The 21st Century Gay Icon | Kyle Marchand (PW)

In a rather yummy entry on Gay Icons, Wikipedia lists David Beckham alongside George Michael,  Freddie Mercury and Ricky Martin as iconic gay dreamboats.

That would explain what occurred one Saturday in Valencia, Spain in 2007.

It was during a football game in 2007 when the cutest fanboy in all the world breached security, sprinted onto the athletic field and in his adorable big-eyed Iberian way, asked the David Beckham for the same thing anyone in their right mind would ask for, a big  giant hug.

Of course, the Becks, somewhat astonished but not exactly surprised, gave the young fan one.

In exchange, the boy offered  the shirt off his back and so it seems his pants as well. Lol.

But then, wouldn’t anyone?

European football fans have long gone crazy over David Beckham, and he quickly acquired a tremendous gay following in the stands all over the world, which only catapulted him when high editorial fashion magazines discovered him and he began to grass the covers in studly near-nude spreads.

When David Beckham first became known globally it came in  the form of splashy tabloid celebrations , Adidas endorsements and Pepsi advertisements and his madly sexy spot for Gillette razors. The young Becks was just a teensy bit antsy about his full-on gay admirers back then.

Since then, the football star, fashion icon and dream lover has gotten over himself to embrace all those Beck Lovers out there.

Safely married and baby daddy to one of the all time greatest pop and fashion icons, Victoria Beckham, David works the gay crowds with the same beautiful-man nonchalance he shows to fluttering female hearts. He even markets his own scent to the gay demographic.

Thus in inclusion it is fitting that one of the few males, and even fewer heterosexual males, actually in the Gay Icon entry on Wikipedia, is David Beckham.

The really iconic personalities for gay men, as should surprise no one, are women, overwhelmingly so, as the entry documents. I suspect this is because a “gay icon” is never the hot sex partner to gay men but rather the dream versions and dream persona so many gay men wish for themselves. The “anima” which is the female side of a man’s mind can in its frequent articulation, actually for gay men, be the consistent projection of their own persona. Gay men utilize Madonna energy as their own and project it to the world. David Beckham’s metro-sexuality and soft masculinization allows many men to project Beckham outward and for many gay men they project him out but also wish they could project him inward as well.