The top 25 gay-coded, beefcake-heavy shows of the decade

I grew up in a working-class, Evangelical household where tv was the only permitted form of entertainment, so it was on all the time.  I still watch an hour or two almost every day, mostly to check for gay texts or subtexts.  That's a lot of tv programs.  Most fade into oblivion, but some are memorable due to their intriguing premises, interesting settings,  gay subtexts, or beefcake -- or all four.  These are the top 25 gay-coded, beefcake-heavy shows of the last decade, premiering 2016 to 2025.

2016

The Crown.  The life of Queen Elizabeth, with the glamour, glitz, and soap opera shenanigans of the royal family.  No gay characters, but future Doctor Who Matt Smith plays Prince Philip.

Kim's Convenience.  Korean-Canadian family in Toronto, with no gay characters after the first episode, but a lot of buddy-bonding and beefcake.

2017

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

 Britannia.  Romans vs. Celts in 43 AD, with creepy Druids, some possible paranormal, muscular soldiers, and some gay subtexts.

2018

Disenchantment: A parody of Medieval fantasy. Disappointing in the first season: my review calls it "gay free."  But showrunners often postpone the queer characters: they think all viewers are homophobic, and will run away screaming unless they become invested in the show before the queer characters show up.  Later seasons become immensely gay-friendly.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The teen witch of Archie comics with dark comedy plotlines, a same-sex romance, and a lot of hunk. ranging from Ross Lynch as regular boyfriend Harvey to Moses Thiessen as the pizza delivery guy.

2019

The Other Two.  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: 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. An absurdly wealthy family of Southern televangelists 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.  

But I spent two years arguing about, researching, and posting about the show. And I found some cute gay actors...who haven't posted on social media since the series ended, grr.

2020

Solar Opposites.  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.

Panchayat.  Engineering grad Abhishek is talked into a civil service job in a remote village, where there are so many queer codes that I could swear they were deliberate.  And he doesn't meet The Girl!

More after the break

Luke Blumm: Femme boy survives the Nazis, a cult, and Maine, but not a homophobic Mom. With his twink physique and some co-star cocks

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Sonny Kendall: Obviously gay, too young for nude photos, so his EastEnder teen had better pay off. With Boreanaz and twink cocks

 

 Sonny Kendall (the short one) appeared on the teen idol website flexing and hugging guys.  These two are nearly holding hands.

As of this writing, he is 16 years old, so I won't be looking for nude  photos (beefcake is ok).   

I've checked his social media, and there's no question that he's gay. 

Left: Sonny's date starts hugging before they even get a chance to order.  

So this profile will just answer Question #1: Any gay roles?

Sonny was born in East London in 2010.  He was attending the Rhodes Theatre School in Romford in 2021, when he was cast in the soap EastEnders.

Whoops, it looks like the EastEnders gig is Sonny's only on-screen role.  But it has gotten him nominations for Best Young Performer at the British Soap Awards in 2022 and 2025,  Rising Star at the National Television Awards (2023), and Favourite Young Actor at the TV Times Awards.  So let's check it out.

The East End, north of the Thames and east of the Tower, is known for its Cockney rhyming slang, poverty, crime, and industrial blight.  This is where Jack the Ripper found  his victims, and Oscar Wilde found his rentboys.  

In the 1990s, my boyfriend Lane and I went to the World Congress of LGBT Jews, held in a hotel on the Isle of Dogs, East London.  It was dreadful. 

The soap opera EastEnders, on since 1985, features the  impoverished, the down-and-out, and the criminal .  We don't see British versions of the Lords of One Life to Live or the Quartermaines of General Hospital.  At least, not many of them.

It is known for "difficult," controversial plot arcs, involving murder, rape, drug addiction, and human trafficking.  And LGBT people.  The first male same-sex kiss on British tv, between boyfriends Colin and Guido (Michael Cashman, Nicholas Donovan), in 1987.   It didn't happen on American tv until 2003.

Left: When you search for nude photos of Nicholas Donovan, this one appears.  I think it's David Boreanaz.

