The 12 Gays of Christmas [Part 1] — Presented by Gay Men & Blog
By: Armando Sánchez
Tags: Gay, Christmas, Inspiration, Creative, Community

The 12 Gays of Christmas [Part 1] — Presented by Gay Men & Blog

It goes without saying that this year has thrown a slew of challenges and shade our way.

When I reflect on what brought laughter, connection, and hope to my life during these tough times, the people behind those moments were talented and creative gay men. The purpose of “The 12 Gays of Christmas” is to spread queer cheer this holiday season and promote works by brilliant gay creatives.

I made a list, checked it twice, and got the tea on who’s been naughty and nice (all of them). In this 2-part article, you’ll hear from gay writers, podcasters, artists, life coaches, and storytellers whose work spreads joy, inspiration, and community. They share the mission behind their work, what has surprised them about their creative journey, tips for other gay creatives, and what we can look forward to from them in the near future.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, I present to you the 12 gays of Christmas!

1. Your Gay Cousins with Michael & Estevan

Project type: Podcast

Creators: Michael Avila (he/him) & Estevan (he/him) — Podcast producers & co-hosts

Inspiration & mission: We met in college in a gay fraternity and bonded over our love of tacos, pop culture, and boys (not in that order). Michael is a reality TV producer. Estevan is a television writer. The two of us have worked in entertainment for our entire adult lives and we were looking to find a creative outlet that was completely our own, one that celebrated the intersection of queer pride and Latinx culture.

The day our first episode premiered, we realized that there is an entire community of people who weren’t hearing themselves reflected back. There are people all around the world who also live in that in-between space: who are LBGTQ+, who are Latinx, even those who may not identify, but can still relate to our stories.

Advice for creatives: We all have this innate desire to make everything perfect but the key is to just put it out there. If you have something to say, say it. We look back at our first episodes and we didn’t know what we were doing but over time we have grown into our voices and found a dedicated group of people who enjoy our pendejadas (nonsense).

Up next: We are going to continue to grow the podcast and find new cousins to join the familia. We want to have more guests, more interaction with cousins, and hopefully reach a wider audience as we keep the chisme, pop culture commentary, and stories that make our moms cry in Spanglish going!

Connect: YourGayCousins.com | @yourgaycousins (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook)

2. The Gay Good

Project type: Instagram collection

Creator: João Pedro Rojas (he/him) — Content creator & artist

Inspiration & mission: My goal is to create and spread positive and educational LGBTQIA+ friendly posts for kids, teens, and adults alike. I hope to also create a space for the community to connect and reflect on our shared experiences and grow alongside one another.

What has surprised me the most is how prideful and thoughtful many of the channel’s youngest followers are. As someone who came out at 20 and denied my queer identity for far too long, I am constantly touched and inspired by the compassion and vulnerability these kids and teens bring to the page. Their love for the greater community really tugs at my heartstrings.

Advice for creatives: Get to know other creatives and collaborate! Queer people are stunningly imaginative; whether they write or draw or sing, there’s so much talent all around us. When I first started my account, I felt the need to compete with other channels, but when it comes to creating for our community, the more the merrier!

Up next: I want to continue building a platform that stands for LGBTQIA+ togetherness and love. While I’d love to see my follower number rise, I’m more interested in creating content that sparks conversation and understanding within our community, which in my opinion, is too often divided and tense. Expect hot takes and hot tea.

Also, on a more personal note, I’m an aspiring musician and have written a bunch of songs about the queer experience. I tackle gay body expectations among gay men, hookup culture, and generational shame. Stay tuned for that adventure!

Connect: @thegaygood, @jpedro_rojass (Instagram)

3. Gran Varones

Project type: Digital storytelling

Creator: Louie Ortiz-Fonseca (he/him) — Creator & curator;

Armonté Butler (he/him) & Abdul-Aliy Muhammad (they/them) — digital fellowship program support

Inspiration & mission: I grew up absorbing all things pop culture in the 80s and 90s. It helped me to make sense of the chaotic world around me and it was through conversation about pop culture that I learned to tell my story. The healing I discovered in storytelling inspired me to create a project that would tell the stories of other Latinx and Black Latinx queer boys like myself. In the past 6 years, the project has grown to include more of our community’s stories and our collective history.

For years I believed that I knew tons of “fun facts” and “useless information” about pop culture. It was through creating content for GV (Gran Varones) that I discovered that my “fun facts” were not “useless information” — they were history. I was a historian! That was surprising because I typically associated that term with old white men or academic folks.

Advice for creatives: The greatest gift and lesson I have been provided through my work with GV is being patient and trusting community. It can be deceiving to believe that your work is not making a difference if it doesn’t go viral. GV is 6 years old and we have yet to reach to 10k on Instagram, and I am so okay with that because I know the project has reach and has certainly helped me to find community.

Be open to feedback and ideas. Before GV began to regularly include content about music history, I regulated that kind of content to my personal Instagram page. A follower whom I met at a conference asked me, “Why don’t you do this music content on GV?” I replied, “I don’t know. Do you think it goes with the brand?” and she said, “Yes. GV is named after a song.” That exchange changed how I approached the content. I am so, so humbled and grateful that she thought enough of me and the project, and trusted me enough to provide that feedback.

