Male nudity, gay romance, and queer codes in movies and television, especially "The Righteous Gemstones"
"Waterloo Road," Episode 10.1 or 14.1, "What I did last summer," with a new headmaster, a side piece, dark secrets, and dicks.
"How do I know if I'm g...."?: A Young Gideon Story
This story features Gideon Gemstone (Skyler Gisondo) of The Righteous Gemstones as a teenager. All of the subjects of n*de photos are over 18.
“Hey, yourself.” Gideon was a bit suspicious: his younger brother rarely talked to him at school. Sometimes he didn’t even accept a ride home, preferring to call one of the Gemstone drivers to avoid being seen with a “glee club nerd.” An odd insult, since Gideon didn’t belong to Glee Club.
“Are you staying after for gymnastics?”
“No, that’s on Tuesday and Thursday. Why, what do you need?”
“Well, a ride home.”
“Why – the drivers are both busy, and your pogo stick’s in the shop?”
Pontius smiled, either not noticing the dig at his age, or too invested in whatever he wanted to care. “And can we stop for pizza on the way?”
This was really suspicious -- Pontius never invited him to go anywhere. Maybe the age difference was too great for them to really be friends – Gideon was in eleventh grade, with a girlfriend and college plans, while Pontius in eighth grade still played with toys.
Maybe they didn’t have much in common – Gideon was into gymnastics and acrobatics (he loved tumbling with Uncle Kelvin at the Gemstone Teen Center), while Pontius was into…well, hanging out with his buds and telling dirty jokes. Or maybe they just didn’t like each other. He must want a big favor, Gideon thought.
They climbed into the Lexus that Granddad Eli gave him for his sixteenth birthday and drove down to Famulari’s, the go-to pizza place for all of the Gemstones, probably because the delivery guys didn’t mind driving ten miles out to the Compound. The moment they sat down, Pontius said, "Ok, here’s the thing. I want to have a sleepover Friday night, and you have to come."
"No way, José! 16-year olds do not go to slumber parties.”
“You used to like them.”
“Sure, and I used to like Battlebots, too. I grew up.”
From his 10th birthday until last year, when he graduated to the high school building at the Academy, Gideon and Pontius hosted sleepovers at least once a month. They each invited two or three friendss, plus their younger brother Abraham by default.
How did I know which boys were cute? Gideon thought, surprised by the memory. Why did I care?
"We haven't had one for a long time!" Pontus protested. "And Mom says I can't have one by myself – you have to be there, too."
The waiter came – a rather chunky, sandy-haired guy from Gideon’s Biblical History class – and they ordered their usual bacon-cheeseburger pizza (sometimes Mom and Dad called for something “healthy,” and they had to scour the menu for healthy toppings. What kind of pizza topping was healthy?).
“What will my friends say if they find out I went to a sleepover with a bunch of eighth grade dorks? What will my girlfriend say?” He and Katie had only been dating for three weeks, but Gideon mentioned her every chance he got. “Katie likes lima beans. Katie’s aunt lives in Belgium. Katie’s favorite Harry Potter character is…”
"They won't all be dorks," Pontius said. "How about if you can invite some of your friends. Whoever you want.”
"As if! My friends are way too cool for sleepovers!”
"Well, maybe not one of your friends, just guys that you like. You know, want to spend time with, like the guys that Uncle Kelvin hangs out with”
Gideon felt the anger rising. “I do not want to spend time with guys like that, Jackass! Uncle Kelvin is gay, and I have a girlfriend!”
Pontius laughed. “You dummy, no way is Uncle Kelvin a homo!”
“How do you know?”
“Number One, he’s got muscles. Number Two: he works with kids…”
“You’re an idiot. Gay guys have muscles sometimes, and they can work with kids like anybody else.”
Pontius sneered. “Number Three, he never brings a little fruity friend to the family dinner….”
“Maybe he’s afraid to bring a boyfriend around. Granddad Eli might kick him out of the church.”
