The Internet was made for porn and faceless cruelty, and YouTube star Austin Rhodes has been experiencing a strong dose of the latter.
A few fans (fanemies?) have apparently taken issue with Rhodes’ decision to date an older man.
The 21-year-old, who’s become Internet-famous thanks to chatty YouTube vids co-starring twin brother Aaron, has been dating hair stylist Justin Anderson for three months.
In his latest vid, Rhodes confronts his critics head/hair on:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“Let’s just have a discussion about it because I feel like this is always something that comes up on all of our comments,” says Austin.
“I remember when you guys first got into a relationship how weird I was about it,” Aaron replies.
“I understand where people come from when it’s not like ‘typical’ and whatever,” Austin snaps back, “but everyone’s relationship is so different.”
Related: Twins Aaron & Austin Rhodes Reveal How They Came Out To Each Other In High School
“What works for me and my boyfriend is going to be totally different from what works for somebody else,” he says.
“For anyone to judge from the outside when they don’t know how the two people are with each other. Plus, most people commenting don’t even know that we’ve been together for three years.”
Related: Rhodes Brother Reveals His Biggest Turn-Ons
Aaron adds his two cents:
“I’m just going to stand up on a soapbox for a second, and this is only directed towards a few people within the LGBT community.”
“When you see somebody in our community coming at the two of them, who are madly in love with each other… it literally makes no sense, because we’re the first ones to say ‘Love is love’ and ‘everyone should have love’.
“Why don’t we just lift each other up and accept the fact that not everyone is like you.”
We definitely don’t see a problem here.
Watch the vid below:
Xzamilloh
He’s right, it’s not a big deal… in fact I stopped caring halfway through reading this… no one has cared about these two for a long time.
Donston
The majority of these social media gays date older or date men who look exactly like them. No big deal. It’s very “typical”. And no idea who he is. When are we gonna have some actual famous gay men to bytch about?
ChrisK
He could date his dog as far as I care.
Kieran
But here you are commenting on an article about him.
ChrisK
I’m commenting about those bitching about his choice.
Truth-is-Truthy
This is an issue which pisses me off as well. I am 29, still young. But there are some gay males in the 16 to 21 age range who think I’m “too old”. Since when? When I was 16 I dated a guy who was 40 and it was a beautiful, consensual, loving relationship (completely legal in my state), that lasted almost four years. For millennia younger gay males had lovers who were twice or three times their age. Why the sudden aversion among gay males to dating someone more than a couple years older?
Donston
I’ve noticed that for at least half of the gay men I know it’s: my age or 20+ years old. No in between.
Heywood Jablowme
um, well… When I was 21 I definitely would have thought 29 was probably too old to date. (Not too old to f*ck, probably.) Was that wrong? Would just have hoped for someone more contemporary to my situation: 25 or 26 was about the limit.
And it’s not a “sudden” aversion because that was over 30 years ago! What’s with this sudden theory that it’s a “sudden” aversion?
Also why are you going after 16 year olds? Ew. Talk to that Brazilian perv who posts here, we’re not buying it.
ChrisK
Here’s an answer. Grow the eff up and stop obsessing over whether or not teenagers want you. Perv..
ChrisK
@Heywood Jablowme
Yeah, but here in Brazil we get to f*ck all the 16 yo’s we want. Lol
fur_hunter
Truth….You are 29. I didn’t come out until I was 28, of course, those were different times. It was 1973. I did not even get into a relationship until I was 32, Phillip was 30, a handsome fireman. For me, I wanted to be in a relationship where we were fairly close in age. It was a matter of haveing things in common. My Phillip caught a cold and didn’t take care of it. On May 10, 1996, he was gone from rampant pneumonia. My second relationship began in 1998 and Dan was 13 years younger than me, but it worked. We had made such terrific plans to retire to the SW coast of Mexico near the ocean. Dan loved the beach. Our new home was to be finished in October of 2014. On May 20, 2014, my Dan died in his sleep of a heart attack. I have joked that I will die on May 15, right in the middle. GRIN! I think what really matters in ANY relationship is do the two people truly love one another. Personally, I still would choose someone closer to my age, but for others, it does not matter, if that’s what you want and there is love.