Up next: Our second year of the Gran Varones digital fellowship will release its application soon. The fellowship is designed to support HIV-positive community-based storytellers. It’s a year long paid fellowship that will culminate with a collective digital zine.

Connect: granvarones.com | @granvarones (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook), @elgranvaron Spotify

4. Chris Tompkins

Project type: Forthcoming book

Creator: Chris Tompkins (he/him) — Life coach, teacher, speaker, writer

Inspiration & mission: Back in 2015, I wrote a letter to my family to address a question my six-year-old nephew asked me. It addressed a conversation I realized my family still wasn’t having about me as a gay uncle.

The letter has since become an article, a TEDx Talk, a workshop, and a presentation that led to me working at LA’s Central Juvenile Hall to help support LGBTQ incarcerated youth.

The letter has evolved into a book that will be published in May 2021 by Rowman & Littlefield called, Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent’s Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground. The purpose of the book is to encourage families to have open and authentic conversations and to prevent homophobia, transphobia, and bullying before they begin.

My desire with everything I do is to help others connect to their purpose and learn how to truly love and accept themselves in order to live happier, healthier, and more peace-filled lives.

The layers of healing are continuous. In my experience, we don’t “graduate” from self-love, healing, or personal growth. If we aren’t consciously doing the work, fear-based thinking can creep right in.

Advice for creatives: Put as much, if not more, effort into your inner work as you do into your projects, career, and creative endeavors.

Up next: My forthcoming book, Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent’s Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground. Oh, and I recently started my first year in graduate school. I hope to be as good of a therapist as Armando one day.

Connect: aroadtriptolove.com | @aroadtriptolove (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook)

5. Brother Ghoulish Podcast

Project type: Podcast

Creator: Ryan W. Kinney (he/him) — Host

Inspiration & mission: My lifelong love for the horror genre inspired me to start the Brother Ghoulish’s Tomb podcast in May of 2020 where I share horror short stories and review horror movies. The mission behind my work is to challenge problematic expressions in the horror genre. I strive to do this in a few different ways. My horror short stories feature characters who transcend the tropes associated with their identities as members of the LGBTQIA+ community and/or people of color. When I review horror movies, I question the status quo and provide my well-researched opinions as answers. Also, I regularly shout-out and suggest other creators who align with my mission.

The outpouring and of love and support I’ve received throughout my journey as a gay creative in the horror community has genuinely surprised me. People who do and don’t look and/or love like me have positively responded to my work, and it means the world to me. I expected hatred or silence, and I’m happy to have received neither. I feel so lucky. The horror community is a spooky family like the Addams. I call Morticia!

Advice for creatives: My advice for other gay/queer creatives is to be the change you want to see. Don’t be that jagoff who doesn’t vote and then complains about the election results. I wanted to see myself better represented in the horror genre, so I used my voice and my platform to contribute to that effort. It’s really helped me heal in unimaginable ways as well.

Up next: After my Halloween episode, I started preparing for Season 2. I will rise again to haunt your airwaves with horror reviews & short stories in 2021. In the meantime, you can listen to Season 1 of Brother Ghoulish’s Tomb wherever podcasts are played and follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram for updates on Season 2!

Connect: brotherghoulish.com | @brotherghoulish (Instagram, Twitter)

6. Felix D’Eon

Product type: Art

Creator: Felix D’Eon — Artist

Inspiration & mission: I am a gay artist. I am mixed race, both white and Native American, and mixed in terms of nationality, being both US American and Mexican. As such, my work speaks to various traditions, through which I paint queer, white, Latinx, and Native American imagery as part of my own heritage. However, my work also speaks to the broader queer community. I paint ethnicities other than my own, as well as other manifestations of queerness, such as trans people and queer women. I try to focus on a variety of body types and ages, to paint people who are disabled, and in short, to look for and represent the beauty and the full breadth of the queer community. To do so, I seek out models from the different communities I represent, ask to hear their ideas and to learn how they wish to see themselves represented, and ask permission to tell their stories and paint their fantasies. In this sense, the work is a collaborative effort.

Through my work, I seek to normalize the marginal, and place the heretofore taboo subject at the center. In my work, the illustrative imagery of the past does not cease to be wholesome through the inclusion of gay sex and sensibilities. I simply expand the notion of what wholesome is, erasing shame and celebrating desire.

Connect: etsy.com/shop/felixdeon | @felixdeon (Instagram)

Read “The 12 Gays of Christmas” Part 2 here!

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Improving Our Dating Experience | Interview With Mariano Pintor |Writing for Our Healing and Growth | Dear Fathers, Your Gay Sons Are Hurting | Putting an End to Ghosting | Redefining “Coming Out” | Radical Self-Love | Voting Trump Out | Anti-Blackness | Self-Care | Emotional Numbing | Complicated Faith | Body Confidence | Body Image | Loneliness | Self-Talk | Self-Worth Part 2 | Self-Worth Part 1

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