“Number Four: He doesn’t live in California,” Pontius said with a flourish, as if that was a definitive argument. “Why do you want Uncle Kelvin to be gay so much? Are you in love with him? Do you want to, like, hug and kiss?”
“Dude, that’s my uncle!” Gideon said, disgusted.
“Ok, so if he wasn’t your uncle, you’d be all into him.” He made pucker sounds. “Oh, Thweetie, your muscles are so big! Kiss me again!”
“You’d better stop talking trash about me if you want me to come to your darn sleepover.”
“Ok, ok, sorry…Thweetie.” He giggled. “Now pick two guys that you want to invite. Somebody you want to spend time with.”
“Someone you want to spend time with” made sense to Gideon. Maybe a guy who was a little standoffish at school, or constantly involved with his own clique. This could be his chance to break through and make a friend.
"Ok, let’s go for it. For my first boy I pick Derek from Gemstone Teen Time.” A tall, blond 10th grader with a round angelic face. For some reason he went to public school, not the Academy. When he got the lead in the drama club production of Oklahoma last fall, Gideon made his Mom and Dad and brothers all go to see him, but they didn’t hang out afterwards.
"No problemo. Derek and me are tight." He paused. "So...who's the second boy?"
More after the break. Caution: Explicit
"AP Bio": "Always Sunny" Glenn as a disgraced philosopher turned high school teacher
The television series AP Bio was broadcast on NBC in 2018-19, and then on Peacock in 2020-22, and is now streaming on Netflix. It stars Glen Howerton, who plays the amoral sociopath Dennis Reyolds on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so I imagine his AP Biology teacher will be similar. It may be a nice break from looking for gay characters in endless Christmas romcoms.
Scene 2: The students have some questions. He promises to give them all As if they keep quiet about not learning biology. Upon discovering that a student is named Sarika Sarkar, he starts lecturing on philosopher Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, but stops when they pull out their notebooks to take notes. He won't be teaching them philosophy, either.
Scene 3: At home at his "dead mother's house," amid pictures of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and himself as a geeky teen, Jack is getting drunk-er. He calls his friend Miles in California while giving 0 stars to his bestselling book of "philosophical rubbish."
Scene 4: The next day, the School Bully, Spence Moore II, knocks down the Troubled Loner Devin, Jacob McCarthy, and throws his backpack into the river.
Scene 6: The students find a video online explaining why Jack was kicked out of Harvard: at his tenure hearing, he attacked an elderly professor, who defended himself and put him in a headlock. Embarrassing tenure fail.
Braxton Alexander: three heterosexual boyfriends, three serial killers, one saxophone, and five bare butts
Born in 2007, actor and model Braxton Alexander had a busy child star career. Strangely, although of course he had no control over the scripts at age eight or nine, his movies and tv shows seem overwhelmingly heteronormative, if not downright homophobic.
The young Callahan in Tag (2018), about a group of friends who play an elaborate game of tag every year, while not making homophobic jokes and fielding gay panic.
In I Want You Back (2022), a dumped boyfriend and girlfriend try to sabotage their exes' new relationships and get them back. Brax plays a "middle school boyfriend."
The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022-4) features two brothers in love with a girl named Belly. Brax plays the young Conrad, falling for Belly at the age of 13.
In Black Bird (2022), not to be confused with Blackbird, Jimmy Keane (Taron Egerton, left) is given the task of befriending a suspected serial killer to get a confession out of him. No gay subtext: the guys both display an incessant interest in ladies.
"School Spirits": Ghost girl, her gay bff, and their buds solve the mystery. With bonus pics of el novio desnudo
I'm a sucker for teenage ghost stories, as long as they are comedies, so I reviewed the first episode of School Spirits on Netflix:
Maddie (Peyton List) wakes up in the boiler room of her high school. Her blood is splattered around. But that's not the worst part: she's dead! She can't touch or move anything. She can see and hear the living but they can't see or hear her. And she can't leave the campus!
