Wil Wheaton knows he was your first crush. He has thoughts about the 'hot dads' you became

Forty years ago, Wil Wheaton landed his breakout movie role, playing Gordie in Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me at age 13. The following year, he joined the Star Trek franchise as the whiz kid Wesley Crusher on The Next Generation. More recently, he admits, he has met gay fans who told him he was their first crush.“Love is love!” he exclaims. “We say it all the fucking time. Why is that complicated? It’s not, man, c’mon!”The straight, 54-year-old actor tells The Advocate that meeting those fans is still a thrill.“What’s great is that I still meet hot dads today; I’m like, ‘Fucking hot dads, dude!’ I’m just like, ‘Goddamnit, I could climb up those abs!’ And they’re like, ‘You were my first crush!’ And I’m like, ‘First of all, how are you still so hot? You’re my age!’ And second of all, I’m just like, ‘That’s fucking rad. I love that,’” he says.Why Wil Wheaton speaks up for trans peopleThis past June, Wheaton attended NYC Pride, and he has decorated his personal website with blue, pink, and white banners proclaiming “trans rights are human rights.” On social media, the self-described “cis het guy” sports an ever-changing collection of rainbow pins and shirts declaring “Protect Trans Kids” and other pro-LGBTQ+ messages.The question is, why? From Wil Wheaton Instagram @itswilwheaton www.advocate.com “The only way I could be a more protected class of citizen in America is if I were an openly performative Christian nationalist. I’m white. I’m male. I’m upper middle class. I’m semi-famous. I have all kinds of privilege. And yet, I’ve been othered my entire life," Wheaton says."I was othered by my parents. I was othered by people in my neighborhood. I was othered on the set,” he adds, explaining that his Star Trek castmates were the exception.“And when I see other people experiencing that, I cannot help myself. I have to throw myself between those people and the people who are hurting them,” he says