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‘YOUNG GAY PEOPLE BEG OUT AND HAPPY? IT’S REVOLUTNARY!’ MEET THE HEARTSTOPPER GENERATN
Aimed primarily at a younger dience, the show is about an openly gay male sixth former at an English prehensive (played by 18-year-old Joe Locke) who falls love wh the school’s most popular gby player the year above. By the time – episo eight – the two ma characters had tly fallen for each other, teenage Blackpool FC footballer Jake Daniels had e out; he was the first gay male profsnal footballer to do so sce Jt Fashanu 1990.
A week after Fashanu me out more than three s ago, his own brother – fellow footballer John – all but disowned him: “John Fashanu: My gay brother is an outst” read a headle The Voice. When I left school, jt over a ago, LGBTQ+ societi were credibly unmon: my sendary tn began only a year after sectn 28 was repealed, legislatn which banned lol thori and schools om “promotg homosexualy” any form.
Wh mut, one sixth-former, Ada, is tellg me how a heteronormative society, spac n by and for queer people – such as their school’s active Gay Straight Alliance – are important plac for self-exprsn and personal stunt shar reflectns on their own experienc: 18-year-old Greg reunts his disfort his prev tn settg, a fah school, while holdg hands wh his now boyiend; Milo, a non-bary sixth-former, was readily accepted by most rners of the school muny wh ltle send Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian“I had a really posive experience of beg queer when I was younger, ” says Amy, a fal year pupil. “Young, Brish gay people beg out and happy?