Her self-appointed guide is Charlie (Nick Pugliese, center), a gay kid who died in the school during the 1990s (peanut allergy, not hate crime). He advises her to not try to remember how she died, since she can't change anything: no communication with the living is possible. But don't ghosts communicate with people all the time? Maybe in the next episode. And becoming fixated on the past is dangerous: some band members who died in a bus crash many years ago are obsessively performing the school fight song, over and over.
Charlie introduces Maddie to some other ghosts from various decades, notably Wally (Milo Mannheim, top photo and right), who died on the football field, and wishes that he had managed to shower first; and the Goth Kirsten, who was murdered by her guidance counselor.
Mr. Martin (Josh Zuckerman), a teacher who died in the school, offers regular group therapy, with regular homework ("write your obituary"). This doesn't get boring after 20 years because ghosts don't experience time in the same way that the living do. He also advises Maddie to resist checking up on her living friends, as they will gradually forget her and move on.
Of course, Maddie doesn't listen. She tries to recall events leading up to her death: she made plans to with her BFFs, Simon (Kristian Ventura) and Nicole, to see Carrie that night.
Her boyfriend Xavier (Spencer MacPherson) was skipping class, and texted her to join him for a smooch session in his car. She talked him into going to the movie. They met the others after class with the tickets. And that's it.
Out in the living world, Maddie's body has not been found, so she gets "missing person" posters and "thoughts and prayers" in class. The BFFs think that this is ridiculous: they should be out looking for her. Suddenly Xavier's bag flies open: he has Maddie's cell phone! Why didn't he tell anyone for the last three days? This makes him the prime suspect in her murder. The sheriff (Ian Tracey, left), who also happens to be his Dad, arrests him.
Beefcake: Charlie's "office" is the shower room in the boy's gym, where he can watch an endless parade of butts and cocks (just butts are shown). Otherwise none.
Gay Characters: Charlie, and maybe Maddie's living bff, Simon. A future episode shows us Charlie’s high school boyfriend, Emilio, who is now all grown up, married to another guy, and teaching at the school (played as an adult by Andres Soto). Yes, that's his dick, not completely covered by the Scream emoji
Heterosexism: Maddie and her boyfriend kiss about 1,000 times. Of course, they won't be able to in future episodes, but Xavier has been seeing another girl on the side, so doubtless Maddie will be seeing some smooching.
The Mystery: "Who killed Maddie, and why?" It's obviously not Xavier or one of her bffs, and those are the major living characters introduced to date. I also hope that we have some subplots involving the other ghosts.
Gemstone Connection: Both Milo Mannheim and Tony Cavalero appeared on The Conners.
My Grade: A-
More Andres after the break.Caution: explicit.
"English Teacher": Gay teacher, his ex-boyfriend, and his homophobic buddy face woke culture and get naked
I spent the worst year of my life teaching English at Homophobe State University in Hell, aka a far northern suburb of Houston, Texas. The minute I submitted the last of the final grades, I got in my car and drove nonstop until that blessed "You are now leaving Hell" sign was receding into the distance.
So the new Hulu series, English Teacher, about an English teacher in small town Hell...I mean Texas...piqued my interest. I could relive how hideously horrible it was, from the safe distance of my living room a thousand miles away.
Score -- none of the promotional materials let on, but this English teacher, Evan, played by Brian Jordan Alvarez, is gay. Let the rampant homophobia begin.
Left: the worst place in the world
And Brian Jordan Alvarez's cock, to take your mind off the horror.
Wait -- in English Teacher, everyone knows that Evan is gay. Not a problem. The problem is, he's kind of a jerk.
The much more woke students want to cancel him, for instance, because he said that he couldn't understand why lesbians aren't attracted to men. Lots of people aren't attracted to men, idjit!
In the first episode, a parent wants him fired, claiming that he turned her kid gay by kissing his then-boyfriend and current hookup, played by Jordan Firstman, in front of the class.
Left: Jordan's dick.
