Meet Brock Colyar, the author of the piece.
https://www.thecut.com/article/brock-co ... essay.html
https://www.forbes.com/profile/brock-colyar/
From the Editor
In 2020, a year after graduating from Northwestern University and landing a job as the assistant to the Editor-in-Chief at New York Magazine, Brock Colyar became the youngest writer with a cover story at the publication. The story eventually became "are u coming?," their nightlife column documenting the city's reopening and nights out with everyone from sorority girls and single moms to SNL stars and Candace Bushnell. Today Colyar covers queer issues, youth culture, and celebrities, and in three years has published more than 70 pieces for "are you coming?" In 2023, they received the Next Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and recently signed a deal with Random House to write a nonfiction book about queer life, called Gender Bender.
In his defense, he didn't choose the photo. Writers never do. They just write what they're told to write (or exchange their byline for cash, and let someone else write the article, like what happened in the UK during the Harry and Meghan years when black journalists only provided a name and photo but the artcles were written by non-blacks, all to make it appear Black Brits hated Meghan.)