het over heels

Straight stiletto-strutting ‘influencer’ clarifies his homophobic comments in an almost-apology

High heel devotee Mark Bryan built a modeling career being business up top and stunty down below. In a recent interview, he made it clear that the skirt-and-stiletto style was just for show.

Bryan recently chatted with Queer Eye: Germany‘s trans beauty guru Avi Jakobs for her new miniseries, Beyond Fashion. She started out excited to meet him, but things quickly took a turn after he clarified that he’s not advocating for queer rights or visibility at all.

“I don’t really think that I’m fighting with you,” he stated. “I’m not fighting against you, either.”

In this now-viral clip, things started to spiral in a homophobic direction:

Comments like “they’ve made it made difficult for themselves just being more flamboyant” and “they made it worse for me, being straight, because now I’m assumed to be gay” straight to this trans woman’s face set the internet all the way off.

Now, the model has taken to his Instagram Story to try to clarify his statements. Mostly, he apologized for his phrasing rather than his sentiments.

“I understand what I said is misleading and maybe not have been the best choice of words, and for that I’m really sorry that it came out wrong. That was not my intention.”

Addressing his comments that “he wanted to be seen separately from the queer community”, Bryan stated that he’d simply meant he had a different experience than the community.

“That was what I wanted to express, but did poorly by the words that were chosen.”

 

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A post shared by Mark Bryan (@markbryan911)

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As much as he laments his word choice, it seems he does stand by some of the views he expressed on the show. Among them are his belief that the queer community does, in fact, make things harder for him.

“Some in the LGBTQ+ community choose to use fashion as a way to express their sexuality,” he states.

“When I said that they made it harder for me, I was simply referring to the fact that sometimes I feel it’s harder to make my point with my message that fashion should not define your sexuality.”

 

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A post shared by Mark Bryan (@markbryan911)

It seems he also still sees some people as acting ” too outrageous and too flamboyant” for their own good.

“The other topic was how it can be that I get less hate compared to the LGBT+ community and why I think that is. My reply was that certain people might just be triggered into violence. This was not my opinion and how I personally feel.”

Related: Guys call out queerbaiting OnlyFans creators: “Low-effort cash flow and ego boost”

Despite these views, he holds his style and presentation as evidence that he couldn’t possibly be homophobic.

“I’m not homophobic, you know — why would someone homophobic wear a skirt and high heels? To me, that just doesn’t make much sense.”

 

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A post shared by Mark Bryan (@markbryan911)

Even with this rift now created between him and the queer community, he says he won’t be hanging up the heels any time soon.

“I’m not gonna give up wearing heels, I’m not gonna give up wearing skirts,” he says. “I’m not going to stop giving the message that clothes do not dictate your sexual orientation or gender.”

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