Iain Armitage: Young Sheldon grows up, hugs guys, celebrates Pride. With n*de Galecki, Fisher, and Simon Rex

Link to the n*de dudes

I didn't like The Big Bang Theory (2007-19), featuring Johnny Galecki as the (relatively) stable center of a group of wacky nerd scientists who can't get any  "big bangs."  The hetero-horniness was incessant, and there were so many homophobic statements -- mostly asserting that all gay men wear dresses and prance  --- that I was more amazed than offended  Wasn't Jim Parsons, who played the neurotic physics savant Sheldon Cooper, gay?  Why didn't he protest?  (Apparently he was closeted until around the fifth season.) 

But I liked Young Sheldon (2017-24), about Sheldon Cooper's childhood, growing up in East Texas in the 1990s with a conservative Baptist Mom, a macho football-coach Dad, a macho muscle-building brother, and...you get the idea.

I grew up in the Nazarene Church, which taught that Baptists were much too liberal.  I could relate.

Plus there were lots of cute guys.  Sheldon's older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) had musclebuilding plotlines before they switched to a "getting a girl pregnant" story arc.

If you're into chubs (and who isn't?), Dad Lance Barber had it all.

Next door neighbor Billy (Wyatt McClure) was too young to be hot, of course, but he had that puppy-dog cuteness that makes you say "Aww, how adorable!"  I figured that he would eventually come out, but instead the writers decided to give him a crush on Sheldon's sister.

And how about Rex Linn as Tom Peters, the longsuffering principal at Sheldon's high school. Wait, this is Simon Rex (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

There were no gay characters -- with or without Jim Parsons as executive producer, this was still a "family friendly" (non gay) show.  But also no casual homophobia.  Just a few references suggesting homophobia, as when someone asks if Sheldon is...you know, and Dad angrily yells "NO!"

And in Season 5, Sheldon tells his roommate Evan (Motoki Maxten) that he doesn't want to date girls because they are a distraction. 

"So you're into guys?" Evan asks nonchalantly.

"No, they're a distraction, too."

Actually, he turns out to be asexual hetero-romantic, although this is never specified on The Big Bang Theory.

But I'm pretty sure that Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon) is gay.

More after the break

Erik Hesse: Immensely hot Short Guy from Reading, PA, with bad fashion taste, a job hugging athletes, and an eight inch tripod

 Link to the n*de photos

The celebrity p*nis site posted a video,  reputedly of ice hockey player Blake E. in the locker room, shoving his stuff at his teammates (photo on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends). Very impressive, and sort of gay-adjacent. So I researched him.

No social media presence, just his stats: Born 1998 in Macomb, Michigan, 5'9", 181 lbs, a hockey player for the Royals in Reading, Pennsylvania (the one with the railroad in Monopoly).

The n*de dude looks nothing like the real Blake E.  I think he was identified as a prank.  

But who is the hunky short guy with the farmboy innocence and a 1950s haircut?  If Blake is 5'9", he must be 5'8".  

He's journalist Erik J.  I don't like to give the last names of non-actors, but it's German, for an inhabitant of Jesburg, Hesse.  So I'll call him Erik Hesse. 

Erik grew up in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, a commuter town about 25 miles from Philadelphia. In high school, he played baseball until an injury forced him off the team.  He was also a sports reporter for the Knight-Crier. 

He attended Temple University in Philadelphia, graduating a year early, in 2023,  with a BA in Media Studies and Production.

Left: Temple University Campus Recreation.  Do you choose one, or take all four, or...

While at university, Erik worked as a server at the Texas Roadhouse and an anchor for OwlSports, and apparently won two Emmies.

On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: I couldn't find any n*de Temple students in my files, so I posted one from. 

More after the break

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium

I saw If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) on tv sometime in junior high.  It was advertised as a hilarious comedy about a group of Ugly Americans on a whirlwind tour of Europe, but I recall it as heartbreaking.   In fact, I was hesitant about revisiting it, for fear that it would bring back the intense feelings of longing and loss that had me almost in  tears as a kid.

When you find something heartbreaking that the rest of the world thinks is hilarious, there must be some symbolism.

The theme song, performed by pop star Donovan, is jarringly melancholic for the introduction to a comedy:

If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium

If it's Wednesday this must be Rome

If it's Thursday this must be Montreux

I fear I never wanna go home

If this is London why ain't it raining?

