Why We Can’t Get Enough of Two Straight Guys Who Want to Kiss

On the night Zach saw Bryce’s dick, the two men were up late, shirtless in the neon-lit coed dormitory. Bryce walked over to Zach’s bed. He pulled the waistband of his shorts away from his body, so Zach could peek inside. “Girth check,” said Bryce.Zach Georgiou and Bryce Dettloff were competitors on Love Island USA, where their objective was to pair off with a woman. But the connection between the two men—physical, affectionate, teasing—eclipsed all heterosexual pairings in the eyes of fans. Post–girth check, Zach, a physical therapist, stretched Bryce out on a twin mattress. In the many, many clips of the scene on social media, there is no daylight between the men’s crotches. “I love their love,” a fan writes.Bryce would go on to date Trinity Tatum and win the show, but, as Zach reminded him, “I’m pretty sure I saw your dick before she did.”According to some commentators, Zach and Bryce’s viral Love Island subplot is a reflection of reality television editors knowing what their audiences really want and giving it to them. “I feel like with Heated Rivalry coming out this year, they saw how much people want to see these stories. It’s not just the queer community that’s interested; everybody loved that show,” said Ricky Wise on Reality Receipts, a podcast that dives into the gossip of reality television shows. She suspected Love Island producers are capitalizing on the cultural moment. “I feel like this stuff happens every season, but they feel more comfortable to go with it as a main storyline.”Except, unlike the beefy hockey champions and unlikely lovers Ilya and Shane, Love Island’s Zach and Bryce aren’t queer; they’re bros. Their friendship was the most fun thing going on the island, and it was totally unrelated to the stakes of the game, and that looked a lot like genuine romance. That and the fact that they joked nonstop about being an item.In reality, Zach and Bryce have more in common with the press maelstrom surrounding Heated Rivalry newcomers Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie than the show itself. Even once they were out of character, actors Williams and Storrie seemed happy to keep touching each other, snuggling up in photo shoots and as they attended the Academy Awards, the Met Gala, and the Winter Olympics. The two haven’t publicly labeled their sexualities. Williams has a girlfriend, but unlike straight-presenting actors of yore, he was not desperate to prove his heterosexuality with stoic poses. And unlike straight actors of more recent history, he wasn’t performatively reverent about the politics of playing a character of a marginalized identity.Williams also spoke openly about stuff that would have once got him called queer (derogatory) or a queer baiter (also derogatory). In an interview with Evan Ross Katz, he described how he likes to shave his pubes and butt hair, in great detail. When he was awarded Best Lead Performer at the 2026 Canadian Screen Awards on May 31, he thanked Storrie by saying, “If these gay, yearning, little bottom eyes didn’t have a big sexy Russian to feast upon, my performance wouldn’t be as good.”For those enchanted by public bromance, the 2026 World Cup offered the chemistry between England’s pretty midfielder Jude Bellingham and Norway’s hulking striker Erling Haaland. The two are friends, having played together as rookies for the German club Borussia Dortmund, and both of their girlfriends attended their World Cup matches. But their jocular rapport, now witnessed by nearly 17 million pairs of eyes, is constantly being mined for erotic undertones. Fan edits of the duo sneaking cheek kisses during press conferences and wrestling on the pitch to the popular “ship” song “See You Again” by Tyler, the Creator, are hard to escape. AO3, the publishing platform that launched Heated Rivalry, was flooded with fan fiction depicting the players engaging in post-game consolation sex and coming out during England’s match against Argentina.Guy-on-guy kisses are on the rise too. On Saturday Night Live, Harry Styles kissed Ben Marshall, winked at the audience and said, “Now that’s queer baiting”—to resounding audience roars of laughter and girlish screams. (In the past year, Styles underwent a style transformation, ditching the feather boas, sequins, and babydoll dresses that courted “queer baiter” accusations in favor of weathered ball caps, threadbare tees, and vintage denim.) Last May, after receiving a seven-minute standing ovation at Cannes last year for his work in 2025’s “dom com”, Pillion, Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård reached into the audience and softly kissed Pedro Pascal on the lips. Neither actor claims to be queer—Skarsgård denied being bisexual after readers misinterpreted a quote he gave during a press conference at the Zurich Film Festival, and Pascal hasn’t spoken on his sexuality in any public way—and perhaps therein lies the spectacle. When two conventionally attractive guys share a kiss outside of the context of a possible romantic relationship, the mania is reminiscent of the way America felt about two conventionally attractive women kissing 20 years ago.Consider the summer of 2003. It was the night of the MTV Video Music Awards and, in between sets from Good Charlotte and the Black Eyed Peas, a shredded 45-year-old Madonna stood center stage, buttressed by two 20-something-year-old pop ingenues. Madonna grabbed Britney Spears by the jaw and planted one on her, then did the same with Christina Aguilera. The broadcast turned to audience members, who looked titillated and aghast. Justin Timberlake, who broke up with Spears the year prior, nodded humbly. For various reasons, this was absolutely sensational.Lingering in the background of the triad was Missy Elliott, a rapper who has long been considered a queer style icon and who’s never publicly stated her sexuality. Had Missy Elliott participated, perhaps the moment—coming 12 years before same-sex marriage became federally legal—would’ve asked more from onlookers than uncomplicated horniness.Similarly, today's viral guy-on-guy moments—coming amid a right-wing backlash against aspects of gay life as anodyne as Pride Night baseball caps—don’t ask audiences to contend with a queer romance. They just invite us to enjoy the pleasure shared between men, no homo.