“I was forced to use the only photos of the mirror I could find…”
Sohail Justin Akhavein’s Instagram has plenty of “playful” photos, where he’s wearing nothing but his undies and knee-high heels. But the 30-year-old from Minneapolis is more than just a hunk: He’s employed in higher education, works with the disabled, and does some yoga instructing, too.
Some time ago Sohail’s mother found a unicorn mirror at a estate sale and, being the fabulous mother she is, bought it for her son. Sohail’s sister was jealous for obvious reason—I mean, just look at it!—so Mom decided to commission another one just like it.
She asked Sohail for pictures of the mirror to give to the woodworker, Sohail didn’t answer fast enough. That’s when she took matters into her own hands—grabbing Sohail’s thirst-trap selfies from Instagram.
“I was forced to use the only photos of the mirror I could find which were your gd smut photos,” she wrote in a message to Sohail.
Even better was the carpenter’s priceless response.
“He asked if part of his payment can be the man in the photos,” Mom revealed. “The gays are everywhere!”
Soooo my mom & dad are commissioning a recreation of the unicorn mirror they bought me from an estate sale because my sister is jealous she didn’t get one as well, & this is the result of me not getting back to her quick enough… pic.twitter.com/9AbFy8Sp8o
— Sohail (@sideofhail) January 10, 2018
Sohail told Buzzfeed he couldn’t be more happy with the cheeky and loving relationship he has with his parents.
“I’ve never taken their acceptance, warmth, love, and sass for granted,” he said, “because I am well aware of many members of our greater queer community may struggle to navigate their personal expression of queerness on a platform their parents may have access to, let alone possibly not having direct access to those four things listed above.”
Of course it hasn’t always been unicorn mirrors and rainbows.
“Being a person of color who was born into a set of ideologies that were in direct conflict with my personhood, it would be foolish to not allow my parents to ’struggle’ with allowing their son to be who he is,” Sohail said, “They’re human, and allowing a human to process is part of the journey of meaning-making.”
He praises his parents for “allow[ing] me to process my queerness with me, and not at me. They’ve held my heart. They’ve made me contemplate representation.”
While you’re full of all that warm fuzziness, here are some more of Sohail’s stunning “smut photos.” Because why the hell not?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL189q5ABo4/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_legacy