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Get Ready for the Gaybros

They serve beer at their parties. They don’t lip synch to Cher’s ‘Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves’ when it’s played over the PA. Some of them go shooting and fishing. They watch the football game. They’re not noted for the culinary skills; nor are they called upon for their opinions on interior design. They are the gaybros and they’re coming to town.
Now that ‘butch’ is associated with leather, bears, handlebar moustaches and the 70s, while ‘straight acting’ implies a pretence and is 90s, gaybro is the label for a man who likes to hang with straight men and do straight man things but happens to be attracted to men instead of women. It’s not about being in the closet; gaybros openly identify as such. They could be described as the polar opposite of the metrosexual; the gay alpha–male.
Gaybros have a new internetwork through Reddit. They raise money for charities and promote same-sex health education among other good things. The problem is that they have two definitions in the urban dictionary. Definition one is a neutral one but definition two describes gaybros as “homosexual men” who are “not effeminate” and talks about them wanting to appear “normal”. This has split the commentators. Do gaybros promote or reject stereotypes? Do they provide a safe, non-judgmental haven for our community or are they an inclusive bunch who harbour a hatred of gay male culture?
For a more comprehensive definition go here. For an in-depth analysis and interview, go here. For an inane multiple choice quiz entitled ‘How Gaybro Are You?’ buy any monthly gay men’s magazine.
Incidentally, gaybros have already spawned their own abstract noun: gaybrodom