“There are no second acts in American Lives,” F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously said. Debate goes on about the context of that quote, but one thing is for certain—it does not apply to the increasingly popular Old Gays, a collective of four gentlemen, ages ranging from 65-78, who have taken the world of social media by storm.
Their story begins in 2018, with a video promotion created by Ryan Yezak and husband John Bates, using the Old Gays in a Grindr “editorial type content” video. (Grindr is the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people, and ironically, old gays too).
The promotion caught the imagination of an audience curious to know more about these four gentlemen and the mysterious, often not visible life of aging gay men. They began to create an audience—the Grindr audience was 7 million and growing. But it wasn’t until they moved to TikTok, the video-focused social networking service that features short videos of various content, that their popularity soared. Their audience on TikTok today is 5.8 million viewers.
The Old Gays are Jessay Martin, 68, Robert Reeves, 78, Mick Peterson, 65 and Bill Lyons, 77.
While most people move to the Coachella Valley to retire, that has not been the case for the hard-working Old Gays. They have various takes on their celebrity, but they all are having the time of their lives.
“It’s overwhelming to me, it’s really hard to wrap my head around where we are right now.” Bill Lyons comments. Mick Petersen views it this way: “I still have to get up in the morning and go to the bathroom—I’m an old person so I have old person issues.”
Robert Reeves sums it up: “And we also, all of us, feel very good knowing that we’re having such a positive impact on so many people’s lives.”
And it’s true.
They are part of a generation rarely heard from—gay men who survived the AIDS crisis and elderly gay men who rarely get to tell their stories, but that is exactly what they are doing. They are teaching lessons to a younger generation of gay men that they needn’t fear old age, embrace the possibilities, and have fun. And they do have fun. Their videos have an honesty and authenticity that reveal four men who have a deep comradery, something developed over years of friendship.
Reeves and Lyons met in the 80s when they both lived in San Francisco. They met Petersen in 2013, and in 2015 Martin moved in across the street. It’s not an unusual aspect of gay life for men to form long and enduring friendships. It is unusual that they become media sensations based on a series of TikTok and YouTube videos. These videos, with their easy, casual banter, have managed to capture a huge audience.
In one video, they get stoned on camera and discuss their history with marijuana, with Bill Lyons ultimately remarking, “I can’t believe it's legal!” In the most poignant of their videos, “Old Gays Look Back on Their Younger Selves,” they see themselves as children and young adults in a gallery of photos. At one point a physically well-defined Mick Petersen at 35 is shown, after the OH’s have settled, he thoughtfully says, “it’s not me anymore. It’s a photo of a person at that time.”
They are, to a great extent, up for anything. Their videos have included who is the best at drag, a dating game segment, coming out stories, past relationships, new gay slang and most recently poolside in red Savage x Fenty underwear and harnesses for Out Magazine, which may be part of the reason they can count Rihanna, Drew Barrymore, Lance Bass and Oprah Winfrey among their followers. And added to the list is Brian Graden, an American television executive who signed the Old Gays to develop a docuseries about their personal and professional social media lives.
They are part of a new trend of senior influencers nicknamed “granfluencers.” This may be the best news of all—no longer unheard or irrelevant, the older population is also being looked at because they have 70% of all disposable income in the United States.
The Old Gays are on the threshold of something new and lucrative.