Sonny's character, Tommy Moon, is the son of Kat and Alfie Moon (Shane Ritchie), who have a tumultuous relationship, with various infidelities, a brain tumor, prostate cancer. an injury in a fire, and having twin sons named Bert and Ernie.   Oh, and Tommy turns out to be the biological son of Alfie's cousin, the villainous Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd, left).

Tommy is born in 2010, and starts out life in a controversial plotline about being switched with a dead baby.  It takes a few plot twists for Alfie and Kat to realize that their kid is actually alive, and get him back.  He lives through more murders, diseases, and infidelities, until 2014 , when the parents win the lottery and get the heck out of the East End.

More after the break

Luke Speakman: The femme bully of "Weapons" meets a lot of hunks, likes capybaras, plays a boy raised as a girl. With Dad and Dylan dicks

 

When I saw Weapons (2025), a thriller about the mysterious disappearance of all of the kids in a third grade class (except one), I thought that the bully (right) was a girl due to their long hair and femme mannerisms -- until their dad called them Matthew (played by Luke Speakman).

There is a positively portrayed gay couple in the movie (played by Benedict Wong and Clayton Farris), and it's quite a welcome change to have the femme boy the bully instead of the victim, so writer/director Zach Creger is obviously a queer ally. But Matthew is not on screen long enough to express any same-sex interests (besides, the rule in movies is, all kids must be portrayed as heterosexual).  But maybe Luke Speakman is gay in real life. 

Left: Luke meets his crush, Merrick Hanna.

Left: Luke's birthday in April 2025: "Turned 12 today!  Guess I'm old now!"  Just wait, buddy.

Growing up in a heteronormative society, gay boys are often unaware that they like boys, or interpret their interest as friendship or hero worship.  And if they are aware, they are unlikely to mention it on their parent-curated social media pages.  But maybe we can catch some glimmers of same-sex interest to augment Luke's femme appearance.

Born in Athens, Georgia in 2013, Luke began acting on screen at age five, in Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories (2020): he plays the young version of Sam (Dylan O'Brien, left), who goes through a time portal to the 1920s and meets Girl of His Dreams (be careful, she could be your great-grandmother).

Next came seven episodes of the podcast series The Burned Photo (2021-22): two women's "lives become intertwined when they discover they are being terrorized by the same multi-generational curse that is determined to end their family lineages."  So some lesbian subtexts going on?

Five episodes of Lost Man Down (2022), about an aspiring actor masquerading as a talent agent.  Luke plays a baseball fan who believes in aspiring player Takeshi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, center).  The guy with them is not Tsuyoshi's boyfriend.  I don't think.

An Asian hunk.  Not particularly relevant, but none of the adult stars of Lost Man Down have nude photos.

More after the break

Jonah Beckett: Sean Hayes' godson does bottom stuff, faints, sucks, gets nekkid. And that's just on tv. With Trevor's cock and Milo's butt

When I was looking for gay actors in Rooster, the MAX comedy with Steve Carell as a trashy novelist roped into becoming Writer in Residence at an elite private college, I identified Jonah Beckett.  He gives his pronouns (he/him), which seems to be an LGBTQ identifier, and he says that he is the godson of gay actor Sean Hayes of Will and Grace.  No doubt he means the comedic godson.

Besides, he's cute.

In Rooster Episode 1.2, creative writing student Eva tells the class that she writes about "real life," by which she means "three-ways, girl on girl, MILF, DILF....Eli!"

She is addressing Eli (Jonah), who has just come in late.  "Hey, do you want to be pegged?" (Have a dildo inserted into his butt).

"I have asthma!" he exclaims, embarrassed.  Why would that be a problem?

"Well, bring your nebulizer."  He glares at her and takes a seat.

Later, the trashy novelist attacks his former son-in-law while he is being interviewed live on the BBC.  "Want to be pegged" Eva, watching in bed on her laptop, starts laughing, and invites Eli to watch.  He's lying naked beside her.  Apparently he did want to be pegged.

It was a heterosexual act, of course, but if he likes dildos up there, maybe he wouldn't object to a cock.  I'm going to identify him as bi. 

I'll profile Jonah with the standard three questions:

#1: Any (other) LGBTQ Roles?