jasentylar
Uhhh don’t be interested in 16 year olds, perv
Donston
I don’t want to get caught up in the great age debate. If you wanna keep it young and pretty do you. And if you just so happen to fall for someone where there’s a big age difference then it is what it is. However, if you find that you’re much older but you only have sexual/romantic interest in 15-19 year olds or that you’re younger but you’re only interested in conventional “daddies”- that’s often a sign of megalomania driven fetishes and ambitions and childhood trauma the former, and daddy issues and sometimes even gender confusion for the latter. (These things aren’t always the case mind you). I’ve noticed there are typically “deeper issues” when the pattern is persistent and life-long. However, as long as it’s legal, do you I guess.
tdh1980
The only people who care about who these social-media-famous types date are the young (in age and maturity) followers deluded enough to believe that these fame seekers possibly could want them. They all like to assume they have an equal and fair chance with young, blond, blue-eyed twinks.
ChrisK
Yep. Were all looking at it from our perspectives and their vapid young and deluded youtube followers. I wonder if they ever get tired of the constant…oh you’re so cute. I love you guys. Ha.
Josh447
No age no read article
DMRX
More top-tier reporting by Queerty. They can’t even copy and paste a quote correctly.
Juanjo
To those who decided to dis the guy for commenting on the attacks made on him and his older boyfriend – yes we know you don’t care who he is and don’t apparently care about the issue he is addressing. Congrats for stating the obvious.
dean089
LOL! Yes, for those people the label “trolls” seems most appropriate.
Charlie in Charge
I am always just so thrilled they are letting us know which issues they are too enlightened to care about. If they didn’t post it I would be laying awake at night thinking “But.. but how does ChrisK feel? I must know!”
Donston
It’s more about “Why does Queerty feel the need to copy and paste this particular ‘article”? It’s also basic frustration that 2/3 of every personality based articles are about attention-starving’s who live their lives through social media.
jjose712
It’s like they are unable to read, because the headline is pretty obvious so if you are not going to be interested is very easy to skip the whole article.
But no, if they don’t write how little interested they are they can’t function
woodroad34
His boyfriend is hot. He has good taste. If I were his age, I’d definitely be into his older bf (my former lover of 21 years is 18 years older than I am–he graduated high school when I was born).
DCguy
The article states in one section they’ve been together for 3 months, and in another 3 years, and it doesn’t even bother to tell us what the age difference is that has apparently so horrified his YouTube followers.
Just saying.
DMRX
More top-tier reporting by Queerty. They can’t even copy and paste a quote correctly.
And your second point even further points out Derek’s horrible reporting style.
He BGB
Older? Looks like he’s in his 30s. I guess that’s ancient and senior citizen in gay years.
Mack
In that case I must be dead and buried.
ChrisK
I was thinking that too. Like where’s the old guy? Lol
scotshot
I’ve noticed in a lot of articles & porn that 27 year olds are considered old men – occasionally a daddy if very hot.
This is totally natural as the majority of people gay and str8 prefer being around those their own age.
jkthsnk
I’m betting none of the haters have been or are currently in, or are capable of, a committed loving relationship. That’s what they’re really upset about.
dean089
We gays like to talk about tolerance and diversity but we’re not terribly good at actually doing it. Something which is not necessarily exclusive to gay people.
1898
“…been dating hair stylist Justin Anderson for three months.”
Perhaps you meant three years? The first IG photo you posted is from 2015.
Kieran
@dean089 Well said. It’s amazing how judgmental and intolerant some gays can be.
Here’s a tip: Live and let live.
