This photo set off major gaydar; could it be depicting a couple of high-school boyfriends?
It's from a January 2021 issue of the Uvalde Leader-News, in which we learn that the 13-year old grandson of Concan residents Betty Joe and Jerry Bates has been cast in a movie. Later we learn his name: Parker Bates. And the actors playing his parents: Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia.
I'm wondering why this is a newsworthy story in Uvalde, Texas, a small town (population 16,000) about 80 miles west of San Antonio. (Concan is an even smaller resort town on the Frio River, about 20 mile north). Parker doesn't live in Concan, although he visits at Christmastime and during the summer. I guess it's because Betty Joe and Jerry are important?
But the photo is not from the movie: it depicts Parker with his brother Prestyn, also an actor. Although they're in the 8th and 9th grades, they're taking college-level classes together. They plan to start as twins in a movie that will begin filming in April 2021.
The article doesn't say which movie Parker is starring in, so let's take a look at his credits on IMDB.
Pink Jacket (2018): When a boy (Parker) starts wearing a girl's pink jacket, his family and friends "show their true colors." Wow, queer-oriented! So far so good.
This is Us (2016-2021): A "heartwarning and emotional story," a "grounded, life-affirming dramedy." Yuck! Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia play the parents of "a unique set of triplets" in the 1980s. We see the triplets grow into adults (Justin Hartley, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz). The show's gay walk-on character is mentioned in my December 2020 Gay Representation on Prime Time post.
Parker plays Kevin at ages 8-13. But he's been on the show since 2016; it's hardly "new." Plus it's tv, not a movie.
Magic Max (2021), not to be confused with Magic Mike. When he loses his parents in a tragic accident, 11-year old Tim (Parker) must go to live with his Adam Sandler man-child Uncle Max (Ivan Sergei), a second-rate magician.
Sorry, every attempt to download a shirtless photo gets a "cannot download safely" error message, so you'll have to make do with a screen capture.
I went through the movie on fast-forward. Uncle Max learns to be responsible by taking a job in an auto shop and getting a girlfriend. Growing up in the 1970s, I constantly heard that maturity meant "meeting a girl" and "settling down." I thought we were more aware that gay people exist, and beyond the equation of "growing up" with "heterosexual romance." Apparently not.
Plus Max's friend (Gary Hershberger) gets a girlfriend. So does the 11-year old Tim. It's heterosexual destiny all the way down.
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
source http://everydayheterosexism.blogspot.com/2021/08/preston-bates-my-quest-for-gay.html