More after the break
Arabic and Class Rings: Cruising at West Point during my junior year in high school
It's the beginning of my junior year in high school, time to register for the ACT and the SAT, the college entrance exams. But my parents are vehemently opposed to the idea of college.They can't afford it.
It's unnecessary -- I'm already smart enough to go to work in the factory.
It's un-Christian, full of Catholics and atheists.
But I've been insistent, littering the house with catalogs and brochures, and finally Dad gives in: "Ok, you can go to college, as long as it's Olivet. Or West Point."
A dull, Sunday school-like Bible college on the prarie or the U.S. Military Academy? "I understand why you want me to go to Olivet," I tell him, "But why West Point?"
"I'll tell you why: full tuition, room and board, plus a stipend. All you have to do is sign up for five years of active duty afterwards."
"Five years in the Army! That sounds awful!"
Dad's eyes narrow. "I was in the Navy for four years. It was the best time of my life. A real man's world. You don't know what real friends are until you've fought side by side."
"Um...a man's world? Real friends?" I imagine sitting in class surrounded by hunky collegiate athletes, the cream of the crop, the most muscular in America, stripping down next to them in the locker room, sleeping beside them in the dorms... "But...um... I'm not big on military science. I want to major in Arabic."
"They have Arabic," Dad says, leafing through the catalog. "And Chinese. You can major in both, if you're that into languages. Plus, it's only an hour from Manhattan. You like all that Broadway musical stuff, right?"
Arabic, Broadway musicals, and army hunks? It wouldn't hurt to apply....
The application process begins during your junior year, with the SAT, a medical exam, and a physical fitness test: push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, a 400-yard dash, a mile run, and a basketball throw (you don't actually have to make a basket).
In April, I receive a letter stating that I've passed the first set of requirements. Now I have to get a nomination from my Senator, Representative, or the President of the United States.
No problem: I already know Tom Railsback, the representative from the 19th district for as long as I can remember. He is a local boy, and a counterculture hero, having drafted the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.
He says that there are four guys in the 19th district asking to be nominated, the most in a decade.
Just to be on the safe side, I approach our senator, Charles H. Percy, too, even though he's a Republican and I'm a staunch Democrat.
In June, my acceptance into the official applicant pool arrives. Now I have to fill out some more forms, submit some letters attesting to my moral character, get a psychological evaluation, and come in for an interview.
"More hoops to jump through, just to join the army!" I complain. "You know, Olivet offered me a scholarship, and I'll bet I could get one at Augustana, too."
"Do they offer Arabic?" Dad asks.
I keep silent and continue the application process.
The psychological evaluation is administered by the school counselor: MMPI, with several questions designed to weed out the gay prospects, some blatant ("I am attracted to members of my own sex") and some keying into gay stereotypes ("I am closer to my mother than to my father.").
This actually comes as a relief. I have not yet figured "it" out, and I am immersed in the homophobic Evangelical subculture. I am literally afraid of gay men. If a feminine guy appears on tv, I leave the room.. No way could I go to any college that allows gays in!
Admissions interviews are being held in Chicago and Des Moines. but Dad insists that we go to West Point itself, so I can see how great it is.
In July, we leave Mom and my brother and sister visiting our family in Indiana, and drive out with my Uncle Paul: twelve hours on the highway, a very long trip even with the three of us sharing the driving. Then a day at West Point, and another very long day driving back.
The campus is very beautiful, stately Gothic architecture on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. Some of the buildings date from the Revolutionary Era.
But soon I notice some problems:
Arabic is no longer offered as a major. You can take two years of classes while you major in something else.
Dan Cudmore: Colossus, Felix, fitness model, and the God of War. Plus his colossal Colossus cock
He specializes in superheroes and supervillains like Colossus, but he's done other projects. I first saw him in Magicians, as the God of War. Apprised that a gay-stereotype god called the Nameless is looking for something the other gods stole from him, he responds "I don't know what it is, but you have my permission to search my ball sack with your tongue." Sure, that sounds fun, I'd be happy to....oh, wait, you're being homophobic.
