beautiful

Meeting and marrying his teen crush: One gay influencer’s sweet love story

 

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A post shared by The Property Lovers (@pjandthomas)


Most of us can remember having all-consuming crushes as teenagers. For same-sex attracted individuals, such crushes can be both bewildering and frustrating, prompting us to explore our sexuality for the first time in environments that are not always gay-friendly.

An Instagram and YouTube influencer yesterday revealed that the first time he fell for his future husband was at the age of 15 when he saw photos of him modeling on MySpace.

PJ & Thomas McKay (@thepropertylovers) have amassed over 362,000 followers on Instagram. The Tennessee couple buy and renovate old properties, and share snippets of their lives via YouTube and Instagram.

Regular followers will know the men grew up in the same town, and even went to the same High School but did not know each other back then as they are five years apart in age.

Thomas (the one with longer hair these days) has revealed that PJ first came to his attention in around 2006, via MySpace. He shared his memories in an Instagram posted that has quickly picked up thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.

 

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A post shared by The Property Lovers (@pjandthomas)

“These were the first pictures I ever saw of PJ,” Thomas said, alongside some photos of a young PJ walking a fashion catwalk.

“I was 15 and happened across his MySpace one day and thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. I was still deeply in the closet at the time and didn’t know he was gay (though I certainly hoped he was), so the thought of him ever being more to me than a picture on a computer screen seemed impossible.

“But sometimes life has a way of making the impossible come true, even when you least expect it, even when you live in a small town where you didn’t know these things could happen.

“Fast forward four years and suddenly I was 19 and he was 24 and we had been seeing each other for three weeks and I remember being nervous all the time, thinking this whole charade would end at any moment because certainly it was too good to be true.

“And then one night he was having a party at his house and as it grew later, people started to leave one by one until there were only two or three left. But in his room it was just me and him and we were in his bed and we were a bit inebriated and he asked me if I thought we could last forever and I don’t think I even knew what forever meant back then, but I told him yes, I do.

“And then five years later I told him I do again, but those words meant something different the second time. I’m feeling nostalgic tonight (what else is new) and wishing there was a way I could prepare that 15-year-old boy who was in love with the guy he saw on MySpace for what was to come. But to be honest, I don’t think he would have believed me anyway.”

Related: Adam Rippon explains getting engaged to Jussi-Pekka Kajaala during the pandemic

The posting has been praised for being beautiful, with many wishing they could find similar love.

 

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A post shared by The Property Lovers (@pjandthomas)

The two men have previously talked about their relationship, revealing they first met at a mutual friend’s party in 2009. They reconnected via Facebook a year later and soon started dating, becoming “inseparable”.

After four years together, they split for four months, but got back together and decided they really did want to spend the rest of their lives together. They got married in 2015 in the living room of an old house they were renovating.

Related: This guy’s boyfriend read him bedtime stories… and charmed the Internet

In 2019, they became foster parents to three young siblings, who they hope to eventually adopt.

 

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A post shared by The Property Lovers (@pjandthomas)

 

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