Urban Dictnary: Simon Gay

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?

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?

'LOVE, SIMON' IS A GOTDAMN LIGHTFUL ROM, AND 'S GAY AS HELL

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?

SIMON IS GAY

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. 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.

LOVE, SIMON: AT LAST HOLLYWOOD IS SAYG ‘I’M GAY’

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. 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

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. 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.

But Simon was jt Simon, and beg gay is only one of his numero quali addn to his sense of humor, love for his fay and support for his iends. The edy the movie was very effective munitg the stggl many gay teens have to al wh relatn to their iends, fai and muni. An actor om the film Love, Simon has e out as gay.Joey Pollari, who plays Lyle, a Waffle Hoe employee, me out durg an , sayg there were clear parallels between his experience and that of the film's protagonist, Simon (played by Nick Robson).“His experience was siar to me,” Pollari said.

A ROMANTIC COMEDY ABOUT A GAY TEENAGER? WHAT TOOK SO LONG?

I thk maybe two people were shocked."Pollari, who has played a gay character once before TV seri Amerin Crime, said he stggled wh a sense of shame before g out.“A lot of the trouble was self-shame. )Ben Rothste/20th Century FoxAnd there is somethg to be said for isolatg Simon’s sexualy as his sole pot of difference, to highlight the trials of g out when beg gay is somethg one n believably hi. Even Simon’s ternalized homophobia, as evinced by his attu toward Ethan, will be relatable to anyone who’s supprsed some part of their inty they were tght to believe is ls than.