Out Model Shaun Ross' Grandpa Had the Best Response to His Coming Out

Out model and actor Shaun Ross took to Threads to post about the hilarious and heartwarming response his grandfather had when Ross came out to him at age 19.

The reaction Ross received was as accepting as it was humorous.

Detailing that he told his grandfather "a year before he passed," Ross – who had become a professional model several years earlier, at age 19 – recalled, "I was shocked by how he embraced me."

Ross went on to share the anecdote: "I said, 'Grandad, I'm gay,' and he replied, 'Well, can you cook?'"

The story gets even better.

"I said, 'Not really,'" Ross continued. "He laughed, 'How do you expect to keep a man?'"

View on Threads

Not only was Ross' grandfather instantly and completely accepting; he went on to relate to Ross how queer men in his own youth had been a positive influence.

"He told me about gay men in 1950s Harlem who hosted dinners, dressed sharp, and had beautiful homes," Ross related. "He said they taught him so much about how to carry himself."

Ross' followers jumped in with their own takes on his story.

"Grandpa, I'm gay," one person riffed, before reframing Ross' grandfathers response: "Clearly not gay enough".

Another reimagined the conversation as, "Grandpa, I'm gay."

"And yet still single..."

"But are you hosting dinners now?" another queried in the comments.

The multi-hyphenate, who is also a recording artist, replied: "Absolutely! I'm 33 this happened when I was 19 but yes I cook and happily engaged".

Ross explained in another post how he "was lucky to grow up with queerness in my family that helped me embrace who I am."

"My Aunt Margo was the OG of our family–the glue that held everything together and the ultimate problem solver," the model explained. "She was a strong, unapologetically queer woman who made her mark in Harlem during the '70s and '80s."

One commentator observed that homophobia isn't simply a function of one's background or of the times one lives in. "When my aunt and mother outed me to my very openly homophobic auntie, she was mad at how they violated agency, not that I was queer," they shared. "It gave us a chance to talk, and eventually, shocker, at 80 something, she listened to me and learned about how she'd been looking at things all wrong."

"Proof that age doesn't have to be an excuse for bigotry, people can grow&change."