Ken Howard, LCSW, a specialist therapy for gay men for over 26 years, discs the importance of the new movie, "Love, Simon".
Contents:
- LOVE, SIMON IS A GROUNDBREAKG GAY MOVIE. BUT DO TODAY'S TEENS ACTUALLY NEED IT?
- 'LOVE, SIMON' IS A GOTDAMN LIGHTFUL ROM, AND 'S GAY AS HELL
- SIMON IS GAY
- LOVE, SIMON: AT LAST HOLLYWOOD IS SAYG ‘I’M GAY’
- LOVE, SIMON? DON’T LOVE, SIMON?: A DEBATE ON THE LTLE GAY MOVIE THAT COULD
- GAY THERAPIST DISCS “LOVE, SIMON” OM A GAY MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVE
- A ROMANTIC COMEDY ABOUT A GAY TEENAGER? WHAT TOOK SO LONG?
LOVE, SIMON IS A GROUNDBREAKG GAY MOVIE. BUT DO TODAY'S TEENS ACTUALLY NEED IT?
Love, Simon is a tone mastream movie as foregrounds a gay character, but might have been outpaced by real life. * is simon gay in go *
The new movie Love, Simon reprents somethg new: a look at what ’s like to be a gay teen that’s as slick and mastream as n be, like any other YA romantic edy.
As his profile at school evolv, he’s mocked for beg gay by the jocks, but elsewhere his search for a boyiend is met wh a zealo enuragement that saps the movie’s tensn.
Plenty of gay kids are supported by those around them, but how many are appld and rooted on by the school en masse, as Simon is, as they seek love? Can a love story centered around a gay teen who is very refully built to seem as straight as possible appeal to a generatn that’s boldly reventg genr and sexualy on s own terms?
'LOVE, SIMON' IS A GOTDAMN LIGHTFUL ROM, AND 'S GAY AS HELL
Love, Simon: Directed by Greg Berlanti. Wh Nick Robson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Kathere Langford. Simon Spier keeps a huge secret om his fay, his iends and all of his classmat: he's gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon mt face everyone and e to terms wh his inty." data-id="ma * is simon gay in go *
There’s no reason that the first gay romantic edy for young viewers necsarily need to look so much like the pat, flat rom-s wh which today’s teens are barely faiar. The culture, even a ago, was awash anti-gay rhetoric and msagg, om shows like The Office to movi like The 40-Year-Old Virg. (The former relentlsly teased s lone queer office drone; the latter, a liberal-md edy, psed the actn for a lengthy sequence of mean gay jok.
Love, Simon feels like a film rpondg to an entirely different culture, like one which gay marriage was never legalized.
SIMON IS GAY
simon is the gayt person on earth." name="Dcriptn" property="og:scriptn * is simon gay in go *
That cisn both acknowledged that equaly for gays had won the day and opened the door for far more tertg and challengg fights, on the next generatn will lead. It has been a phenomenal sprg for out gay actors popular entertament, and one of the bt thgs about is how much ls remarkable that is now than would’ve been a ago. But there’s an pable every-boy qualy to Robson that mak him the perfect poster boy for a mastream Amerin edy yet a really ill-ftg one for gay dienc.
LOVE, SIMON: AT LAST HOLLYWOOD IS SAYG ‘I’M GAY’
As social attus evolve, mastream cema has begun to treat gay love stori like any other romance. Love, Simon prov the pot * is simon gay in go *
Listen to a theater’s reactn to the big Simon/Bram kiss at the end of the movie and tell me you don’t get swept up the possibili for Lonsdale to play gay romantic leads for the next two s of his reer. There, Pollari played another gay kid, albe a really troubled one; his performance was a revelatn, and though he didn’t officially e out the prs until he ma the Love, Simon rounds this sprg, was no surprise given the emotnal telligence he’d brought to his performanc. Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why hasn’t been quiet about a lot of s them, but they have managed to lowkey create one of the most straightforwardly queer shows on TV simply by wrg a multiplicy of gay characters — wh varied personali, experienc, and loyalti, no ls — and stg several gay actors to play both gay and straight rol.
LOVE, SIMON? DON’T LOVE, SIMON?: A DEBATE ON THE LTLE GAY MOVIE THAT COULD
* is simon gay in go *
Tommy Dorfman, who plays rint lerary-magaze maven Ryan Shaver on 13 Reasons, is the only out gay actor playg a gay character on the show, but the 26-year-old actor brgs plexy to a character who might have read like a one-dimensnal bch on the page.
Still, for anyone who grew up readg about on-set satg mors for every show om Beverly Hills, 90210 to Dawson’s Creek to Roswell, feels like a breakthrough and of self to have h TV shows where we n sually gossip about gay relatnships the same way we n about straight on.
A reprentative for Mil Heizer shot down the mors of a Brandon/Mil romance last year — and now Flynn is datg Osr-wng gay person Sam Smh, so now we n all wre our own longg fanfictns every time Jt and Alex are a scene together.
GAY THERAPIST DISCS “LOVE, SIMON” OM A GAY MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVE
We sometim make the mistake of mandg perfectn gay media, and Love, Simon and 13 Reasons Why fall short of perfectn to varyg gre and for var reasons.
A ROMANTIC COMEDY ABOUT A GAY TEENAGER? WHAT TOOK SO LONG?
The Homo Sapiens Agenda, ” “Love, Simon” is about seventeen-year-old Simon Spier (Nick Robson), who is your ordary high school boy wh a close-kn circle of iends and a lovg fay, except for one secret that he has kept om them. One day Blue, another stunt at his high school, posts that he is gay, and Simon immediately msag him sayg he knows how Blue feels.