‘why Are You So Damn Gay?’: The Public Policing Of Karl-anthony Towns’ Joy

The first clip I danced was pinch my father. I plucked my bare feet onto his activity boots, to my mother’s distress, and fto his rubber soles guideline maine into a groove. Hand successful hand, we spun done nan room arsenic Al Green’s Love and Happiness christened my rhythm’s baptism.

The 2nd clip I danced was pinch myself – and it would beryllium my last. I wrapped my arms astir nan fleshy portion of my waist arsenic Seal’s Kiss from a Rose played from nan Batman Forever CD successful my stereo. Alone successful my room, I was OK pinch nan reflector seeing each portion of me. I danced for illustration Shirley Temple pinch Buddy Ebsen. Like my begetter guided me. The only point that could person surgery my hit did. My stepmother filled nan doorway, barefoot isolated from for a roach she had stepped on.

“Why are you truthful damn gay?”

That mobility didn’t onshore arsenic curiosity. It landed arsenic a condemnation – arsenic instruction. From that infinitesimal on, joyousness had to walk inspection earlier it could beryllium expressed.

A decade later, successful a different location and a different neighborhood, I stood complete a sink, washing personification else’s humor disconnected my hands – still shaking from having fought my measurement retired of being jumped. I wasn’t conscionable cleaning up. I was trying to scrub distant immoderate lingering uncertainty astir my masculinity.

This effort is astir what happens erstwhile boys who move freely are taught to fearfulness their ain hit – and what it intends erstwhile grown men for illustration Karl-Anthony Towns are mocked for keeping theirs.

Confusion, softness and nan impulse to mobility societal norms are beaten retired of each of america – but particularly retired of young boys of colour successful vulnerable neighborhoods. It’s arsenic if nan praxis of masculinity demands unit arsenic nan antidote to vulnerability. Even laughter had rules. You couldn’t fto it beryllium excessively high-pitched. Too quick. You learned to clap shoulders, not clasp hands. I didn’t instantly reconcile my behaviour pinch its double, but I spent my adolescence trying to beryllium my stepmom wrong.

Since moving from Minnesota to New York, expectations for erstwhile No 1 draught prime Karl-Anthony Towns person accrued connected each fronts. In New York, nan world’s largest media market, scrutiny moves faster than immoderate header – amplified by nan virality of societal media.

Towns is discovering what happens erstwhile softness is punished, erstwhile queerness is projected, and erstwhile nationalist figures go unwilling avatars successful civilization wars complete masculinity.

The word “zesty”, a softened descendant of homophobic slang, became Towns’ shadow. It trailed him done each three-point play, podcast outtake and postgame moment. He became nan target for group eager to mock what they couldn’t define.

In Hilton Als’s The Women, he recalls being called an “auntie man” – a Barbadian building for a queer man, utilized pinch adjacent parts derision and familiarity. For Als, nan word was some load and lens – a measurement to understand really femininity successful antheral bodies disturbs taste norms. Towns, successful his gestures and tones, touched that nervus – not by coming out, but by refusing to contort himself into nan rigid, humorless framework of what a man successful sports is expected to be.

Towns is acold from alone. Figures for illustration Tyler, nan Creator, Russell Westbrook and Odell Beckham Jr person besides been queer-coded and mocked online – not for coming out, but for expressing artistic state that unsettles accepted expectations of Black masculinity.

Reading Als, I realized I wasn’t conscionable haunted by my stepmother’s question. I was haunted by nan thought that my joy, softness and hit mightiness beryllium interpreted nan aforesaid measurement – that to some, my measurement of moving done nan world would ever beryllium “off”.

Homophobia coming isn’t what it was successful nan 1990s, erstwhile nan thought of a cheery NBA subordinate sparked outrage. American civilization has shifted. Most group – not conscionable millennials – cognize personification who is openly gay. Even babe boomers often count LGBTQ+ individuals among their friends aliases family.

Karl-Anthony Towns, for illustration Tyler, nan Creator, Russell Westbrook and Odell Beckham Jr, has been queer-coded and mocked online. Photograph: Dustin Satloff/Getty Images

This broader familiarity has normalized queerness – but mostly white, heteronormative queerness. During his presidency, Donald Trump welcomed “Gays for Trump”, revealing really sexuality has go much analyzable successful modern politics, truthful agelong arsenic it’s achromatic and votes red.

But successful sports, John Amaechi and Jason Collins stay punchlines. Dwight Howard was nan astir caller NBA subordinate to beryllium publically dissected for his queer preferences. His business progressive layers of moral, ineligible and consensual complexity, but nan taste judgement echoed nan aforesaid aged anxieties.

Towns is ostensibly straight. He’s successful a nationalist narration pinch Jordyn Woods. But his moments of effeminacy person gone viral connected TikTok, trickling down done Twitter and into Facebook echo chambers. Many mention his Dominican practice – not arsenic a nonstop nexus to queerness, but to nan flamboyance, hit and affectional expressiveness embedded successful that culture. And if he were cheery aliases bi aliases queer, what precisely would that change? KAT is still a dawg.

It’s ironic that this ridicule came during nan champion play of his career. He averaged 24.7 points and a career-high 13.5 rebounds while starring nan Knicks to their first Eastern Conference finals quality successful 25 years. He delivered signature performances, including back-to-back 40-point games and a playoff triple-double. His violative power marked a individual and franchise turning point.

But it wasn’t enough. The online ridicule intensified, crystallizing into what became known arsenic “Zesty Karl-Anthony Towns”, aliases Zesty KAT – a meme that painted nan Knicks prima arsenic flamboyant aliases queer-coded based connected voice, motion and posture. The word resurfaced successful 2024 aft viral TikTok compilations dissected clips from his postgame interviews and on-court expressions, reigniting during nan 2025 playoffs.

One of nan astir viral examples came from X personification @Zazamyodor, who quote-tweeted a clip of Towns softly saying “for sure” pinch nan caption, “That ‘for sure’ was nasty work.” The station earned complete 46,000 likes and helped cement “zesty” arsenic shorthand for mocking his style, contempt his profession peak.

I still haven’t danced for illustration I did that first time, aliases moreover nan second. But I deliberation astir it often: what it meant to beryllium ray connected my feet, unburdened, joyful without explanation. What Karl-Anthony Towns is enduring isn’t conscionable a meme cycle. It’s nan aforesaid condemnation I heard successful my doorway, repackaged for likes and algorithm reach: “Why are you truthful damn gay?” Not a question, an accusation. In this world, to beryllium joyful successful your body, to beryllium expressive without apology, is still treated for illustration defiance. Towns whitethorn not request to creation for illustration I did. But each clip he celebrates a three-pointer pinch flair, each clip he speaks successful a reside excessively tender for a seven-footer, he keeps nan hit going for those of america who had ours interrupted.