They met in a Brooklyn theater nearly two decades ago an audition, a role, a spark of camaraderie. Jonathan Gregg was a fresh face in New York City, auditioning for a production of Six Degrees of Separation. Tom Felix was the director. The two hit it off immediately: witty banter, creative chemistry, and, yes, a little bit of undeniable mutual attraction.I thought he was super hot and just wanted to keep him around, Felix, who is gay, admits now, grinning, with Gregg, who is straight, laughing in the Zoom window beside him during their interview with The Advocate.But the friendship that followed, spanning city apartments, career pivots, marriages, late-night texts, vacations, and barbecues, grew into something beyond flirtation or creative synergy. It became family.Sunday, on International Friendship Day, theyre not just celebrating a nearly 20-year bond; theyre putting it under a mic. Their new podcast, No Homo with Jonathan and Tom, is a weekly riff on life, masculinity, queerness, parenting, politics, and everything in between. Two best friends, one straight, one gay, as they like to say, gassing each other up as the world burns.Behind the riffs and running gags is something quieter and more binding: a friendship thats teaching listeners how expansive masculinity can be.Related: L Word alums Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig wrote the book on queer friendship...literallyOpposites, but alikeGregg, 43, lives in Queens with his wife and two young kids. He now works as director of operations for a spirits portfoliothink bourbon, vodka, rum, ready-to-drinks. Hes magnetic, unapologetic, and often the louder of the two. Hes also a popular social media influencer: 127,000 followers on TikTok, 140,000 on Instagram, and counting. See on Instagram Gregg grew up in northern Alabama, in what he calls a sheltered, conservative environment shaped by church life and Southern Baptist teachings. At the time, he considered his church progressive. His pastor had once refused to join a denomination-wide boycott of Disney over the companys perceived LGBTQ+ support. I thought of my church as a relatively progressive place, he said, though in hindsight, he recognizes how narrow that bar was. Still, the experience stuck with him. Why would you cut out something in your life because theyre being kind to a group of people? he asked. As he left Alabama, first for Nashville and then New York, the distance made clear how insular his upbringing had been and how much space there was to grow. Exposure is the antidote to hate and fear, he said. Knowing people, not being scared to know people, thats it.Felix, 46, is quieter and more careful. A former theater director and television development exec, he now works in corporate communications and lives nearby in Astoria with his fianc, Naquan, and their kittens, Fish and Chips. Hes the one who overthinks.Felix grew up in a working-class Catholic household in central Connecticut, where he says it took time to make peace with being gay. By junior year of high school, he had come out to himself. By senior year, he was quietly living a double life, closeted at school, where he was prom king and class president, but beginning to explore his sexuality through community theater. I was ready to be gay, he said. I just wasnt ready to mess with everything else.He waited until college to come out to others, on his very first night in New York, sitting in a diner with a group of fellow freshmen. When someone asked if he was gay, he set down his grilled cheese and said, for the first time out loud, Yes. Im gay. Coming out to family and hometown friends took longer. And the bullying he endured as a kid, taunts for doing theater, not playing sports, still lingers in memory. It was something I dealt with all through high school, he said.Both men exude strong daddy vibes, physically muscular, emotionally available, and unmistakably at ease in their own skin. Theyve shared bedrooms, wedding aisles, and dance floors. And when they hit the right party, Gregg sheds his shirt beside Felix in a sea of sweaty, writhing men. Hes come with me to a Rekt party or a Honey Dijon party, Felix says. I wouldnt necessarily call them circuit, but definitely like a gay tech house party.Their rhythms may differ, but the friendship is seamless. Felix officiated at Gregg's wedding. When Felix and Naquan get married next year, Gregg will return the favor.Weve had some really strange and exciting experiences together, Felix says. And I just think theres such a long history now I trust him completely.Asked if the relationship has ever crossed into romantic or sexual territory, both are disarmingly candid. Tom has made the most convincing arguments to be with a man Ive ever heard, Gregg jokes. But Im in a committed monogamous marriage. And Im straight. Tom knows that. And he respects it.Felix, without missing a beat: And Im still trying.Paint your nails, punch NazisTheir closeness has shaped Gregg's public persona, too. Through the Trump years, he coined a slogan, Paint Your Nails, Punch Nazis, that went viral and stuck. Now its on T-shirts, stickers, and plenty of merch.The phrase grew out of lived experience. Bullied as a kid, Gregg bulked up and leaned into hypermasculinity as protection. Later, when