2G3…Fated Reality
If you’ve ever watched an episode of MTV’s The Hills, or The Real World, and thought, “Hey I could do that!”, that’s exactly what Thomas Simmons, David Coley, and Dani Elkins did when they created 2G3. It’s a low budget, independent online reality show, filmed out of Raleigh, NC. One day Dani and David were talking and having fun and thought to themselves, “Why isn’t this being filmed?” All three of them are big personalities with lots of character. To watch their show is to believe that they had been literally best friends forever. However, their relationships just began in the early summer of 2009. They filmed their first episode in July of that summer. Without even realizing it they had chronicled their entire relationship together. In interviewing the three of them, it became clear that their lives really didn’t begin until they found each other. So how did they come together? What were they like before they became 2G3? What are their plans for the future?
Thomas Simmons grew up in an ultra conservative small town in Michigan. He was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. He was very active in his church. He was always considered the good boy, and always worked hard to live up to other people’s expectations. He remembers being in the fourth grade and being made fun of by other kids. The teasing he received was usually of a mocking nature about acting sissy, or gay. He remembers at that point of making a point to over compensate and become as manly as possible. He trained himself to act and become “straight”. He fought his own internal struggle with how he felt inside, and how others thought he should be. Ironically, his sister was also lesbian. She came out a year before he did. When asked why he waited to come out after his sister, “I guess I waited because I thought it was more acceptable for her to be a lesbian than it would be for me to be a gay man. I always knew my mom would be accepting of me, but I feared how my dad would react.” In what he describes as the worst year in his life, in 2008, his parents divorced. He ended up living with his mom and his sister. At that point he decided to come out to them. Neither of them were shocked.
Growing up Thomas had always wanted to live in Florida. In fact, before his parents divorced he had planned on moving there himself now that he was 20 years old. After the divorce his mother wanted a fresh start and to move away from their uncomfortably small town. She decided that Florida sounded like as good of place as any. She left Thomas and his sister in Michigan to watch the house, while she drove down to Florida to scout out jobs and find a place for them to live. On her way down several hurricanes hit Florida. She ended up stopping in Raleigh, NC. She stayed there for a week and decided she really liked it there. She found an apartment and a job, and that became their new home.
After Thomas came out in 2008, except for a very brief online relationship, he really hadn’t dated much. Thomas always appreciated having a just few really close friends. After moving to Raleigh, he was searching for people he could talk to and understand him. One day he was on MySpace and he ran across David Coley’s profile. The thing that struck Thomas was that David didn’t have the “sexy shirtless pics” all over his profile. He seemed intelligent, and something about him made Thomas want to get to know him better. Thomas sent David a quick message telling him that he wanted to get to know him better.
Thomas remembers waiting a few days before he heard back from David. They ended up chatting online for a while, and soon Thomas found himself wanting to talk to David over the phone. He asked David to call him. David agreed, but Thomas recalls after asking David to call him he didn’t hear the phone ring for hours. David eventually did call Thomas, and they talked for hours. It was an instant connection.
In June of 2009, Thomas and David had their first date. Thomas recalls, “I had butterflies in my stomach from the moment he walked into the coffee shop. It wasn’t a bad nervous, more like the excited nervous you feel when you’re a kid and you get to go to an amusement park.” David lived about 40 mins away from Thomas, so even though they talked regularly on the phone, they only went on one date a week for the next three weeks. However, by date three, they knew they wanted to be a couple.
David Coley, grew up in Jacksonville, FL for most of his life. In his early twenties he lived briefly with his sister in Kansas, but eventually his family moved to North Carolina. Growing up David was raised in a very strict Pentecostal home. His mother raised him on her own. While he always felt different, he was told from an early age that it wasn’t acceptable to act in a feminine way. He recalls his mother occasionally pulling him aside and telling him he shouldn’t “walk a certain way”, or he shouldn’t “talk a certain way”. His mother didn’t think anything of these tendencies other than the fact that David was almost always surrounded by women, and had few male role models. However, David understood the message, that it wasn’t acceptable for him to express himself in any way that would be perceived as feminine or gay. He hid his sexuality, and he dated women to keep up appearances.
Today, David has moved beyond his upbringing to become the self described, “Diva of the group.” He’s into fashion, and self taught himself how to sew and design clothes. While he doesn’t do this professionally, he’s talented enough to have been approached by friends and family to design custom dresses for them.
David recalls his side of his first meeting with Thomas, and the butterflies he felt. Dani interjects, “They weren’t butterflies, they were bats!” David was so shocked at how good looking Thomas was. He thought, “I normally date sort of geeky guys. Thomas is more the classic good looks kind of guy. When I first saw him I probably had a look of disgust on my face. I was just so shocked that this was him.” David had the same instant connection to Thomas. It just felt right.
Dani is the third person in 2G3. Dani grew up moving around the country with her parents. The longest she’s lived any place is in Raleigh. Dani and David first met working together at Best Buy. They were both store merchandisers on the same team. Dani is a straight woman, and in the words of David, “The very definition of a fag hag.” As a self described “Tom Boy”, Dani just thinks its more natural for her to be friends with other men than with women.
Dani first met Thomas, on David and Thomas’s first date. David and Thomas had just gone to the movies at the local mall, and Dani ran into them outside. She instantly ran up to Thomas and gave him a big hug. Thomas recalls, that while he isn’t use to such immediate affection it just felt natural. He formed and instant bond with Dani.
The three members of 2G3, never intended on ending up in Raleigh, NC but it seems that fate brought them all together there. Just talking to them, it’s hard to believe they haven’t been friends for years. If ever you believed in soul mates finding each other, the three of them have created a unique soul family together.
As gay men and women, we often aren’t given families that we can trust and count on. Through our lives we find our own families. These are the people that even though they aren’t related to us by blood, they are related to us at a much deeper level. They are the people that we feel a connection to deep down in our souls.
The remarkable thing about 2G3, is just how relatable they are to everyone else. When you watch them you think, “This is what it’s like when I’m with my friends.”
Along with their reality show aspirations, both Dani and Thomas are writers and hope to one day pen a published novel. David hopes to one day make a career for himself in fashion.
You can watch weekly videos they share within their group on GayLynx Friends. You can also watch their full series online from the links included below.
For more information on this article:
• Legend’s Club – Where they film 2G3.
• Eva Simons
• For more episodes of 2G3
