Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of gay short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

740+ Gay Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From cozy romances to coming-out stories and more, love wins in our collection of gay short stories.

Gay Short Stories – Page 13 of 50

The Ballad of Cactus Peat: The Rootinest Outlawn of the Wild West

Submitted to Contest #204

The West, as you know it, is dead. No, it ain’t the Winchester repeating rifle that did her in. It ain’t the steel horse locomotive that did it either. Or the airplane, or cars, or any newfangled way of transportating from point A to point B. No, the West died doing what she loved best, watching men tear each other apart, limb from limb until the fiery, green hands of the atomic clock struck high noon. Life took a bit of a siesta to cool her strings in the nuclear winter before playing the next song in this cosmic symphony of souls we call E...

10 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Jack & Jack

Submitted to Contest #203

Jack & Jack Even before the gnarled knuckles of his brother’s right hand grazed the side of Jack's nose, Jack knew his brother Jack would hit him. Luckily for Jack, his reflexes were fast enough for him to roll his head back and miss the king hit. Jack's brother was blood red with rage and anger. Fair enough, figured Jack. From the outside, what he'd done was brutal but, in Jack's opinion, necessary. What surprised Jack was his brother's left knee, which was raised, so when Jack swerved to miss the fist, he drove himself into his bro...

9 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

In The Eyes of The Stars

Submitted to Contest #203

They were drunk when they arrived. Roy felt the walls of the bar as they ascended the stairs while Lue tried to prevent the blood from fleeing his wounded heart. He imagined plugging its holes with his fingers, one after the other, in a fruitless pursuit to mend what he knew were terminal wounds. Roy sensed his friend’s destruction, fed off of the perilous energy, and used it to compel him up the stairs and into another bar so that they might both feel okay for just one night. The lights in the bar were like those of an old tv, seemingly fad...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Only Demon's Know How to Pick Friends

Submitted to Contest #203

My fingers curl, instincts pushing me to bend my knees.  Was it thumbs out? Or in? My mind whirls in so many different directions. As soon as he nears, I throw a fist out. I make slight contact with his arm as he moves out of the way. My fist collapses on impact, and my fingers splay out with an immediate soreness. I shake it off and barely drop in time to miss his throw.  "Are you sure you want to be doing this?" I question, exhaustion beginning to needle its way through my joints.  "Don't back off now!" My friend yells ba...

11 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Greastest Man I Ever Met

Submitted to Contest #202

After passing the Army Basic Training course and the Advanced Individual Training course, I was sent off to my first duty station. My family had consequently sold my car when I was in basic, citing the reason as “you weren’t using it”.So, I found myself in need of a car again. I knew when I bought this old stick-shift Honda Accord that it was a project car. I figured that it would be a learning opportunity for me to hone in on my southern engineering skills. For those who don't know this is a trait where a person is known to improvise a quic...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Best Friends, for a Life Cut Short

Submitted to Contest #202

I think all of us can claim to have had at least one or two best friends in our lives. I’m no different. And I realize these close personal connections don’t always last forever. Still, it’s much harder when your friendship is cut short by the untimely passing of the other. Lester and I grew up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood west of Houston. We knew each other in elementary school, but we weren’t particularly friends at that point. More friendly acquaintances. By middle school, our friendship grew as we s...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

When he tuned out the last voice

Submitted to Contest #202

He brings the steaming cup of coffee to his mouth and stares at Greta across the tiny black sea. Though this is the first time they've been in the same room in ten years, they’ve never been more distant. Not that she shows any indication of this. She’s acting, in a way that he can’t, like everything’s fine.  “—And you knew how we had always wanted to adopt—”  She alternates telling him stories, some he’s heard, some he hasn’t, with taking bites from her croissant. Each nibble is a performance—she pauses, takes the croissant in ...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Eulogy for a Friend

Submitted to Contest #202

Eulogy for a Friend     Richard Coggins died on my sixty-fifth birthday, four years ago. Since then, it’s difficult for me to be one-hundred percent happy on April 6 because sometime during the day, I will think of Rich. What’s particularly painful is I already had an airplane ticket to visit Rich the very next week. I made it to Tennessee the day after his service. Rich’s mother and the folks at the assisted living facility in Clarksville were pleased to see me, and they shared how excited Rich was that I was coming, ...

