Gay guys share their “I’m definitely gay” moments

Some of us have always known we were gay, and some of us got a grasp on our sexuality later in life—perhaps through real-life interactions with the same sex, or perhaps just by looking at a fine specimen on screen.

In a recent r/askgaybros post, Reddit user u/CelebrationSpecial77 asked readers for their “I’m definitely gay” moments. “For example, I noticed my Instagram feed was full of shirtless men, my IMDb page viewing history was mostly male actors, and let’s not mention how fast TikTok figured out I was gay,” he wrote. “There was no denying it at that point.”

In the comments, other Redditors shared their moments of clarity—some of which happened in department stores, some of which happened on the living room couch, and some of which happened behind closed doors.

Here’s a selection of responses, edited for brevity and readability:

“When I used to pay more attention to dudes in straight porn.”

“For me, it was when I finally saw gay porn and witnessed two men kissing. Then it all made sense to me.”

“I blushed when my sixth-grade friend signed off an email with ‘love.’ And then I never looked at another girl ever again.”

“The International Male catalog.”

“The men’s undergarment sections of clothing stores.”

“Man! For me, this is it. I still remember I stared at the underwear models on the boxes while I coyly checked if my parents were watching me staring at them.”

“Oh my, that’s the epiphany for so many people on here. That and the one time I saw a man [in his] late 20s running shirtless, and he was full of muscles and was so attractive in general. I was only 10 or 11 back then, but damn… he was hot!”

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The moment you will never forget!

“When my friend dare me to kiss a guy, and I did it as a joke. Then, later that night, I went to third base with said guy.”

“I had watched a bit of gay porn at 16 but was in denial—I thought it was more because it was taboo than sexual attraction to men. But at 18, a guy befriended me, and I had feelings for him and secretly wanted to kiss and sleep with him. Even then, I denied I was gay or bi. It was when we finally got intimate that I knew. I stopped denying my attraction to a certain male part.”

“I worked in a theme park in 2007. … I was a costumed actor in a show. We had quick changes between scenes. I saw so many bare breasts on bodies I’d say most guys would drool over. Did nothing for me. Not a damn thing. 246 shows in three months. Nothing. I was 19 or 20, so that was sort of my final realization that I wasn’t into girls. Took me another year or so to admit it to more than just myself. But I had a crush on a stage tech—he was cute.”

“When I kept staring at the chubby bears out in public back when I was an early teenager and had zero attraction to girls.”

“Sean Astin in Rudy was my moment.”

“Seeing Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2002 made me start questioning myself, then it was Maxxie Oliver in Skins, then it was a guy in my school, then Chris Evans in Captain America… Then it was Chris Evans in The Avengers, then it was Chris Evans in The Winter Soldier, then Age of Ultron, then Civil War, then definitely in Infinity War when we saw the beard.”

“When I was 7, I watched the original Star Wars movie and fell madly in love with a very handsome Luke Skywalker. My first crush! I guess it was all gay from then on.”

“I saved Kaiden over Ashley in Mass Effect.”

“At a very early age, humping my pillow dreaming about boys in school or actors I saw. Thought to myself, ‘Well, I’m obsessed with boys, boy-crazy, even.’”

“So basically, I was reading a NSFW story, and, despite all the hot details, the main couple was so f*cking adorable. I’m not even joking! When, whilst reading this, I wanted to honestly have a relationship like that, it’s the moment I just couldn’t deny the fact any longer. It wasn’t a fetish out of boredom. I wanted an actual relationship with another man.”

“David Boreanaz in Angel made me gay.”

“Cutting out pictures of hot guys with big bulges from the Sunday department store catalogues and hanging them on my wall. I was like 13 or 14, lol.”

“Watching ReBoot. … When Enzo came back as this rugged, buff adult later in the series, I realized I was very intrigued by his musculature, lol.”

“I was 13. A boy in my school was one year older, and we were in judo training together. I would always find reasons to be around him, but when I saw him kissing his girlfriend at school, I got mad jealous and realized it was a very gay crush.”

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