierson Fode, left).  Kue hugs him, too.

The School Duel (2024): A bullied boy (Kue) signs up for a program where kids are given rifles and permitted to kill each other without consequences.  It's an allegoryy on the school shooting epidemic.  Kue goes out to dinner with costar Rashaan Rondo and hugs Kalon Cox (left) and Hudson Meek (below).

I check their social media. Kalon has some gay codes. Rashaan (an adult) has cock pics.

More after the break

Eldon Jones: Dancing Atreyu, drawing penguins, learning to snap, bringing gay promise. With nude co-stars and Patrick Swayze's bum

Eldon Jones as Cody,  grandson of focus character Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina,  right) , was the one bright spot in the overwhelming heterosexism of  the Netflix paranormal series The Boroughs.  While enduring the endless "My wife! My wife! My wife", it was a relief to check out the photos his mom posted of Eldon in feminine outfits, hanging with his gay brother, and attending Pride events.  Maybe the kid is gay in real life, maybe not, but he provides a reminder that LGBT people exist, no matter how aggressively they are erased.

Eldon was born in 2011, son of Neal Jones, best known for Dirty Dancing (1987): he plays the "kind-hearted" Billy, who gets his cousin Johnny (Patrick Swayze, left) a job at the Borscht Belt resort, and introduces him to "dirty dancing."   

The family lives in Albuquerque.  Older brother Jax (middle) graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in fine arts in May 2026.  Mom often posts photos of him and his boyfriend.  

Eldon is in the front, and sister Marian, also an actor, is in the back of the sibling pile. 

Eldon is remarkably accomplished.

A member of the permanent company of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico.

Studies piano at the New Mexico School of Music.

An artist, interested in penguin comics and watercolors.

A chef, baking bread and making soup for the family.

A fashionista.  He attended the Copenhagen Fashion Week in 2023.

Literary.  When they visited London, he checked out the bookstores (that's the first thing I look for, too).  He was reading Herman Hesse at age 12.

I've read some Hesse (Siddhartha and Steppenwolf), but I never even heard of the book he's reading: Knulp, about a "carefree vagabond who lives outside societal rules." 

And of course Eldon is an actor.

He started as a background player in three 2022 episodes of Walker: Independence, about a woman in the Old West searching for the guy who murdered her husband. Apparently there's a gay character.

Left: I couldn't find the gay guy in the cast list, but I found Jeff Pierre, who played Cameron Monaghan's boyfriend on Shameless.

More after the break

Josh Fadem: From Tulsa to "Twin Peaks," with Groundlings, coffee, zombies, a glory hole, and his dick

 

We've been watching the 2017 sequel to Twin Peaks, the 1990s cult series about paranormal events in a quirky small town.  

The darn thing makes no f*king sense.  

The main plot, as far as I can figure out, involves the spirit of FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLaughlin), trapped in the Red Room 25 years ago with ghosts and demons who talk backwards and make cryptic statements.  Meanwhile, his body, named Dougie, took a job at an insurance agency in Las Vegas, had a wife and son, did something that got him targeted by the mob, and consorted with prostitutes.

After 25 years, Dale's spirit returns to Dougie's body, but can't perform everyday tasks, speak more than parroted words, or understand anything -- yet no one notices!  

In Episode 1.5, his wife dresses him in a ridiculous lime-green suit and drops him off at his office, where of course he just stands there until gopher Philip Bisby (Josh Fadem) notices, gives him a cup of coffee, and escorts him to his staff meeting, where he just stands there.  

Coffee guy Philip appears again in Episodes 1.6 and 1.7, luring Dougie with coffee and escorting him to the boss's office.  I found something homoerotic in the exchange: Philip sort of likes Dougie. 

He is cute -- and short, 5'9" to Kyle's 6'0" -- so I started looking for the other work of actor Josh Fadem, and maybe some n*de photos.

I thought he was a recent college graduate, new to Hollywood, on his first acting gig, it turns out that Josh Fadem was in his mid-30s in 2017.  He now has 159 acting credits, 40 writing credits, a wikipedia article, and a number of n*de photos.

He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1980, and  graduated from Booker T. Washington High School.  Imagine being Jewish in Bible Belt, Oral Roberts University Tulsa. 