his son asked to paint his nails, Gregg painted his too and kept going. Tom Felix (left) and Jonathan Gregg at a costume party.Courtesy Jonathan Gregg & Tom Felix (provided)My wife and I always wanted to buck gender norms, he says. When our son was born, we made pink tank tops that said, Its a boy on the front, and Gender norms are for the weak on the back.It wasnt about rebellion. It was about modeling freedom. Even if my son never paints his nails again, Gregg says, hell remember that a masculine man in his life did. Thats powerful.He and Felix have made that kind of modeling part of the show, silly, serious, or somewhere in between.Building a friendship and a show while reclaiming "no homo"The podcast was years in the making. Theyd joked about it forever. But the 2024 election, and the political darkness that followed, finally gave them the push. I was just tired of screaming into my phone, Felix says. I wanted to use my voice for something more.So they hit record. Then they did it again. And again. The format is loose: a weekly check-in, some current events, a few personal revelations, and alwaysalwaysa vibe.No Homo launched in late June. New episodes drop every Thursday. As of this week, six have aired, and the show is already finding its footing. Last weekend, Felix was recognized for the first time at The Cock, the legendary gay bar on Manhattans Lower East Side. Are you the guy from the podcast? a man named Dan from Albuquerque, New Mexico, asked.Ill always have The Cock, Felix joked on the show.Dan also passed on a compliment for Gregg: If you flutter your eyelashes fast enough, he thinks you just might float away.Before they ever pressed record, the name sparked debate.No Homo was originally coined as a reflexive disclaimer, a way for straight men to distance themselves from anything that might be perceived as gay. The phrase exploded in the 1990s and early 2000s hip-hop, where artists used it to assert dominance, affirm heterosexuality, or preempt ridicule after saying anything remotely affectionate. It was defensive, insecure, and often deeply homophobic.Gregg and Felix know all that. And they named their show No Homo anyway.We wanted to hold a mirror to the absurdity of it, Felix says. The phrase itself is so rooted in anxiety, about gender, about orientation, about being perceived. And we wanted to flip it.Its the dumbest, most hilarious thing straight men ever came up with, Gregg adds. And now here we are, one straight, one gay, saying, yeah, no homo, and also all the homo. Deal with it.The title is provocative by design. But its not empty provocation. Its about subversion, about confronting cultural discomfort with male closeness. By reclaiming the phrase, theyre turning its original anxiety on its head, and replacing it with something grounded, funny, and emotionally honest.Were in on the joke, Felix says. But were also dead serious about it. Jonathan Gregg (left) and Tom Felix.Courtesy Jonathan Gregg & Tom Felix (provided)In the sixth episode, Gregg shared a message from a listener, what he jokingly called a no-homer slash bromo, whod reached out to a gay friend after hearing their ongoing conversations about friendship and flirtation. The straight man asked: Do you find me attractive? The friend said yes, but explained that because the man was married, he hadnt said anything before.It made him feel really good, Gregg said. And frankly, its kind of always been in the back of my mind thats the best service we can offer from this podcast.There is a male loneliness epidemic in the country, he added. Theres a void of love from menhow they experience it, how they accept it, how they show it. And Im telling you, there would be less of a loneliness issue if you just make some gay friends and let em flirt with you. Its the best youre ever going to feel.A May 2025 Gallup poll found that 25 percent of American men ages 15 to 34 reported feeling lonely a lot of the previous day, more than young men in 35 other high-income democratic countries. In the U.S., young men are significantly lonelier than both young women and older adults. Experts link the crisis to long-standing cultural norms that discourage boys from expressing vulnerability, often leaving them emotionally isolated.There are some ways to feel a little better, Felix added.Gregg didnt miss a beat: If you and your gay friend decide you want to go down that path, thats totally cool too. And if you dont, then take the flirting, take the compliments, take the gas up, and know that theyll probably give you a really good blowjob if you want it.I did try to grab his dick on my 30th birthday, Felix admitted in his Advocate interview. Thats true. But I was being a real tease, Gregg chimed in. So even I can forgive that one.But was it no homo or was it homo?Yeah, it was no homo, Gregg said. It mightve been after the fact. It might have no homoed after the fact.Gregg and Felix arent trying to be icons. Theyre just trying to be honest. To show what friendship can look like when men stop fearing softness, stop fearing each other.If more straight men had gay best friends, Gregg says, the world would be a better place. Period.Hes not wrong. Happy International Friendship Day.Catch No Homo with Jonathan and Tom below. - YouTube youtu.be