Attacking me for proving the show portrayed Mike having sexual feelings for Will betrays LGBT+ liberation, youth sexual liberation, and the Byler fandom
(EDIT: Thanks to all the people who have expressed support in the comments, it's been great! I have added an addition at the end that addresses the negative comments. But it does NOT substitute for reading the whole post.)
I am responding to the latest attempt to mount a witch-hunt against me for unapologetically acknowledging the sexuality of Mike and Will, likely TWO fictional gay teens. There was a previous attempt that failed to silence me, and this one is failing as well.
Unapologetically acknowledging, discussing, and proving that the show creators made the decision to depict the sexuality of Mike and Will is necessary to defend their right to put Byler on the screen against right-wing backlash. Because the accusation that discussing or depicting onscreen the sexuality of gay teens is the point of attack that the right-wing will employ against Netflix and our community if Byler happens.
My critics who hypocritically profess to protect "minors" and/or claim to support LGBT+ people are objectively promoting actual bullying, invoking sexual moral panic, empowering homophobes, and undermining LGBT+ liberation and the sexual empowerment of young people.
This also is an attack on the ability of the Byler Tumblr community to have open and free discussion about gay sexuality, to talk freely about why we are here. We relate to these fictional characters Mike and Will and want them to move beyond friendship and have romance, which includes sex. Byler is important to us because if it happens it will be a blow against the widespread irrational sexual moralism that so many of us deal with in our lives. We came here to get away from censorship and harassment and to feel free to express our sexuality and our identification with these characters.
Before I address the slander against a certain video of mine that used parody to make the point that a fictional gay teen has (gasp!) sexual feelings for another fictional gay teen, it’s necessary to make clear who I am, why some are attacking me, and the political character and significance of this WITCH-HUNT.
Because, in the end, my video is not the issue. The vast majority of people who saw the segment of my Byler Part 2 video in question are completely fine with it and enjoyed it. The allegations from a loud minority are baseless and unserious: none are taking actions one would take if the video did what they say because they know they can't. What’s really happening is that the people spearheading this witch-hunt (and the gullible people who are being roped into it) are using the false accusation of "pedophile" as a political attack against LGBT+ sexuality and the LGBT+ community, which has become more prevalent with the rise of Trump and which the homophobes will use against Netflix and our communities if Byler happens in Season 5.
#1. I am an openly-gay radical political leader
I am a public figure working to build a mass, militant movement led by young people against racism, for immigrant rights, for LGBT+ liberation, and now, with the rise of Trump, to defeat his fascist government and movement. For 30 years, I have been an activist in BAMN, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). (And, for most of that time, as one of its activist-lawyers.)
BAMN has led successful campaigns, including a 75,000 person March on Washington in 2003 that successfully defended affirmative action and integration programs at the U.S. Supreme Court, which was featured in this year’s HBO documentary Eyes on the Prize III. In public statements, I call on our communities to form worker/student/community defense guards to stop ICE deportations and to stop Trump’s fascist government.
I gave this speech at a 2022 high school student walkout protesting anti-LGBT+ legislation:
I work to empower youth to fight for themselves. My Ronald Off the Record channel has become part of this work: I’m committed to making crystal clear to LGBT+ youth that their suspicion that these two gay teens have romantic feelings for each other—including sexual feelings—is true!
Calls to "protect youth" with moral panic and reactionary rhetoric and legislation are completely hypocritical: they have always been used by the right-wing as a cover for attacking the right of youth (and particularly LGBT+ youth) to express themselves and their sexuality. Whatever some people would like to tell themselves, this is the objective effect of parroting their hateful talking points.
The fact that I’m an effective and bold political leader—both through my traditional political work and my YouTube channel which seeks to destigmatize, prove and (if it happens) DEFEND the Byler ship—creates enemies. The current attack against me was initiated in the right-wing cesspool of Twitter and is spearheaded by people who oppose my politics: whether it’s my usual BAMN activism, my advocacy of Byler (including my unapologetic acknowledgment of the sexuality of gay teens), or a combination of both. They are trying to bully me to stop doing what I’m doing, which won’t work.
#2. Byler is important, and if Netflix makes it happen then Trump and MAGA would love to attack Netflix and the Byler fandom with the same rhetoric being used against me.
Anyone who saw my concluding message in my 1st Byler video should know that being a Byler is not separate from my radical politics. Byler has real political significance. It would be a victory for LGBT+ visibility and equality for this global hit show to portray the sexuality and romance of gay teen boys, for young gay love to be portrayed with the same frankness, honesty, and affection that straight young love has always enjoyed in popular media for decades. Will and Mike’s arc as gay boys daring to love each other in the 1980s would inspire LGBT+ people of all ages who have faced homophobia and bigotry in our lives. And, as I say in my Part 2 video, it likely would sway the great majority of viewers to support it, and empower and embolden many young LGBT+ people to be out and proud for who they are.
