The Last of Us’s gay love story breaks new ground for an entire genre

Wh Bill and Frank, we were given a portra of love—specifilly gay love—that feels surprisg and urgent. In our own 2023, we are not exactly lackg for media imag of whe gay men. For one thg, we see gay sire portrayed all s plexy, but wh a touch as light as a breeze playg through curtas.

Bill’s is not a “type” of gay man I n say I’ve ever seen mastream media before, and watchg him slowly reveal and epen that aspect of himself wh Frank’s help—sexually, y (Hollywood: more hairy bear love scen please!

HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE

But Bill and Frank create somethg else, a ltle oasis of their own that’s regnizably gay, full of quiet bety and joys the size of new strawberri.

Frank wants to fix up the block and some of the “not stupid” shops—the we and furnure stor, the clothg boutique—bee he hop they might one day have unfected guts (which they eventually do, the form of Joel and Ts), but really bee makg thgs nice, pecially when nicens isn’t valued, is one of the great gay llgs.

THE LAST OF US DIRECTOR SAYS HE WANTED TO 'TRICK' DIENC TO WATCHG THE GAY ROMANCE STORY

As an echo of the gay experience wh AIDS, is, as veteran activist Peter Staley put a Facebook post, a ftg tribute to the “tenr love & bravery gay men summoned when facg ath durg the plague years, cludg those who did so on their own terms. How powerful, then, to see not only a gay uple given an entire hour of a marquee show, but a gay uple who are held up as the keepers of civilizatn, as stewards of bety, as emblems of human digny and possibily. “Long Long Time” has sparked several plats om the worst si of Twter about how The Last of Us allegedly shoehorned a gay relatnship.

But the fact is Bill has always been gay. So yeah, Bill has always been gay. After wng turns Lookg, Tal of the Cy and The Whe Lot, he’s fast beg one of the medium’s most proment gay the episo nears s end, and Frank be curably sick, the uple’s last scen together are profoundly movg.

THE LAST OF US DIRECTOR SAYS HE WANTED TO 'TRICK' DIENC TO WATCHG THE GAY ROMANCE STORY

The episo is, among other thgs, a subversn of the much-cricised “bury your gays” trope.

Here, y, are two gay characters who die. Bill is gay the game, but ’s referenced so vaguely that plenty of players missed .

THE LAST OF US DIRECTOR SAYS HE WANTED TO 'TRICK' DIENC TO WATCHG THE GAY ROMANCE STORY

The cisn to keep muted, hted at a sgle le of dialogue and a hidn letter, was both praised and cricized — was easy to overlook, but also avoid a lot of gay-character trop, and allowed Bill to be a human and not “a maniftatn of sexualy, ” as Polygon’s Danielle Rien put at the time.

The game’s storyle don’t avoid trop altogether, though: It was cricized for “buryg s gays. LGBTQ+ them are not somethg entirely new to The Last of Us anchise, as the first stallment of the seri also showsed a gay NPC and then a very graceful lbian kiss the Left Behd DLC.