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Steve Grand: ‘People love to hate young, good-looking, white gay men’

By Ben Kelly

Steve Grand has opened up about the criticism he experiences, which he puts down to his position. as a ‘young, good-looking, white, gay man’.

The 26-year-old, who found himself under fire last year after he was pictured wearing a skimpy, “stereotypically gay” Speedo, claims that showing off his body makes him an “easy target” for internet trolls.

“For my performances, I need to not be terrible and people will be impressed. I just know people have really, really low expectations of me and that’s what the internet does. I’m such an easy person to target,” he told PrideSource.

Young, good-looking, white, gay men – we love to hate those people. But there’s been a real person there the whole time.”

The All-American Boy singer, who recently stripped off for a steamy charity shower video, adds: “I take my music seriously. I’m a good musician and I’m a good performer, and I also like to work out my body and show it off sometimes. It’s a fleeting thing; when I’m 50, I’m not gonna look like this.”

Asked if he ever looks at images of other guys and wishes he could look like them – just as many feel when they see his pictures – he says he does.

“Oh my god – of course I do,” he explains. “But I try to take personal responsibility and not lash out at that person because they maybe make me feel less. I just fucking look at the picture and enjoy it.”

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He adds that this extends to his work as well.

“I’ve had a lot of moments where I’ve seen someone who is maybe more beautiful or someone who sounds better than me or has written a song that I think is gorgeous – yeah, sometimes I have that envy and that jealousy rises up. I could either leave a really bitter comment about it on the internet or I could go work on my own shit and be the best I can be.”

Grand adds that he’s unashamed about his own body, and regularly shows most of it off on Instagram and in one of his many risqué photo shoots. Does he ever think he’d strip off completely though?

“And show my dick?” he asks. “You can pretty much see it in some of the shots from the past, but I probably wouldn’t. I’d rather not. But if someone was like, ‘Here’s a million dollars,’ I would be like, ‘Sure.’ But, like, I don’t think my dick is that exciting. It’s pretty unremarkable.”

Panic not. He goes on to give himself a little bit more credit.

“I think it’s good to be proud of what you have but I think there are more interesting things about me than my relatively… what’s the word I’m looking for? It’s very appropriately sized and shaped, that’s what I would say.”

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