DavidIntl
I am not familiar with this particular ‘celebrity’ but the issue that he raises is important to me, as someone with a significantly younger partner. No, I am not crying ‘ageism’ in the way that some guys do – seeming to think every 18-year-old guy should be keen to sleep with them. But when a couple is happy, and both parties are consenting adults, then why would anyone be inclined to criticise that relationship? An age-disparate relationship may not be your thing, but why do you care if it is someone else’s?
Armiya
The only reason in my opinion, that this article is up, is because they’re both good looking guys who post half naked pics of themselves on IG. They haven’t done anything important, they just exist and as with most of the pointless articles they create here, it’s click bait.
And as for those hateful people saying shit about their relationship, that’s sad.
cabe
I don’t think this is a big deal but what I do think was a big deal was when these twins came out to their father on the phone and recorded it for their YouTube channel to get their Dad’s reaction. Totally tacky and disrespectful to the Dad. These two are narcissistic and clueless.
Terrycloth
Article first states they’ve been together 3 months. It goes on he says 3 years…which is it..? I don’t find either attractive… who cares anyway .if he’s happy…
Xzamilloh
For those bitching about how some of us don’t care, please grow a pair. Having the love of the D in common does not mean that we all need to kumbaya and fawn and awe over every self-indulgent piece of drivel that is pumped out about a pseudo celebrity on the death throes of their popularity. So sorry that I don’t give two craps about this Austin Rhodes taking the 14 year old girls and socially awkward gaybies to task over his dating life. And that’s what it is… he’s talking to teenagers, because they’re the main ones watching these YouTubers
Drewc
I’ve dated 2 guys that were younger than I was at the time. The first was 24 and I was 43. We had a lot in common and really got along great. He modeled for Abercrombie and Fitch. He was a beautiful person inside and out. Some people thought that the only reason we were together was because I was a sugar daddy. I actually was unemployed at the time. The company I worked for outsourced my job to India. I was far from being a sugar daddy. He supported himself just fine. The second relationship I was 46 and he was 19. We dated for 18 months and it was wonderful. We had great times together bowling, movies, eating out, concerts etc. We’d laugh and talk for hours. Again the sugar daddy thing came up and it pissed me off. I had gone back to school and was living paycheck to paycheck. Of course I bought him small gifts for his birthday, Christmas etc and he bought me small gifts too. Just like you do in any relationship. I don’t understand why people have an issue with 2 consenting adults dating each other or getting married. How does it affect their life in the least? Truth is its none of their business. I can’t stand judgemental people. Just because you don’t agree with it doesn’t make it wrong.
ChrisK
I don’t notice age differences till I see a really large age gap. Mostly when the older guy is obsessed with the very young. That shows some very deep seated mental problems. I think it’s unrealistic expecting people not to judge that.
johnsonlover
I’m not trying to criticize, but isn’t it Mr. Rhodes who’s making a big deal of the age difference between he and his man? Why would you care if someone else has a problem with this issue? …and if someone does care – good for you. I say let people have their opinions and respect them. I’m in a relationship with someone 26 years my junior for going on 4 years now, and not once has anyone ever questioned it or had an issue with it, and personally I wouldn’t be offended if they did.
Sometimes I wonder if these controversies aren’t faked just to foster a discussion/get clicks.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
Get a real job and no one will know what you are doing. Problem solved.
GayEGO
My lifetime partner of 55 years, married 13 years, is 10 years older than I and looks my age. We have friends who have many years between them and some don’t, big deal, who cares. Being in a loving relationship with another is a good thing as love is love. Those who troll us are unhappy monsters!
ChrisK
No one bats an eye at 10 years. It’s old guys chasing after kids like some of the above example that people have a problem with.
corasteele45646
fdsssssssssssssssssFantastic work-from-home opportunity for everyone… Work for three to five hrs a day and start getting paiid in the range of 6,000-14,000 dollars a month. Weekly payments..54k
OPEN~JOB~START
BriBri
Queerty, the troll cave for bitter queens that hate everything and everyone but themselves.