His other projects include comedies like Fresh Off the Boat, romcoms like All of My Heart (as the romantic lead's friend who devotes his life to getting him laid), and horror like Rites of Passage, which appears to have a gay subtext -- not his.
Also 14 stunt credits including Psych, The Predator, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
He played a stunt cock at least once.
Some fitness modeling from early in his career
Rocky High: My job as an athletic trainer
When I was a kid, I hated sports -- who would willingly submit to having hard round projectiles hurled at them? -- but my parents wouldn't believe me. "You're a boy! Boys like sports!" they kept insisting as I unwrapped Christmas presents of basketballs and baseball bats.
Denkmann Elementary School didn't offer gym classes, so they insisted that I choose something from the Parks & Recreations Department "Kids' Sports" program. So I took judo for three years, stopping only when the dojo moved across the river to Davenport.
Washington Junior High offered a full range of team sports, so they began pushing me toward baseball, basketball, or...shudder...football. I compromised with wrestling, but dropped out after an unfortunate penis incident during a match.
When I was about to start tenth grade at Rocky High, home of the Rocks, the litany began again: play a sport, play a sport, play a sport. With even more urgency, since a boy with an aversion to athletics might be a "swish." My Dad even forced me to try out for junior varsity football!
Noticing my dismay, my gym teacher, who was also the football coach, came up with another idea. He asked if I had my Red Cross First Aid certificate. I did. Then he suggested that I might like a job as an athletic trainer.
Michael Provost: Perennial heterosexual boyfriend with some nude pics and maybe a coming out video
Now I'm collecting Michaels.
Also he's apparently gay. TikTok has a number of videos dedicated to "Michael Provost" coming out. So let's check for gay roles or subtexts.
The Case for Christ (2017). Probably not.
Lucifer Episode 4.8 (2019). Reformed Big Bad Amenadiel(D.B. Woodside) mentors Michael's Nate Mifflin, whose parents are divorcing. Nope.
Insatiable (2018-19): a girl who is bullied for being fat becomes thin and sets out to get revenge and win a beauty pageant Bob Armstrong(Brett Rice), her beauty pageant mentor, has a long, slow, painful coming-out. and begins dating long-term antagonist Bob Barnard (Christopher Gorham).
Michael plays Brick Armstrong, Bob's son, who is heterosexual: he has an affair with an older woman before settling down with the formerly-fat girl. He does get several semi-nude and rear nudity scenes.
Saving Zoe (2019). A girl named Echo and her boyfriend, Michael, investigate the murder of her older sister. Nope.
Most Guys are Losers (2020). College boy Michael seeks the approval of his girlfriend's dad, who wrote a book, Most Guys are Losers. Nope.
Plan B: When a girl's crush, Michael, leaves a party with another girl, she gets even by having sex with a loser, and has to track down a Plan B, post-coitus contraceptive, before she gets pregnant. There's a trans character, but I think Michael is straight.
Fear Street:Two sisters at a summer camp in 1978. One has sex with Michael.
It's not looking good so far. I'll just check one more.
The Holdovers (2023). "Holdovers" are people who have to stay at a fancy prep school during the 1970 Christmas holiday: A cranky Classics teacher, a grieving cook, and some students, including jock Jason (Michael). Two youtube guys with the bizarre name "the gay homosexuals" promise spoilers, but the first 10 minutes of their 30-minute review didn't reveal any gay subtexts. But Jason gets a girlfriend, quite a feat in an all-boy school.
More Michael after the break. Warning: Explicit
The homoerotic hijinks of Skyler Gisondo's crew, with at least four gay and three nude dudes
Skyler Gisondo was born in Florida and grew up in California. He was home schooled for several years to give him free time for acting; then he attended Milken Community School, a Jewish high school, graduating in 2014. He was deeply involved in Jewish activities, including Temple Beth Am (Conservative Judaism), USY (United Synagogue Youth) and Camp Alonim. In 2015 he began attending the University of Southern California, a semester at a time to make room for Santa Clarita Diet.
