'The Last of Us' Has an Entire Episo Foced on Its Gay Characters

the last of us 2 gay

Wh Bill and Frank's story beg told Episo 3 of The Last of Us, we analyze how their gay romance fi expectatn.

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THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY

Kev Maxen, an associate strength ach wh the Jacksonville Jaguars, has bee the first male ach a major U.S.-based profsnal league to e out as gay. * the last of us 2 gay *

Calls to actn like the #OsrsSoWhe mpaign has further emphasized the prsg issue of homogeney Hollywood and the media.

3% of speakg or named characters were lbian, gay, or bisexual.

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

Related article: WATCH: “If Your Child Told You They Were Gay/Lbian, What Would You Do? ” – Prce William Confirms He Would Completely Accept His Gay Children – Hollywood Insir’s ‘Msag From Ameri’ – Episo 6. Most prompts for gay porn, meanwhile, explibly flt to people of ambiguoly LatX scent wh an unrcut hairstyle.

THE LAST OF US FOUGHT BACK AGAST THE PAFUL BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE. IT PAID OFF

Is that ditive of the typ of gay porn the mols were traed on? A gay uple, as picted by Unstable Diffn. What we got stead was a psule episo, and a particularly bracg one, given the show’s opprsively bleak mood th far: The hour is dited to the love story of Bill and Frank, a gay uple who—due ially to Bill’s skills as a bunker-stockg, booby-trappg, Don’t Tread on Me survivalist—manage to build a largely happy existence together an abandoned and eventually fortified ral hamlet for almost 20 years.

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!

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

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 LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

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. Bill is gay the game, but ’s referenced so vaguely that plenty of players missed .

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. In his closed-door posn last month, Ziegler told lawmakers that he is gay, and phed back agast the notn om some right-wg figur that his sexual orientatn fluenc his polics or his job.

THE LAST OF US PART 2 BURI ITS GAYS BEFORE RELEASE (AND MAYBE THAT’S OKAY)

“People have said, bee I’m gay and that I am workg as the se agent on this vtigatn, that I mt be a far-left liberal, perfectly placed to f some agenda. The show is already garnerg high praise for s third episo, which lved ep to a si story wh two gay characters at s re. Several more gay characters are sttered among the game’s st, and future episos — and seasons — will see the h characters realized live-actn for the first time.

Ellie Image via Nghty Dog That’s right, the lead character The Last of Us is part of the gay muny.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* THE LAST OF US 2 GAY

How HBO's The Last Of Us subverts the Bury Your Gays trope .

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