Alpha House Boys: TikTokers accused of queerbaiting by pretending to be gay for profit
Instagram, Spence McManusA group of TikTokers said to be associated with a group called ‘Alpha House Boys’ have been accused by influencer Barrett Pall of “pretending to be gay” for financial gain and social media followings.
The accusations came after a series of alternate social media accounts were discovered linked to several TikTokers. Pall accused several of these influencers of doing “gay for pay” and “profiting off” the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community.
In posts to TikTok and Instagram, Pall sought to call out these users for what he believes is hypocrisy. In his videos, he also said he believes that they are perpetuating harmful stereotypes that could have an impact on LGBTQ+ youth.
A lot of the TikTokers are associated with a group called “Alpha House Boys” that have a TikTok, an Instagram, and a Twitter. Many of them feature in each other’s videos and Instagram posts, some with directions to OnlyFans accounts charging people subscriptions.
However, on their ‘main’ accounts, some claim to have girlfriends, and there are no references to being members of the LGBTQ+ community, in stark contrast to their alternative accounts.
TikTok, Spence McManusInfluencer Barrett Pall calls them out
Accusations that the Alpha House Boys were pretending to be gay were fueled after a viral TikTok, posted by influencer Barrett Pall, accused several members of “pandering and pretending to be gay.”
Starting by saying he was “so angry”, Pall went onto accuse the TikTokers of pretending to be gay “to make money” and said it was “one of the grossest things he had seen on this app [TikTok].” He accused the group of “making money off our lived experience.”
Towards the end of the video, Pall accused the TikTok platform of hypocrisy. The influencer accused the app of “targeting queer creators and kicking them off the app” but said TikTok is allowing this group “to do whatever they want.”
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Pall has also posted the accusations on his Instagram.
Other influencers have gone on to mock the group, including actor Johnny Sibilly who posted a duet of him laughing at one of the Alpha House Boy’s videos.
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In another video, a woman named “Michaela” claims she knows several AlphaHouseBoys members from school and college. She accused the group of being “homophobic” and said they should “not profit off the queer community.”
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The alternative “gay” accounts
Many of the accounts appear to be linked to “AlphaHouseBoys” – an account that has TikTok, an Instagram and TikTok linked to it. In addition, there is an OnlyFans account charging $10 a month or $105 total for six months. Another account often linked with these videos charges $210 for a year.
Every video features Pride emojis as well as hashtags such as #lgbtq, #gayvibes, and #gays. From the captions to the descriptions, it would appear they are either gay or bisexual.
On Twitter, it’s advertised they are promising “guy/guy content” in their Onlyfans.
Many of the videos on TikTok feature sexualized jokes. Others are “pranks” on supposed straight friends or strangers in public but the “strangers” are other members of the Alpha House Boys.
However, on Twitter, Alphahouseboys present themselves as “straight”. They promise videos of “straight guys in action” and “pushing the limits with their friends.”
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The accounts on TikTok appear to be attempting to use the social media platform’s algorithm to target audiences who typically engage with LGBT+ related content.
TikTokMany of the men featured in the video have their main social media account with some referring to girlfriends. Then they have an alternative account clearly targeted towards gay and bisexual men as well as the wider LGBT+ community. On Instagram, the alternative accounts link back to the main accounts.
For example, “Spence McManus” who boasts over 140,000 followers on Instagram and over 1 million on TikTok presents himself as heterosexual on his main account with references to a girlfriend in several videos.
However, he also has alternative accounts under variations of “shreddedkid” or by the name “Scott Moorehead”. While Instagram is private, his TikTok content is clearly targeted towards LGBT+ people with one video even denying they were “straight.”
What’s the point?
Initially, the accounts appear to simply be an attempt to generate a significant following on social media with one account on TikTok catering to one specific audience while having an account that caters to another.
A trend seen amongst the accounts is no acknowledgment on the main “straight” social media account. For example, Spence McManus does not follow the private Instagram account linked to his Onlyfans on his main account.
InstagramAlternatively, on the private accounts, there are often requests to follow their main accounts or other accounts linked to Alpha House Boys to be accepted. This appears to be an attempt to drive up followers while keeping the presence of the OnlyFans absent on their main social media platforms.
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However, there appears to be a secondary motive behind all this: money. By linking their OnlyFans pages to their Twitter accounts and Instagrams, they appear to be using the platforms they have created from marketing themselves as “gay” to generate income.
InstagramThe issue with Alpha House content
Many LGBTQ+ users have criticized the group pointing to harassment and discrimination members of the LGBTQ+ community face.
In the United States according to a study by the Centre for American Progress, “more than 1 in 3 LGBTQ Americans faced discrimination of some kind in the past year, including more than 3 in 5 transgender Americans.”
Alongside this, TikTok has also been accused of letting its algorithm promote homophobic and transphobic content. TikToker Chris aka. Donelij, whose account got millions of views before it was banned, was accused of homophobia in his videos.
One member of the LGBT+ community, Deanna, said that she thought “it’s just so wrong” if the Alpha House Boys are pretending to be gay.
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She went onto say “as if LGBTQ+ people go through years of struggle, discrimination and hardship… for [them] to come along and almost appropriate it and lie”.
The potential impacts on LGBT+ youth
Others, like Pall, have also emphasized concern about the impact people pretending to be gay might have on LGBTQ+ youth. TikTok remains one of the top social media apps for teens in the US. Some believe some young teens on the app might look to the relationships and stereotypes shown in AlphaHouseBoy videos as examples for future relationships.
Dexerto reached out to TikTok and Alpha House Boys for comment but is yet to receive a response.