In high school and college, Skyler found some hunky friends who enjoyed homoerotic horseplay. Some have remained part of his crew to this day.
Showering with Portuguese boys at a church conference in Switzerland
It was like Nazarene summer camp, with daily sermons, Bible studies, jump quizzes, and seminars on soul-winning, except we had afternoons and one full day off for field trips and sightseeing We could go out on our own, but:
1. Don't talk to the locals.
2. Don't set foot in any Catholic church.
3. Be back by 7:00.
But every good Nazarene knows how to bend the rules.
"I'm sure the rules don't apply if we're going to save souls," my friend Annette, a delegate from Idaho, exclaimed. "We're in a country full of Catholic and Reformed Church sinners. Wouldn't it be great if we could plant the seeds of a mighty revival and win Switzerland for the Lord?"
Overbrimming with the "Faith in God can move a mighty mountain" and "If you ask anything in My Name, that will I do" mantras, we decided to go soulwinning in the Belly of the Beast, the most evil, depraved site imaginable, a Catholic church!
But not in Fiesch -- we figured that would be well-traveled territory. On our free day, we packed several copies of the Gute Nachricht Bibel, a English-German phrase book, some snacks, and a change of clothes, and took the train 2 hours south to Zermatt a famous tourist town at the base of the Matterhorn. Our guidebook led us to the St. Mauritius Church, which dates from 1285. We marched inside to bring the Gospel to the idolators.
It was a Thursday morning at 10:00 am. It was empty.
Disappointed, we stood around outside, waiting for a Catholic to come by so we could start a soul-winning conversation.
Soon two cute black-haired teenagers came by, wearing backpacks. One was tall and slim, the other more compact and muscular, but they looked so alike that they must have been brothers.
Well, cute boys are as good as Catholics. Annette, who had taken first year German, started the ball rolling: "Entschuldigen, aber sie hören,die gut Nachricht dein Jesus Christ?" (A bad attempt to say "Have you heard the Good News of Jesus Christ?".)
They stopped, grinning, and consulted in a language I didn't understand. "Keine Deutsch," the taller one said.
"English?" I asked. "Francais?"
"Oh, Americanos!" the short, compact one exclaimed. "Michael Jackson. Beat it...beat it...beat it..." He gyrated his hips
They were 17-year old Joao (the tall one) and 15-year old Lucio (the compact, muscular one). But we didn't get much more from their effusive conversation in their unknown language. Later I discovered that it was Portuguese -- I was taking advanced Spanish, but I didn't understand more than a word here and there.
We ended up strolling down Schluhmattstrasse with them, Annette and Joao in the front, me and a grinning Lucio in the rear.
Lucio kept grinning at me and talking nonstop in incomprehensible Portuguese, interspliced with fragmentary English: ("You Chicago? Al Capone big gun, yes?").
It was great fun getting so much attention from a cute guy with a compact, muscular frame. I wouldn't figure "it" out for another year, but still, I kept wondering what he looked like naked. Was he cut or uncut? Was he hung?
Somehow we ended up waiting 20 minutes to get on a gondola weaving its way up the mountainside.
A gondola is a small car suspended by a cable as it sways 1000 feet above the ground.
I was terrified! I clung to Lucio, who wrapped a muscular arm around me and grinned. I felt his hard chest beneath my hand, smelled his cologne, and couldn't help fondling a bit. He hugged me tighter. "No afraid, yes? I....I...uh...save."
But we had only reached Furi, the first cable car station. There were three more to reach the top! No way! Instead we stopped at a restaurant for fried eggs, sausage, a kind of hard cheese, and hot chocolate, and conversation about "Rambo! He very muscle, yes? You like?"
Annette tried to explain that as Christians, we didn't go to movies, but they didn't understand.
Then there was nothing to do but ski down, walk down, or take the gondola. In the flat Midwest, we don't learn to ski, and there was no way I was getting on that gondola again!