The Simpsons: When Smhers' Gay Clu First Started

Contents:

• REVISG THE FIRST-EVER GAY EPISO OF THE SIMPSONS
• THREE GAYS OF THE CONDO
• SIMPSONS GAY CHARACTERS: WHO IS LGBT THE SIMPSONS?
• THE SIMPSONS: WHEN SMHERS' GAY CLU FIRST STARTED

REVISG THE FIRST-EVER GAY EPISO OF THE SIMPSONS

The SimpsonsCast & crewUser reviewsTriviaEpiso aired Feb 16, 1997TV-1423mAfter Marge beiends John, a gay store owner, Homer worri that his prence will have a negative effect on Bart's Marge beiends John, a gay store owner, Homer worri that his prence will have a negative effect on Bart's Marge beiends John, a gay store owner, Homer worri that his prence will have a negative effect on Bart's productn, box office & pany PhotosReview served Emmy Award wner - endlsly re-watchableI had been wag for the Eight Season of The Simpsons to be released on DVD jt to own a good qualy, plete py (i. I liked that Homer's Phobia was ma wh such rmed awarens of the stereotyp which persist of both gay men and of the people who refe to accept them as beg see Homer quickly formg a tstg, affectnate and purely platonic relatnship wh John Waters - only to aggrsively disrd that iendship when he (fally) prehends that John is show is certaly empowerg for viewers - both young and old - who know they are same sex attracted, but also mt be the most entertag, ncise and effective program the history of televisn for lettg the general public know that there is nothg at all to fear about beg 's Phobia is packed wh memorable l - such as "You know me Marge - I like my beer ld, my TV loud and my homo-sexuals FLAMING! I danced wh a gay!

However, when Marge tells Homer that John is a homosexual, Homer eaks out and, fearg that his son will emulate John, tak Bart on a misguid journey to make his son heterosexual. When Marge rms Homer that John don't have a wife and is a homosexual, he is horrified. Bart starts wearg Hawaiian shirts, dancg women's wigs and eatg cupk wh strawberry icg stead of cholate icg; which mak Homer worry that Bart might be gay.

THREE GAYS OF THE CONDO

Homer tak Bart to a steel l to revel a manly environment; however, the entire workforce is gay, which Homer learns when the steel l turns to a gay dis durg breaks. Bart is nfed until Lisa explas Homer thks that Bart is gay.

"Homer's Phobia" was the show's first episo to revolve entirely around gay them and received a posive cril rponse both for s humor and anti-homophobia msage. The seri ma several referenc to homosexualy before the episo aired. However, "Homer's Phobia" was the first episo to revolve entirely around homosexual them.

SIMPSONS GAY CHARACTERS: WHO IS LGBT THE SIMPSONS?

Two later episos that explored LGBT issu were "Three Gays of the Condo" and "There's Somethg About Marryg", both of which have been pared unfavorably to this episo, as "Three Gays... " rorted to offensive stereotyp of homosexual men (to the pot that Harvey Fierste, who origally was supposed to gut star that episo, refed to e back for that episo) and "There's Somethg About Marryg" did a poor job of lampoong same-sex marriage and had unfortunate implitns and stereotyp about the transgenred (even though Patty's fiancee was a man cross-drsg as a woman rather than an actual transman or transwoman).

" In the book Leavg Sprgfield, Matthew Henry praised the episo's criqug of "the most mon misnceptn about homosexualy: namely that gayns is somehow ntag", as well as s other them.

THE SIMPSONS: WHEN SMHERS' GAY CLU FIRST STARTED

Cathare Lumby of the Universy of Sydney ced the episo as an example of good satire as "managed to explore a lot of [homosexual] issu que a ep way [... ] whout beg overtly polil", which she claimed, along wh the episo's humor, ma s anti-homophobia msage more succsful than that of other gay-themed shows like Queer as Folk. " There are also viewers today who, while appldg the show for s posive msag about homosexualy and acceptance (as well as lampoong toxic masculy), still hate the episo for g male homosexual stereotyp jt to prove their pot.

In June 2003, Igor Smykov sued the Rsian televisn channel REN TV on claims that The Simpsons, along wh Fay Guy, were "morally generate and promoted dgs, vlence and homosexualy". As evince, "Homer's Phobia" was shown to the judge to prove that The Simpsons promoted homosexualy and should not be aired aga on the channel. In July 2021, Cathal Gunng of Screen Rant argued that the episo ma a huge ntributn to "normalizg LGBTQ+ characters, " notg that they were a rary at the time the episo aired, and didn't "treat s first openly gay character as a walkg joke.

" Gunng also argued that the episo was "groundbreakg" bee Homer's fear of a gay man, voiced by John Waters, was mocked, rather than Waters' character, and herald the episo for beg "one of the first attempts to break down the visible barrier faced by gay characters" while notg lampooned the hypermasculy of Homer's iends. The groundbreakg episo featured a character played by queer filmmaker John Waters and an famo scene set a gay steel l. I was remd recently that was the anniversary of the first-ever gay episo of The Simpsons, ‘Homer’s Phobia’ (Season 8, Episo 15, se you want to revis ) airg Ameri.

Unbeknownst to Homer, John is a gay man, a fact that eaks him out. Not admtg that he is homophobic, he ratnalis his reactn by sayg wasn’t bee John was gay, but bee he was a sneak about , statg, “I like my beer ld, my TV loud, and my homosexuals fuh-lamg”. His paranoia leads to him spectg that Bart might be gay, then embarkg on a missn to “fix” him, which clus a hilar scene a gay steel l.