And that is why Trump and MAGA will hate it:
Just a few weeks ago on October 16, 2025, Trump’s Pentagon called Netflix’s gay military drama Boots "woke garbage." Boots portrays a real-life story of a closeted gay soldier in the U.S. Marines in 1990, when it was still illegal to be gay in the military. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson invoked the old homophobic chestnut of 'grooming' children against Netflix: "We will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children."
The "pedophile" accusation is the anti-gay rhetoric of choice for Trump and his movement, for two reasons.
First, the right-wing has always used it to attack LGBT+ leaders and the LGBT+ community because it taps into homophobia and moral panic about sexuality. Use of this rhetoric has escalated in recent years. Before Charlie Kirk was killed, he regularly called slain gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk a "pedophile" and accused LGBT+ people of being "groomers" and "pedophiles." Two years ago, a school board member in Temecula, California called Milk a "pedophile." (Even that very-conservative community thought that went too far and removed him in a recall election.) It is the old right-wing chestnut to attack LGBT+ leaders who embolden and have a popular following LGBT+ youth.
Second, Trump has a particular incentive for people on the political left to be falsely accused of being a "pedophile" because of credible evidence that he himself had sex with minors that his administration is trying to hide in the Epstein Files.
The Trump administration’s attack on Netflix for Boots could pale next to the witch-hunt it would love to wage against Stranger Things, if this worldwide hit show has the boldness to do what many of us Bylers predict: have a gay boy as its ultimate protagonist, a gay couple as its "main couple" (Mike and Will would acquire that status), and have gay love save the world:
They would love to go after Netflix the way they did against the companies broadcasting Jimmy Kimmel. They would say that the show, which features Mike and Will, who will still be minors in Season 5, is "gay propaganda" that is "grooming children" to "be gay and trans."
These right-wing ideologues have no regard for the truth. They might even say that the Duffers and/or Netflix "caved" to the Byler fandom, whom they’d call "the woke crowd," "groomers," and "pedophiles," by "forcing" this supposedly "straight" minor (Mike) to be gay.
The best cover for their slander and lies would be the lie that merely acknowledging, discussing, or portraying the sexuality of gay teens in fiction promotes "pedophilia."
Byler fans are already familiar with this baseless accusation when trying to discuss Byler in fandom spaces. We are routinely falsely accused of “sexualizing children,” which is only the “pedophilia” accusation by another name. We know it's a homophobic double standard not applied to straight teen romances in fiction. We all know we are simply analyzing what the creators write and put on the screen.
By the homophobes’ logic, if we cannot discuss the sexuality of gay teens put on the screen, then surely the Duffers and Netflix shouldn’t be able to put it on the screen, either.
This is all why it is obviously dangerous—and for those who profess to support LGBT+ equality, stupid and against the cause you profess to support—to sign on to or give "progressive" harbor for the witch-hunt calling me a "pedophile" and claiming that I promote "pedophilia" simply because I unapologetically discuss the depiction of Mike having sexual feelings for Will. (EDIT: The word "weird" is code for the same homophobic accusation.)
For better or worse, I am probably the most prominent voice in the Byler fandom, and the Trump administration and/or the homophobes—who already have reason to attack me because I am an out and proud militant gay anti-Trump activist—would have even more reason to attack me (and attack the cause of putting Byler on the screen and the cause for LGBT+ equality), if specifically people who profess to be queer or pro-queer join this witch-hunt against me.
Regardless of whether the homophobes choose to direct their rhetoric against me specifically or against the broader pro-Byler community as a whole, they will be using this rhetoric to attack the entire LGBT+ community.
Already, these people’s actions have emboldened some reactionaries to make thinly-veiled threats and accusations on my YouTube videos. These were comments were posted on Tuesday (Nov. 4), two days after the attacks against me escalated. The first comment is a fascist threatening physical harm, and the second is clearly a Trump supporter based on their profile name as well as a homophobe:
No, it is the ATTACKS against me and people who discuss Mike’s sexuality—coming from outside this community and even from a few members within—that are disgusting and unacceptable.
People who profess to support LGBT+ equality and sexual freedom and oppose moral panic need to choose the right side. You either defend the right of people to freely DISCUSS and DEPICT gay teen sexuality on the screen, or you serve the homophobes.
#3. My video unapologetically and effectively proved that it appears that Mike is sexually attracted to Will
Now onto the ridiculous accusations about my video. So what was the video doing? After all, when witch-hunts appeal to irrational moral panic, the actual thing people are talking about naturally gets lost in the discussion.
With my Byler Part 1 and Part 2 videos, I systematically prove that Byler is a possibility and that we are not "delusional" to think otherwise.
The most common argument against Byler is that "Mike is straight." Proof that Mike is not straight is that he has sexual interest in Will. This video showed that he was flirting with Will and checking out his butt.
That’s it.
Straight teens have sex in popular media all the time, and it is eroticized far more than my modest edit. It is commercialized and completely normalized. The Twilight films and TV shows like Euphoria regularly feature characters (and sometimes actors) who are minors in highly-erotic scenes:
Mike and El (and their actors) kissed onscreen when they were 11/12 years old. Nancy and Steve had a scene that could have come from a softcore porn in the series' second episode. Wait! So are the Duffers "sexualizing minors" because they show minors having sexual interactions with (gasp!) each other? And what about their storyline where a middle-aged mom flirts with a 17-year-old Billy (s2e9) and later almost has sex with him?
