![young and old gay men videos young and old gay men videos](https://brobible.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/old-man-young-boy-life.jpg)
“This has given me an opportunity to really use my voice and to just not to worry about what people are thinking of me. “I have not always had a voice,” he shared.
#Young and old gay men videos series#
Martin added that the series has helped him rediscover his own voice. We don't know any questions, and that's why I love it, because what everybody sees is our realness.” “But also it’s our openness, because we never know what we're going to be talking about. “We are four really different people, but we get along great and have a blast,” Martin said. Authenticity is a word that's used often nowadays, but it seems to really be the key to their virality. The Old Gays seek to bridge the dialogue gap between the generations using the internet, while also giving more visibility to their own peer group after so many died during the AIDS epidemic of the '80s and '90s.Īnother other defining element of their success: They’re authentic. As a gay man myself, I’ve seen firsthand that when older men at bars try to strike up conversations with younger people, even with platonic intentions, they’ll often be ignored. (Jon Premosch for TODAY)īut in the LGBTQ community, many gay men aren’t interested in forming intergenerational connections. Brands are tapping them for sponsored content, too, turning their passion for storytelling into a profitable pastime for them all. The Old Gays still create content for Grindr while building up their own social media platforms. Their most popular video, “Old Gays Look Back At Their Younger Selves,” has almost 10 million views and a little more than 16,500 comments.
#Young and old gay men videos full#
The comments section of the Old Gays YouTube and TikTok videos are full of young fans and followers extolling their love for them. “Another factor is they no longer fear getting old, particularly getting old as a gay person, because when they see us having so much fun about life at our age, it gives them hope.”
![young and old gay men videos young and old gay men videos](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/10/02/business/MONEY.650.1.jpg)
“And so they're using us to show their appreciation to everyone of our generation.” “When I read the comments, many of the younger generation have adopted us an an icon of the older gay generation, to which they feel a great indebtedness because the strides that have been made over the past few decades,” he explained. Reeves quickly answers that there are a “multitude of reasons” that the Old Gays have become an internet sensation. “I'm a hugger, and when I say on a video that I love you, it is from the bottom of my heart, it really is because I genuinely do, and that was an inheritance from my parents of loving.”īill Lyons spent most of his life working in catering and interior design, but it's his latest gig as an influencer that's giving him a confidence boost he never knew he needed. “But I just love back, and if I could hug everybody that says something, I would,” he said. Martin has an answer for everything, it seems, but he struggles to find a response on why people love them so much. It's still like it was yesterday because she was my bestie.” “This happened just right on time, and we were best friends until she passed away 10 years ago. “She was just in tears because she felt bad because she couldn't be there to help me through it,” he said of her reaction when he finally did tell her. Growing up in a religious household in the Bible Belt, Martin didn’t come out to his mom until he was 30 years old, even though he'd been out to other people for years. You can find some old ones that are just as bad as some of the younger ones,” he quipped. “Old gays are really no different than younger gays. Meanwhile Martin believes they’re educating people on “being human.” It turned out to be rather enjoyable.”įrom there, people of all ages, especially younger social media users, fell in love with them and started following their conversations, which include everything from their hilarious reactions to Cardi B's “WAP” music video to sharing their coming out journeys to a look back on the loves of their lives. “The first video we didn't really get paid anything for, we just went basically for the fun of it,” Robert Reeves, 78, told TODAY. I feel like a dinosaur, but the way that people are reacting to me and to the others, I can't believe it.”īased in Cathedral City, California, right outside the LGBTQ enclave of Palm Springs, the foursome of gay men, who range in age from the mid-60s to late 70s, were already friends when the dating app Grindr began using them as subjects in videos back in 2018. “I mean, at 77 years old, I never had any idea that this would happen to me. “I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around that, truly,” Bill Lyons, 77, added.