He has five acting credits listed on the IMDB:

A 2012 episode of the sketch comedy series Sketchy.

The short Suck Hard (2022): After she is dumped, a girl prepares to return a box of her ex boyfriend's stuff, with the help of her three friends, two girls and a boy (Jonah).  Presumably he's gay.

A 2025 episode of The Sex Lives of College Girls.  In a subplot, extremely femme college student Norman (Jonah) keeps complaining to Resident Advisor Bela that the guy in the next dorm room changes the "chore wheel" to "chode wheel," and plays his music too loud. The offender doesn't hear her knocking because he's wearing an Oculus headset -- in his underwear.

He's not mentioned by name, but I've narrowed him down to Trevor Tordjman (left), Roby Attal, or Derek Chadwick.

In a 2025 episode of St. Denis Medical,    college student Kyle (Jonah) collapsed during a frisbee game.  Doctors Serena and Matt (Mekki Leeper, left) test him for everything, then discover that he faints every time he sees his crush, Jeff (Jeremiah Brown).  "Well, tell him how you feel," they advise.  

He was just shy? 

At least two gay roles on screen.  Let's check Jonah's theatrical work.

More after the break

Derek Chatwick: Jonah Beckett's twunk dorm mate sells cosmetics, plays only gay characters. With other "Sex Lives" dicks and butts

 

I didn't watch The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021-25), for obvious reasons, but while researching Jonah Beckett, I found a scene in Episode 3.10 where Jonah's character complains that the guy in the next dorm room plays music too loud.   The R.A. investigates, and finds him in his underwear.  Very muscular. 

He isn't named, but he takes off his mask, giving us a face shot, so I compared it to the photos on the IMDB cast list.  The photos are very small, and Sex Lives cast a lot of muscular guy with that square=jawed "matinee idol" look. but I managed to narrow the list of potential musclemen down to: 

Noah (Trevor Tordjman, left, nude in my profile of Justin Beckett)

Parker (Derek Chadwick)

Eli (Michael Provost, butt left)

 Justin (Austin Phillips)

Cooper (Roby Attal, nude after the break)

I searched LPSG and the actors' Instagram for more photos to compare, and found:

It's Derek Chatwick: he posts the scene on his Instagram, and states that Parker is now a regular on the show.  But he only appears in that one episode. Maybe it was cancelled. 

He has 1.7 million followers!  That's quite an accomplishment for someone with only 16 posts.  He must be doing something besides flexing.  

Then I found interviews in Attitude, Them, and Gay Times that reveal a lot of biographical information.

Originally Derek Binsack, he was born on Long Island in 1995.  He graduated from Sachem High School in Lake Ronkonkoma in 2013.  I couldn't find any college information; maybe he moved directly into a  career as a fitness model and influencer.

He was named Twunk of the Year by  Just Us Boys in 2016.

Plus he founded the Chaddy cosmetics line: lip plumpers (coconut and vanilla), silky eye serum, tanning water, all for men.

Men need plump lips and silky eyes, when they're  not in drag?

And he had a few acting gigs:

The short Cowboy Baby (2012), about a teenager exploring his "nascent physical curiosity.."

Experimenter (2015) is about the famous Milgram Experiment, where most test subjects were willing to deliver electric shocks to strangers when an authority figure told them to.  Peter Sarsgaard, the Queerbaiting Detective in The Bride, played Stanley Milgram.  Derek played one of the test subjects.

He changed his name to Derek Chatwick for uncredited roles in Scream Queens (2016), Blue Bloods (2016), and Wonderstruck (2017).  

But two things pushed him into considering acting as a serious career.

More after the break.  Caution: Explicit.

Isaac Ordonez models at Paris Fashion Week, with some boyfriends, Lucas from "Stranger Things," some random twinks, and Taylor's dick

 

Isaac Ordonez is best known as the sweet, queer-coded Pugsley Addams on Wednesday,, and he's been in a few other tv shows and shorts, but he seems to be more interested in modeling.  In March 2026, he hit Paris Fashion Week.