He moved to Los Angeles in 2000, trained with the Uptight Citizens Brigade and the Groundlings, and appeared in countless comedy shows, including It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Whitest Kids U Know, UCB Comedy Originals, The Bank Room, The Midnight Show, Key and Peele, Superstore, Minx, and American Dad.

And a lot of heterosexist shorts, like The Do It Up Date and I Think She Likes You.

On the other hand, The Gory Hole sounds provocative.

He is best known as Simon Barrons, assistant to Tina Fey's Liz Lemons on three episodes of 30 Rock (2009-2012).

And as Marshall Dixon, also called Joey, a University of New Mexico film student/teacher hired by unethical lawyer Saul in 14 episodes of Better Call Saul (2015-22).  Marshall doesn't seem to get any plot arcs of his own, but according to the Google AI, he has a gay subtext.

More after the break. Caution: explicit.

The top 18 gay-positive tv comedies: aliens, vampires, a Christian pastor, a ghost, a teenager named after meat, and a hung Phung

When I was a kid, my parents permitted only comedy television, and it is still my preferred genre.  Who wants to watch a detective who doesn't play by the rules solve yet another murder, or some doctors trying to cure the disease of the week?  Give me classic sitcoms, adult animation, parodies, satires, and contemporary dramedies with season-long plot arcs.    

These are my 18 favorite television series with gay characters or subtexts, at least those that I've reviewed here or on the G-rated site. 

Only from 2016-2026.  If I went earlier, the list would include: Absolutely Fabulous, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,  It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Modern Family, The Real O'Neals, Red Dwarf, Roseanne, Schitt's Creek, Ugly Betty, The War at Home...

Kim's Convenience (2016).  Korean-Canadian family in Toronto, with no gay characters until the daughter finally comes out as bi, but there's a lot of  buddy-bonding and beefcake. Simu Liu (left) takes off his shirt a lot, and buddy Andrew Phung goes on to play a chunk in the gay-friendly Running the Burbs

Big Mouth (2017).  Animated middle schoolers negotiate puberty, with the help of individually-assigned hormone monsters and other supernatural beings.  The gay guy, Matthew (Andrew Rannells),  eventually gets his own plotlines, coming out to his parents, dating the bi guy, and learning about sexting.

The Other Two (2019). A young teen achieves sudden fame, which disconcerts the Other Two, his sister and brother (who is gay). By the third season, they've all become successful, but there are still a lot of gay-romance plotlines and bare butts.

What We Do in the Shadows (2019).  Vampire roommates on Staten Island have more and more overtly gay plotlines as the series progresses. With out actor Harvey Guillén as their increasingly out assistant.

The Righteous Gemstones (2019) An absurdly wealthy family of Southern preachers negotiate threats.  I'm not sure I should include this one since, in retrospect, it was a little annoying.  Endless queer codes involving Gideon, Eli, and Pontius, with no resolution, just "crumbs."  And it took forever for Kelvin and Keefe to become canon.  They should have kissed at the end of Season 1.  

Solar Opposites (2020).  Aliens crash-land on Earth, try to adjust to human life, become boyfriends and finally marry.  Plus a spin-off episode with Kieran Culkin and Skyler Gisondo in a strong gay subtext human-alien romance.

Ghosts (American Version).  (2021). A houseful of wacky ghosts, including a hunky stock broker who died without his pants, and a Revolutionary War soldier who comes out and nearly marries the guy he accidentally killed.  Other gay characters appear on occasion.

The Great North (2021). A quirky family in a small town in Alaska, with a gay son who gets a boyfriend, and eventually a horny lesbian aunt.

Run the Burbs (2022): A queer daughter, a gay jerk, and a hung Phung.  What else do you need?

20 gay and gay-friendly teen actors: a fierce, fabulous Barbie boy, Pugsley Addams, Harvey Milk, a Russian bodybuilder with a cat,....

I usually profile teen idols after they've graduated to adult hunkiness, but sometimes I can't wait: they're playing gay characters, going to Pride events, wearring  femme/fabulous outfits, or hugging their boyfriends while still teenagers.  Their openness to gay potential gives me hope for a less homophobic future.  I won't look for or post n*de photos, of course, but I usually include some adult co-stars to keep things interesting.

