Troy Pes wants to use his Instagram platform to ‘show people you can be gay and happy’
The social media star opens up about his relationship with model Zander Hodgson in our new September Style issue.
By Will Stroude
With almost 400,000 followers on Instagram, Troy Pes is part of a generation of creators using social media to democratise the images we devour on a daily basis.
The Venezuela-born inflencer, who moved to Australia as teenager and now lives in LA with his boyfriend, model and former Attitude cover star Zander Hodgson, has amassed a huge following over the years, and as he reveals in our new September issue – available to download now and order worldwide – he’s determined to use his platform to shine a positive light on the LGBT experience.
“It took me so long to accept myself as a gay person”, says Troy, whose relationship with Zander has been documented on Instagram since his boyfriend’s decision to come out publicly earlier this year.
“It took me so long to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I’m gay’. It took me so long to come to terms with that, and to feel OK with saying it.
Troy Pes, shot by Stephen Maycock exclusively for the September issue of Attitude
“Even though I had boyfriends, went on dates and was quite open about it with myself, it was so hard for me to say I was gay and to be proud of it.
“It’s that pressure that you have about what people are going to think. It’s so sad that we have that.”
The 27-year-old goes on: “I’ve never been the kind of person to post kissing photos until now.
“Zander is the first one that I’m like, ‘This is my boyfriend, this is my relationship, let’s make it public and show everyone that we’re in love and happy’.
“I’m not an activist but I do want to make sure that as a citizen of the world, people see that you can be gay and happy.”
Check out Troy’s full shoot and interview in Attitude’s September Style issue, out now with a FREE 68-page supplement celebrating 300 issues of Attitude.
Buy now and take advantage of our best-ever subscription offers: 3 issues for £3 in print, 13 issues for £19.99 to download to any device.