No. The only reason my video is controversial is because I’m an adult gay man showing that there is a sexually-charged interaction between two gay male teens. Everybody knows that there wouldn’t be the same hysteria if I had done a porn parody of Steve looking at Nancy in her bra in the second episode:
There is no stigma about highlighting the sexual feelings of STEVE HARRINGTON while he’s a minor because it’s a BOY'S sexual desire for a GIRL, which is not only normalized but cheered for in this society. This is a homophobic double standard.
The witch-hunt against me is based on moral panic about frankly acknowledging, discussing, and yes celebrating the sexual awakening of gay young people. Mike and Will don’t have just romantic feelings for each other; they have SEXUAL feelings.
Meanwhile, Mike and Will will still be minors in Season 5. Are we such prudes that we'll march onto Netflix for "sexualizing minors" because they kiss or have sex in Season 5? The homophobes would. And we should do nothing to enable them.
The reality is that fans of Byler DO fantasize about these two gay teens having romance and many want them to have sex. And there’s nothing wrong with that. A number of Byler fans going after me are projecting onto me because they fear acknowledging some aspect of their own sexuality and what they enjoy.
And this hysteria, done in the name of “protecting minors,” harms young people. The height of radical LGBT activism was the 1970s and 80s. It was an outgrowth of the sexual liberation movement that began in the 1960s. The movement espoused sexual freedom and exploration, and empowered young people to explore their sexuality without concern for irrational societal mores.
This witch-hunt harms the people it claims to protect: it harms minors by stigmatizing youth sexuality, particularly gay youth sexuality, by stigmatizing any acknowledgment or discussion of it. This is the EXACT same rhetoric used by right-wing legislators who oppose sex education and LGBT-inclusive education in schools, who oppose young people learning about sex and making their own decisions about their sexual lives generally:
In making baseless claims about fictional victims, they justify harming real-life people, including the people they claim to be protecting.
I’m not going to be shy about what I saw. A gay teen checked out and wanted to get sexual with another gay teen. If you don’t see it, then you don’t see.
If anything, this little controversy and video just made clear to a lot of Byler Antis that the sexual subtext of the scene is undeniable. And some people don’t like it? Then GOOD.
#4. This witch-hunt by a loud minority is harming the Byler community
The vast majority of people who saw the segment of my Byler Part 2 video in question are completely fine with it and enjoyed it.
But the internet allows a small minority to gather and feel bold around each other, like being in a torch-wielding mob does. Such mobs, when formed around homophobic and sexually-conservative hysteria, feel far bolder than their actual numbers. It’s easy to spout indefensible positions while remaining anonymous. And they would have no significance, but for the fact that Trump’s fascist movement the past several years has made inroads in normalizing anti-gay demagogy.
Both the previous witch-hunt and the current one have been instigated by people in the cesspool called Twitter, the right-wing's preferred platform to mount campaigns of cyberbullying.
This is not only a personal attack against me, but also an attack against the majority in this community who are disturbed by the hysteria that is taking place. In a recent post where I shared a Byler theory, certain users have acted on their declared intention to “spam” my comment section to harass me and hijack discussion away from Byler.
This is having a harmful effect on the community that has formed around my posts and videos. No LGBT+ or young person should be discouraged from discussing sexuality in this fandom, or from engaging with my analysis and commentary.
In the face of bullying and homophobia in other spaces, we Bylers gathered here in Tumblr to have a safe space and community to normalize discussion about this love story between gay teens. These people are undermining it.
Numerous people have written to me personally expressing support, while also sharing their distress and feeling of being intimidated that they cannot address the loud, strident, and baseless allegations that are being repeated ad nauseum.
What I will now do: I will block every single person reactionary and/or gullible enough to engage in this witch-hunt up until now and from this point forward. (EDIT: As well as the individuals who simply repeat the accusations who haven't read this post. No need to dialogue with people who don't listen.) I have a right to engage in fandom without dealing with harassment and baseless attacks on my character. Blocked people will not be able to contact me or see or engage with my posts. If people see more bullying and harassment against me or any other Byler on this issue, feel free to take appropriate action as well. My posts will be safe spaces for people to engage with these topics free from hysteria and bullying.
-teambyler
EDIT: Thank you to all the commenters expressing support and contributing their own thoughts. I have reviewed the gamut of remaining arguments and note that all the detractors have ignored the issue affecting all Bylers and LGBT+ people, which is the objective effect of the attacks against me. This includes the objective effect of deleting my TikTok video and (1) acceding to the ugly accusations against LGBT+ people and (2) acting like we cannot acknowledge -- including JOKING in a supportive and sex-positive way -- that it's okay for gay teens to fuck.
In this show, Murray, a middle-aged man, outright tells Jonathan and Nancy to have sex in his house when they are both minors. Then the next morning he makes a lewd joke and teases them about it. We cannot cave to the homophobes who make ugly accusations just because what we talk about is gay.