1. Taylor Gregory: At 17, the fierce, fabulous Barbie boy had grown up to become a bodybuilder and fundamentalist. 

2. Alfie Williams (left), star of 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: Bone Temple, is 15 as of this writing, but hangs out with a surprising number of gay guys, who call him "one of the girls"

3. Eldon Jones: Actor in gay projects, dancer, artist with a gay brother and a pink shirt. 

4. Isaac Ordonez (not pictured). The sweet, sensitive, queer-coded Pugsley Addams on Wednesday dates dudes.

5. Alkaio Thiele. The wizard in training on Beyond Waverly Place and Kayden Koshelev (below) used to be an item.

6. Kayden Koshelev (left). Drag boy and nonbinary firetruck, Alkaio's Other Half before their breakup. Not to worry, he's moved on.

7. Recker Eans. The gaydar boy on Beyond Waverly Place drums in gay-friendly videos and sings in a boy band with gay-friendly songs.

8. Bentley Storteboom (not pictured). His name and physique had me fooled.  I thought he was 25, and Dutch.

9. Benjamin Pajak (right) played six gay characters before age 15, and sang as Harvey Milk.

More after the break

Ben Pajak plays the gay kids of Wolverine and Paul Blart, Harvey Milk, Max von Essen's buddy, and a gay Corey Haim. But is he...

The Lost Boys (1987) starred teen idol Corey Haim (right) as Sam, a teenager trying to save his older brother (Jason Patric, left) from a pack of motorcycle-riding, leather jacket-wearing vampires. Sam is as gay as you could portray in the homophobic 1980s:he takes a bubble bath, has a poster of heartthrob Rob Lowe on his bedroom wall, wears a "Born to Shop" t-shirt, and sings that "I'm a lonely girl, ain't got a man."  That's not enough for most fans, of course, who proclaim loudly, "Straight guys do that!  It doesn't make him gay!"

Left: Jason Patric's butt and cock, or maybe the cock of his partner.  I can't tell their gender from the photo.

A musical version of the iconic film opened on Broadway in April 2026, with the same plotline: single Mom Lucy and her two sons move to Santa Carla, the murder capital of the West Coast, where older brother Michael (LJ Benet), falls in with a crowd of rock star vampires.  But 40 years have passed, and his relationship with the vampire David (Ali Louis Bourzgui) can be openly homoerotic:

Wanna get you alone / Caress your collarbone / No preacher would condone / What I would do to you, baby

And now younger brother Sam (Benjamin Pajak) can be overtly, obviously, coming-out speech gay:

Maybe I can be a hero here/ And make it cool to be queer/ Maybe that's my superpower.

Wait -- Benjamin Pajak.    Wasn't he in Playdate?   Paul Blart is trying to de-gay his shirt-raiser stepson Lucas  (Ben) by teaching him football, when they run into Reacher and his sociallly awkward son CJ (Banks Pierce).  The two boys hit it off instantly, so the dads arrange a playdate.  But government agents or evil corporate clones are after CJ, and...it gets weirder and weirder, with multiple plot holes, but dang it, those boys are obviously into each other.  They do everything but kiss.  

That's one gay and one "an inch away from flying a Pride Flag" role.  I need to do a profile of this kid.

Benjamin Pajak was born in March 2011, in Westfield, New Jersey, about 20 miles from Manhattan.   The family is Jewish but not observant.  The Paper Mill Theater was across the back yard, so acting and singing were an ever-present part of life. 

He made his Broadway debut  in The Music Man (2021): con artist Harold Hill (Wolverine Hugh Jackman, left) wooes the prim-and-proper Marian the Librarian.  Her younger brother  Winthrop (Ben) rejects a date request from a girl and speaks with a gay-stereotype lisp, which he overcomes with Harold's mentorship. If I was writing a scholarly article about musicals, I'd have a lot of fun queering that text.

Three gay and gay-light roles so far.

In June 2023, Ben performed as the Young Harvey in the oratorio I am Harvey Milk, about the assassinated gay rights leader. 

Four for four, Ben Baby.

He has also performed in Oliver!, Golden Rainbow, Nine, and Ragtime.  His songs appear in four albums: Rails, Figaro, The Music Man, and Christmas Time in the City.

More after the break.