When Zac Efron burst onto the celeb scene courtesy of his role as Cameron Bale on the short-lived WB whiner Summerland back in 2004, it was hard to see this as a step toward immediate super-stardom. On the show, he was consistently outshined by his absolutely gorgeous co-star Jesse McCartney, and Efron’s own apparent good looks had not yet gone into full bloom. His presence was curiously appealing, but he was still to break my top 50 of cutest guys (come to think of it, I didn’t have such a list at the time, since I didn’t yet consider myself gay, but never mind). That was not to change until teenybopper sing-along juggernaut High School Musical captured the attention of every single pop culture buff sometime last year. Oh, had he grown up!

Leave the girls and straighters with Vanessa Hudgens, and leave a-little-too-ordinary Lucas Grabeel to those so inclined. To me, and to practically every other gay guy in the franchise’s massive TV audience, the real breakout star was Efron. Still a bad actor and a so-so singer, we had to look elsewhere to justify our interest. Most of us were sold when his flashed his impressive abs in the locker room scenes of the first movie, and he didn’t disappointment in the more show-offy sequel either, but ironically, to the gay crowd, the best to come from the HSM movies might have been his ongoing relationship with co-star Hudgens.

Had they not hit it off on set, they wouldn’t have flown off to Hawaii, greeting us with with papparazzi pics proving that Zac is growing hotter by the day. His abs are still magnificent, and it took this guy to make me realize that muscular shoulder blades work as a real turn-on for me as well. And you would be hard pressed to find a sexier ass in the business. We gays have long experience in filtering out the girls and the apparent heterosexuality of our objects of affection, and it gets even easier when the reward is this great.

In December, Vanessa also was quoted as labeling Zac a girlie man, constantly obsessing over his fitness and looks. This is great news to the queer community in three ways (and counting): 1) The ‘girlie’ quotes give new life to the rumors that Zac is a closeted gay; 2) obsessive training would make for even sexier photo-ops in the future; and 3) does this mean that his relationship to Vanessa is nearing the end – could he soon be up for grabs?

Happy Holidays!