You were a young, impressionable gay kid...
You most likely loved watching TV, listening to music, or seeing movies...
You had a secret, and your heart fluttered like crazy over your first gay crush!
My two gay crushes were men on TV shows in the 1960's.
My first real gay crush when I was around 11, was actor Brian Kelly. He played the dad on "Flipper." He was always shiny and sweaty, or in his swim trunks and scuba gear. His character as a strong, strict, loving father was my ultimate fantasy.
And the other was actor Vince Edwards, who played "Dr. Ben Casey." I was fascinated by all the dark hair on his forearms, and sometimes getting to see his chest hairs peeking out of the top of his shirt. To this day, I am still attracted to dark Irish or Italian looking men. Even as I look at these pictures now, they are mighty fine! Steven - NYC, NY
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My first gay crush was both Starfire (voiced by Hynden Walch) and Raven (voiced by Tara Strong) from Cartoon Network's "Teen Titans." I loved Starfire's naive unfamiliarity with Planet Earth, and Raven's witty, cynical nature. I was very enamored by their fantastic superpowers and, of course, perfect, animated bodies. I didn't know at the time that what I was experiencing was my first gay crushes(who did?), but the two of them turned out to be the model for the women I like today.
I even tried to make myself a Raven costume, which just ended up being a lot of purple fabric scraps. My mom thought that was the cutest thing ever. But she's still unaware of just how deep my "hero worship" - pun intended - truly went. Rachael - Kentucky
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My first gay crush was on Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher from "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
I was 9 or 10 when I first saw him back in the early 90's. I didn't quite know what I was feeling, but I sure loved Wesley Crusher.
He was a pre-teen sexual icon for a whole generation of nerds, and was everything
I identified with. He was smart, and that made him an outcast (like me).
It's also what made him special, and I relished the idea of getting the praise he got for it. That was important for a non-athletic kid (like me).
I didn't understand it at the time - and definitely wasn't allowed to talk about it - but I was crazy hot for him. I spent painstaking hours trying to comb my hair just like his! I lived out my crush vicariously through my sister, secretly jealous of her ability to fawn and gush over Wesley Crusher like I wanted to. And he got to kiss Ashley Judd, so he was kind of a player! I remain a fan of Wil to this day. Luke - San Francisco, CA ________________________________________
I was 11, just starting puberty, and went with my brothers and friends to see "Beneath the Planet of the Apes." Like them, I liked action movies and sci-fi and - so I thought - the hot cavegirl, Nova. But boy, I was in for a big surprise! The hero of the movie was an astronaut played by James Franciscus.
And I couldn't take my eyes off of him! He was the most handsome guy I'd ever seen. He had golden blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a deep voice. He was commanding and athletic, projecting a very manly, cool presence. In his spacesuit, he looked and acted like the perfect All-American man, the embodiment of which had shifted in that era from cowboys to astronauts. But I quietly prayed for him to lose that spacesuit like Charlton Heston did in the first "Apes" movie! And I got my wish. Within a few minutes, Franciscus was stripped down to a skimpy loincloth and spent the rest of the movie looking like a blond Tarzan.
And wow, what a wardrobe change that was. He had a great body, with well defined pecs and sixpack abs.
He didn't have the only ripped body in Hollywood then, but it wasn't that common, either. And to see such a handsome man with such a great body was really rare. That night (and off and on for years afterward), I was confused and conflicted, since I'd thought I was into curvy cavegirls. But I had obviously discovered I preferred hard-bodied spacemen. And I got over it fast by fantasizing about my astronaut in a loincloth! Joe - Atlanta, GA
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I had my first gay crush in the early 70's when I was about 15-years old: It was David Cassidy.
I remember I had a large photo of him in an old fashioned swim suit.
He was in a backyard setting, running through a sprinkler. And his "male anatomy" was outlined in the wet suit, and was very visible. I was in a private prep school on several athletic teams, and I used to peek at other guys in the shower room. And I guess David was special, because it was the first time I was able to stare at a guy's "equipment" for a long time, without fear of being caught. I was in the closet and had a strict mother that would have freaked out if she knew the true purpose of my fantasy photo. So my crush has been a complete secret 'til now. As has been the fact that I'm gay. I'm over 50 now and still closeted. I guess the journey "out" is a personal one, and I'm now beginning to tell a few close friends. We'll see what happens. In any case, even if I wasn't aware it was "gay", and I denied it to myself then, David Cassidy was my first. George - New Hampshire _____________________________________________________
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