The sun is shining on St. Paul's dome

If this is real then I must be dreaming

Can't wait to tell the folks back home

But after that, there's beefcake.  Lots of it.  Ian McShane, the Swinging Sixties Bachelor who herds the tourists around Europe, displays his body frequently as he falls for and loses prim librarian Suzanne Pleshette.

Luke Halpin, formerly a teenage hunk on Flipper (1964-67), wanders around Europe as a hippie in painted-on jeans as he falls for and loses apathetic teen Hilary Thompson.

Even the hunky Sandy Baron, fresh from his odd-couple sitcom Hey, Landlord (1966-67), displays a toned hairy chest as he rips his shirt off and dives into a Venetian canal to avoid a marriage-crazy relative.  (Incidentally, Sandy Baron would become famous thirty years later on Seinfeld, as the doddering oldster Jack Klompus).

But beefcake doesn't make for poignancy.

Sandy Baron's character doesn't seem to be interested in girls, but otherwise I find no significant gay content.  No male bonding, no same-sex rescues.

So why was it heartbreaking?

Maybe it was the metaphor of escape. Dozens of Boomer movies and tv programs were about people trapped in a dangerous alien world -- Gilligan's Island, My Favorite Martian, Danger Island,  H.R. Pufnstuf, Lost in Space.  They are desperate to get home, to return to their conventional lives, to their jobs and houses and husbands and wives and stark heterosexist conformity.  But If It's Tuesday has it backwards -- the alien world is a Paradise, an escape from their conventional lives to a world of light and color and infinite possibility.

At the end of the movie they all go home -- you can't stay in Oz forever.  Yo have to return to your dull factory towns, abandon your same-sex loves for the doom of job, house, wife, kids.

I wrote a poem changing the lyrics:

If this is love, then why am I crying?
These tears are falling too fast to be from joy.

If there's no hope, then why am I trying?

I wish I'd never heard of  Rome

See also: "A hot groin and a tricep": Nude photos of Peter Hinwood, the original Rocky Horror. With Ian McShane, Morgan Jackson, and Chord Overstreet.

Sandy Baron's "God Save the Queens": The First Gay-Positive Comedy Album

"Slow Horses," Season 6: Gay Lenny Rush bonds with a hunky hacker and a slow horse spy. With Oldman and King Lear c*ck

Link to the n*de photos

 I could never get into Slow Horses, on Apple Plus, but when I heard that Short Guy Lenny Rush had a starring role in Season 6 (2026), I dove in.

The title may be misleading: "slow horses" are British spies assigned to Slough House (pronounced "slow" in Britain) because they screwed up a mission or because the higher-ups didn't like them. 

Boss Jackson  (Gary Oldman, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) assigns them dull, repetitive tasks in the hope that they'll get bored and resign. His assistant is former hacker Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung)

He butts heads with River (Jack Lowden, left), a promising young agent who made a big mistake in a training exercise, and was banished to Slough House.  River's Dad is the evil CIA agent turned mercenary Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), and his grandfather is the retired legendary spy David Cartwright.  But only Evil Harkness plays a role in Lenny's plot arc.

Ben Tavassoli plays one of Evil Harkness's assistant mercenaries.

Season 6, Episode 2: Someone is murdering retired spies, including former Dog (internal affairs investigator) Aaron Nasmith.  

His son Reece (Lenny), age 16 or 29, depending on who you believe, sees the murder, and is caught on a a security cam as he runs away, so now the murderer can identify him -- and rub him out.

Misdirection: two assasins (including Kyle Solle, top photo, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) are murdering the other former spies, but Reece's Dad is unrelated.  

Episode 3: Head Slow Horse Jackson and Hacker Roddy take the sarcastic, street-smart Reece into "protective custody."  He wants to play an arcade game, so Roddy lifts him up to the console and goes off to get coins.  But Jackson finds a burner phone in Reese's backpack with one number in it: Evil Frank Harkness's!  He rushes off.   

Roddy: "I thought we were going to play a game?"  So you were lookng forward to playing with the kid?

Reece orders Roddy to help him dowm, but it looks like he's demanding a hug. If I didn't know better, I'd identify their interaction as "he's arrogant!" argumentative flirting.

We discover that Dad was blackmailing the evil Frank Harkness over a stolen spy personnel file.  So Frank killed him, and he just had his hackers identify Reece from the security cam!

More after the break