He doesn't model like this -- yet

He modeled the androgynous "Washed Out Match," by LaCoste designer Pelagia Kolotourosos.  She was inspired by a tennis game René Lacoste tried to play in 1923: it was washed out due to bad weather, but fans showed up anyway.

Dressed like this?

Galore comments:  "Isaac loves taking risks -- experimenting with textures, fabrics, and silhouettes."  

And gender stereotypes

Here Isaac schmoozes with fellow LaCoste model Taylor Zakhar Perez, who played Alex in Red White and Royal Blue: The bad-boy son of the U.S. President, who falls in love with the stick-in-the-mud Prince Henry of Britain. 

Taylor's modeling is more masculine-coded, but he uses the same face-up pose.  Isaac has a bigger Adam's apple.

I don't think that Isaac is particularly drawn to gay actors, like Alfie Williams: he also posts photos with straight actors Aubrey Plaza (Rio on Agatha All Along) and Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas on Stranger Things).

Wait -- Aubrey Plaza is bi, and Lucas -- straight, but can you figure out why he might be of interest to a gay teen anyway?

More after the break

The Top 14 Hunks of "The Bride", including Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, a gay guy, and a lot of queerbaiting

This weekend we saw The Bride! (2026).  I assumed that it would be a sequel to Frankenstein (2025), but it is not.  The frenetic, lunatic ghost of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, channeling Bellatrix LeStrange from Harry Potter, complains that she died before she had a chance to write anything meaningful (lady, you died at age 53, having published dozens of novels, short stories, essays, travel journals...)  So she possesses a 1930s floozy named Ida, who starts a lengthy diatribe and falls down a flight of stairs.  Frank the Monster (Christian Bale, left) convinces a mad scientist to revive her, and they go on a rampage, channeling the Joker and Harley Quinn, Bonnie and Clyde, and the Me, Too Movement.   

There are a few nods to 1930s gay culture: Ida kisses a lady in the first scene, and takes Frank to a nightclub frequented by a few same-sex couples.  But it is ruined by a monumental queerbaiting. 

 Detective Jake Willis (Peter Saarsgaard) and his partner Myrna, who has to pretend to be his secretary because female detectives aren't allowed, investigate the murder of a railroad cop in rural Indiana.  After Jake gets intel from the small-town sheriff, Partner Myrna points out that she does all the detective work; all he has to do is seduce small town sheriffs to get intel.  

In the 1930s, all sheriffs were male.  She very clearly and unambiguously states that he has sex with men. 

But at the end of the movie he admits that he keeps letting Ida get away because he is in love with her; they used to be romantic partners, before her accident.

WTF?  A real life person could be bisexual, of course, but in movies, a hetero-romance obliterates gay references.    Myrna's statement was an outright lie, a nasty joke played on the audience. 

This is not a review of the g*ddam monstrosity (it would get an F----).  I was so angry that I looked through the entire cast list, hoping to find a gay person to profile.  I finally found one, after researching a gaggle of straight hunks:

1. Christian Bale as Frank the Monster

2. Peter Sarsgaard as the queerbaiting Detective.

3. Jake Gyllenhaal as Ronnie Reed, a Fred Astaire-like dancer.  Frank idolizes him, so they travel to all of the sites where his movies were filmed.

4. Zlatko Buric, on Nysocboy's Beefcake and Bonding, as mob boss Lupino.  The Mafia is involved, too.

5. Will Dagger, left, as a guy at a movie theater who is trying to get with his girlfriend in spite of her protests.  Frank and Ida intervene.

6. Louis Cancelmi as Officer Goodman, one of the cops that the couple kills.

7. Neil Vincent Smith as a patron in a restaurant that the two disrupt.  Sorry, I couldn't find a photo where he isn't hugging a lady.

8. Antony Abbato, left, as another restaurant patron.

The gay guy after the break

Rooster: Trashy novelist at an elite college, hetero romance problems, a gay sidekick, Dunster dick, and the guy from "Scrubs"

 

Robert Heinlein once complained that science fiction was about exploring the vastness of time and space, while mainstream fiction -- the Rabbit Runs, Appointments in Samarra, and  Complaining Portnoys of our college lit classes -- was about men who hate their jobs and their wives.  "For Heaven's sake, get new jobs, get new wives, and shut the f*k up."

