A History of the Gay Bt Friend Film and TV

Contents:

• HISTORY PLAYGWH / GAYBTFRIEND
• CONTEXT MA / GAYBTFRIEND
• THE EVOLUTN OF THE “GAY BT FRIEND,” FROM HARMFUL TROPE TO TV GOLD
• THE TROPE OF THE ‘GAY BT FRIEND’ MOVI AND TELEVISN, EXPLAED

HISTORY PLAYGWH / GAYBTFRIEND

While straight people haven't always been supportive of our rights, there's nothg they want more than a sassy and stylish gay bt iend to give them advice, read them when necsary, and never be aaid to speak the tth.

And while the trope was already old and ed up at this time, the show did help a whole segment of Ameri bee more fortable wh gay people, even if Will was played by a straight NBC. While the real world, LGBTQ+ persons are jt as varied personaly and tras as straight/cisgenr on, has sued televisn wrers to e mon stereotyp for their gay characters li of actually makg them "real people".

Is a 2013 pennt teen edy film directed by Darren is sweepg the suburban North Gateway high school when magaz announce the new trend for every girl worth her heels — a Gay Bt Friend (appropriated as G. Have already taken advantage of this app — and they track down Tanner's phone public, advertently outg him to the been forced out of the closet, Tanner fds himself a target for homophobic bullyg, were not for the terventn of the school's three alpha femal — the betiful and popular Fawcett Brooks (Sasha Pieterse), who l the popular kids, the fierce and talented Caprice Wters (Xosha Roquemore), who leads the mori and theater kids, and the dzy goody-two-sho Ashley "'Shley" Osgoo (Andrea Bowen), to whom the relig Christians of the school fer. However, 's later revealed that Tanner's parents knew he was gay all along and might have been pokg fun at him, and Topher is a closeted gay, so he was most likely tryg to sce Tanner.

CONTEXT MA / GAYBTFRIEND

Qutnable Consent: Durg the party, a very dnk 'Shley drags Glenn to a bedroom for him to teach her sexual techniqu (this beg a full on practil approach to teachg) ratnalizg that, sce he's gay (he totally isn't), don't unt.

Only for the prcipal to hl McKenzie, Caprice, Brent, and the rt of the school prom planners to his office to severely reprimand them for the homophobic posters, and then ncel the school prom entirely. Often an important first step troducg queer storyl to mastream dienc, the GBF trope had a tenncy to rerce stereotyp about gay men: that their only terts are makeovers, shoppg and drama, that their stggl and relatnships fa to the background unls they're supportg a straight person's story, and that they only exist to be wise oracl about love and LGBTQ+ reprentatn Hollywood improv both onscreen and behd the mera, movi and TV shows are gettg creasgly self-aware, creatg gay characters who provi the ic relief we love while tearg down outdated ias. Perhaps the earlit example of the classic Gay Bt Friend character is 1984 movie The Woman Red, a Gene Wilr edy about a married man who be obssed wh a mol (Kelly LeBrock) after he se her skirt get blown up by a wd grate, Marilyn Monroe-style.

THE EVOLUTN OF THE “GAY BT FRIEND,” FROM HARMFUL TROPE TO TV GOLD

Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cz) of ABC's short-lived cult classic My So-Called Life (1994-1995) is one of the first exampl of a gay character a high school ensemble seri -- but what mak him pecially noteworthy is that he challenged the Gay Bt Friend trope before was even a trope. Helen Hunt stars as Carol, a sgle mom and his love tert who "mak him want to be a better man, " while former Talk Soup host Greg Knear surprised dienc wh his imprsive actg chops as Simon, the gay neighbor who be iends wh the curmudgeonly Simon, an artist, is badly beaten up by a iend of one of his mols, his agent (Cuba Goodg Jr.

She enlists the help of her gay iend Gee (Rupert Everett), who drops everythg to fly to Chigo, pretends to be Jul' fiance to make Michael jealo, and trolls the hell out of her while dispensg nuggets of wisdom about her love is such a fantasy of a character that he may as well be a unirn, but Everett is jt so charmg about the whole thg. The flash-forward at the end, wh all the characters beg one big happy fay, was progrsive for s time; but the ia that a gay man uld be attracted to a woman if she plays her rds right is a b unfortable.

But then Abbie meets a guy who wants to get married and move to New York, and the romantic edy spirals to a bizarre urtroom drama as they fight over ctody of their Ebert gave the movie one star and lled "a garage sale of gay issu, " bombed at the box office, and Everett later revealed that led to the llapse of his iendship wh Madonna.

THE TROPE OF THE ‘GAY BT FRIEND’ MOVI AND TELEVISN, EXPLAED

Ta Fey's 2004 high school edy is proof that the gay bt iend don't have to be an offensive or trivial character, bee what would Mean Girls even be whout "too gay to functn" Damian (Daniel Franze) and "big lbian csh" Janis (Lizzy Caplan)?

Few straight actors play gay as well as Stanley Tucci 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, about aspirg journalist Andy (Anne Hathaway) who gets a job at Vogue-spired Runway Magaze. As much as we love and appreciate Ryan Murphy's high school mil seri (2009-2015) as a formative experience for lennials everywhere, s portrayal of LGBTQ+ people ran to a few be fair, Chris Colfer's character Kurt was a TV breakthrough, offerg a much-need posive role mol to gay kids. His relatnship wh Blae (Darren Criss) was one of the first tim we got to see two young gay characters kissg onscreen a mastream, fay-oriented edy, and we'll never fet the way his father Burt (Mike O'Malley) fied stereotyp by beg pletely supportive when Kurt me out to him.