It is with great sadness that I post this to pay tribute to a loyal and dedicated thong brother and member of the community who has recently passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. His username was OkProject5333. Many of you who have recently posted thong pics have likely seen his comments on your posts, where he was always very positive, enthusiastic, and cheerful. He wanted to encourage and convince more straight men to wear thongs and fully destigmatize male thong wearing, goals he and I shared in common.

OK found the Straight Guys in Thongs sub in October of last year via a simple internet search and signed up for Reddit in order to join the community. He quickly began commenting enthusiastically on community members' posts and forging valuable connections. Shortly before the start of the new year, he DM'd me to connect over our shared love of thongs. We connected and bonded very quickly and began chatting on almost a daily basis. I could tell he was an extraordinary person with a gift for connecting with anyone and everyone. He and I became close friends and grew to deeply respect one another. Our online friendship was mutually beneficial, as we both provided each other something the other was longing for. I was able to provide wisdom and comfort to him as an older male, while he provided me with the courage to do things I've often wanted to do but was never brave enough to go through with before. The most noble quality he possessed was his charitable attitude. He played football in high school and was always a member of the popular crowd throughout his life. But he always used his charisma for good and made it a point to go out of his way to stand up for the kids who were getting bullied and make the not-so-popular kids feel welcome and like they belonged, as well as getting all his friends and teammates to follow his lead on this. As a former misfit and unpopular kid myself, I was so thankful and amazed to have befriended such an amazing person. He started wearing thongs when he was 14 and his girlfriend dared him to wear hers for two weeks. Like most of us, he got hooked upon first wearing a thong and never looked back. He soon used his charisma and influence to get all his male friends and football teammates to wear thongs too, and then charitably spread the trend around the school to the kids in the not-so-popular social circles, preventing any guys in his high school from getting made fun of for it. In addition to wearing thongs, he boldly challenged other gender norms by doing things such as sporting very long hair, shaving all his body hair, wearing nail polish, and occasionally wearing makeup. However, he was also quite masculine, as evidenced by how he played football and worked out at the gym religiously to attain a ripped physique.

OK wanted to post thong pics of his own but was unfortunately unable to because he broke the camera on his phone. He was saving up to get a new phone and was planning on posting pics almost daily once he did. Then almost 2 months ago he got severely injured when he heroically saved a mother and her two kids from being killed in a car fire. The family was trapped inside a car that crashed off the road and hit a tree. When OK saw the car battery start to smoke, his adrenaline kicked in and he managed to rip the car door off and get the family out before the car burst into flames. OK tragically lost his own family in a drunk driving accident less than 5 years ago. His mom, dad, and sister were killed when a drunk driver hit them in their car. This was all he could think about as he was putting everything he had into saving the other family from the coming car fire. As an unfortunate consequence of his heroic actions, he tore both of his bicep tendons and broke one of his legs. Due to his outstanding physical health, he was healing from his injuries at an exceptionally fast pace. But most unfortunately, he also suffered a tear in his aorta that went undetected by the scans the doctors and hospitals performed. Just days after marrying the love of his life and high school sweetheart who got him into wearing thongs, OK passed away suddenly in his sleep due to his torn aorta at the young age of 24, leaving behind his pregnant wife and many wonderful friends. In the end, and due to his endlessly giving nature, he sacrificed himself to save that family.

OK deleted his Reddit account prior to his wedding due to an incident involving another redditor. As a result, the comments he left on community members' posts are still there, but unfortunately are not displayed under his former username anymore. His intention was to create a new account after his honeymoon, but he never got the chance due to his untimely death.

As a leader and moderator of our community, I urge everyone reading this to honor our dearly departed thong brother and help me carry on OK's legacy by proudly wearing our thongs and working to accelerate the already fast-growing trend of male thong wearing by convincing more straight men we know to give thongs a try. Let's also follow OK's example by charitably spreading the confidence and good feelings we all experience by wearing our thongs to those for whom it may seem most out of reach. Together, we can make a difference and turn OK's vision into reality.