I am reminded of that quote when I think of the works of Steve Carrell:  Anchorman, Dan in Real Life,  The 40 Year Old Virgin, Cafe Society,  Date Night, Dinner for Schmucks, The Morning Show, The Four Seasons, all about little men trying desperately to find meaning in jobs and wives that they hate. Coincidentally, this is precisely the "job, house, wife, kids" trajectory that I rebelled against growing up.

So I wasn't planning to watch the HBO MAX series Rooster (2026).  Then the promo showed a young man telling Steve, "nice washboard (abs)," referring to the hunk on the cover of his book.  Later he seems to become Steve's sidekick.  So Steve probably writes gay novels, and probably has a gay sidekick.  Enough potential to review Episode 1.

Scene 1:  Famous novelist Greg Russo (Steve) looks morose as he is escorted through the elegant Spanish Colonial campus of Ludlow College (actually the University of the Pacific, Stockton).  He sees a naked old guy, who waves -- but his escort, Eric (Myles Perez, left), doesn't see anyone.  A hallucination?

Eric tells him to wait here, then zones him out and refuses to speak anymore.  Fortunately, Professor Shepherd, who arranged his campus visit,  is just walking up. 

He's nervous -- he writes trashy beach novels, not literature: "Characters you like have sex, characters you don't like get shot in the face."  Why would elite college students want to see him?  

Scene 2: The reading, in a giant lecture hall.  The students criticize his protagonist, Rooster, for describing the Girl in food terms during their 17 sexual acts (18, if you count the blow job). Isn't that sexist?  

Russo counters that she is strong and powerful -- she rescues Rooster, remember? "But she takes off her bikini top to do it."   A jock praises that scene: "The Girl is smokin'!"  Hey, isn't he the gay sidekick?  I'm starting to suspect that I've been tricked.

Scene 3: Next Russo meets the College President (John C. McGinley, the homophobic, sexist jerk on Scrubs).  He strips to his underwear to show off his physique: "You're thinking, most college presidents are bookish shut-ins, but this guy is jacked!" He looks like the naked guy from earlier.  So it wasn't a hallucination, just a crazy act that would never happen on any real college campus.

They allude to a "sex scandal" involving Katie and Archie (not mentioned before), and the President offers Russo a job as Writer-in-Residence.  "But I didn't even go to college."  "Who cares?  It's over-rated."  Academic malaise at its snarkiest. 

Left: McGinley's butt

Scene 4:  Next stop: Another giant lecture hall, a lecture on French impressionism, Monet at Giverny.  It's Russo's daughter Katie, a professor of art history (and the sex scandal lady).  As the students leave, she notes that her Dad doesn't like interacting with other humans, so they can get extra credit for looking him in the eye and saying "I love you very much."  A student does it!

Next Katie points out that the college has asked Russo to do a reading a billion times; why agree now?  "Admit it -- you're checking up on me, to see if I'm ok after the sex scandal."  We finally find out what it is: her husband Archie dumped her for a grad student.  Hetero Romance Problem #1.  

She has no idea why. Everything was normal, and then she was moving into the dead hockey coach's house.   Everybody on campus knows, and keeps staring at her and asking questions.  And it's difficult to avoid running into him or his new girlfriend on a small campus.  She's about to crack.

She points them out, sitting on a park bench.  "The girlfriend isn't even hot.  She's like a regular person.  Why did he dump me for her?"  Maybe he liked her personality?

As Russo peeks through the bushes, husband Archie and the girlfriend leave, and a lesbian couple notice him.  They think he's a perv, har har.   He runs away as they film him.  

Spoiler alert: This is set up to have consequences, like Russo being arrested, or the job offer rescinded, but it is never mentioned again.

Scene 5: Russo stops at a convenience store for some water.  Tommy (Maximo Salas), the jock from earlier, praises the Rooster books. Uh-oh, he forgot his id, so Russo buys his beer for him.  If he's under 21, you're in big trouble, buddy.

More after the break