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Graduation, Dreams, and Ospreys

Shortlisted for Contest #201 ⭐️

TW: LanguageThe living room smells of smoke, cloying ash lodging into my sinuses. The misty heat from outside wafts down the chimney and creates a palpable shift in the temperature around the fireplace—I sit in front of it and press my hands against the wooden floors, noting how the humidity seems to make them dip under my fingertips, makes them soft and waxy.The heat eases the shiver under my skin, cold from the drenched suit, the source of the dripping that rings into the quiet, empty home. I tap a pattern out on the floor, but with my wan...

26 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Kookie Jam Jar

Submitted to Contest #201

"I want you, even if no one else wants you, '' soothed Koo to the photo on his bedside table of Jeon Jung-Kook before heading to the hotel to work."This way Sir", Koo nodded his head showing Park Jimin to the hotel lift."Wait for me," smiled Jeon Jung-Kook. We can have drinks before sleep.The two idols chatted about food and aching legs from dance practice while the hotel person listened, staring at the glass lift to enjoy their reflection."I am sure he smiled at me, I bet he would have asked for my number if Jimin wasn't there." Koo sa...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Rumor Has it

Submitted to Contest #200

The southern heat clung to the red bricks of the Panacea Brewing Company, mingling with the scent of fried green tomatoes and fermented beverages. Tuffs of grass and dandelions sprouted around the entrance. People trickled in and out the doors in waves as the sun began to set. Angie fiddled with her purse strap while walking towards the glass doors.            “C’mon, Angie,” she muttered. “Nothin’ to be scared of.”            She s...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Fate with a Side of Mizu Yokan

Submitted to Contest #200

He always sits on the same bench. He stays put as if his body were roots and the sun waters his soul with its rays. Every evening he stays until the sky darkens, eventually taking a stroll through town, talking to everyone in sight. All my life, I heard stories about the old man and the possible reasons behind his sudden appearance in town. My friends and I discussed the gossip surrounding him for weeks. I never believed the tall tales until today. Today, I wanted to believe. I walked along the sidewalk, watching the hues turn in the dista...

7 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Acceptance and High School Drama

Submitted to Contest #200

The door slammed and Valorie saw a streak of Sarah’s brown hair wiz through the foyer and up the stairs.  Two seconds later Valorie heard a door slam.  Sarah must have had a bad day at school. Valorie, who was working at the dining room table, stopped clacking away at her keyboard and thought for a moment. She had interfered with Sarah’s life a few times in the past, sometimes it ended well and sometimes not so well.  Now that Sarah was in highschool she didn’t know where she stood in the matter.  If she should come to ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Figures of Speech

Submitted to Contest #200

I’ve always enjoyed the company of plants. Plants are immutable from outside forces. Living beings without the ability to hear and therefore be changed by words around them. I feel comfortable in my garden. Since I was young, my plants have provided me with a sense of community I no longer feel with those around me. Plants can’t mock and, conversely, can never be mocked. I often wonder what it would be like to take on the form of one of the azaleas growing outside my window. They grow well in acidic soil and can survive the harsher conditi...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

生日快乐 - Happy Birthday

Submitted to Contest #199

“A clear night,” Li Mei Ling texts in Mandarin, leaving the transit station. “Weird, but a good sign.” She turns a corner, her attention fixed on her mobile as she passes a mix of modern and traditional Chinese architecture. Neon colors splatter and stretch across the city street where throngs of young people loiter near vibrant, trendy bars and restaurants. A thrumming bass echoes, and Mei Ling smells the aromas of sizzling noodles, skewers, and dumplings offered by mobile food carts. A pair of pink over-the-ear headphones play The Only One...

22 likes 14 comments 14
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.