The New York Times has a new trend piece about why so many men are wearing crop tops. But let’s be honest: they’re really talking about the gays.

The article, written by Emma Grillo, chronicles the crop top’s rise in popularity over the last couple of years, with the midriff-showing garment becoming ubiquitous in many urban circles. The story is filled with photos of beautiful men wearing their favorite tops throughout New York City during the last weekend of June…which was also NYC Pride.

Again, probably not a coincidence.

“If I’m wearing one just to go out casually, the crop top will be mid- to long length,” said David Mendoza, a 29-year-old operations manager in New York.

Mendoza goes on to say he first noticed the trend when his favorite fitness influencers starting rocking the gender-fluid look.

Naturally, Gay Twitter has chimed in, declaring homosexual ownership of the crop-top. We want people to know we were wearing it first, like every cool fashion trend!

When it comes to gay summertime fashion, there are three words worth remembering: more skin, please! We’ve already established that short shorts are the only option; and by shorts, we mean 5-inch in seams or lower, saweetie.

When it comes to differentiating between straights and gays, it’s useful to look down…at the legs, of course! Gay men are into the lower torso:  a 2021 survey of gays found that 37% of respondents prefer a bigger lower body, and 48% like to see an athletic upper body paired with a strong butt.

Gays do not skip leg day. The summer months are all about thicc thighs.

I’m already on it pic.twitter.com/2VfktX5rRr

— tyler (@TylerAMoser) April 23, 2023

But the summer is also about showing off your mid-section. As the NYT article notes, football players wore crop tops in the 1980s, making them the “epitome of American masculinity” for a short time. These herculean men wanted to brandish their six-packs, and the crop top was the best way to be vain.

But now, the gays are co-opting the crop top, just like we co-opted the mustache. Originally representing masculinity and power, the mustache started to appear on the outer edges of various counterculture movements in the 1960s and ’70s. That’s when the gays started to adopt the stash–for playful and sexualized purposes.

The NYT also ran a trend piece on mustaches on the first day of June, and gave the gays credit. The Times described the mustache as “queer-coded.”

Now, that doesn’t mean only queer people can rock stashes. They’re now commonplace in hetero spaces as well. Straight guys (at least fashionable ones) have also embraced short shorts for years.

But nobody questions their origin story! Short shorts belong to the gays.

And crop tops do, too. If there’s any doubt, Gay Twitter will let you know.

Scroll down for more gays establishing their ownership of a new summer staple…

They had no problem saying the mustache was a queer renaissance last month lol

— adam (now on Threads) (@hinckleyheart) July 9, 2023

I’m glad.
So many hoochie daddies

— King Dart (he/him) (@deejdart) July 10, 2023

Queerty