If the h 90s TV show, "Will and Grace" was one of your favor, you may be yearng for that perfect gay bt iend (GBF). The iend who, asi om beg totally hot, knows you like the back of their hand, offerg sage sightful...
Contents:
- HOW TO FD YOUR GAY BT FRIEND
- HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS: AN LBGT FRIENDSHIP GUI
- THE TROPE OF THE ‘GAY BT FRIEND’ MOVI AND TELEVISN, EXPLAED
- HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY
- THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY BT IEND ROMANTIC EDI
- HOW TO TELL A FRIEND YOU'RE GAY AND YOU LOVE THEM
- FRIENDSHIP TROUBLE: AN EXAMATN OF THE GAY BT FRIEND INTY AMERIN CONSUMER CULTURE
HOW TO FD YOUR GAY BT FRIEND
Love him or hate him, the Gay Bt Friend (GBF) plays a big role pop culture. * gay best friend examples *
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movi and TV shows are gettg creasgly self-aware, creatg gay characters who provi the ic relief we love while tearg down outdated ias.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.
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.
HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS: AN LBGT FRIENDSHIP GUI
* gay best friend examples *
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. 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)?
THE TROPE OF THE ‘GAY BT FRIEND’ MOVI AND TELEVISN, EXPLAED
There are lots of reasons why you might want to know if your iend is gay. There are some important thgs that you have to unrstand about this suatn before gog forward, however. Someone's sexualy is highly plex and highly... * gay best friend examples *
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. But his gossipy iendship wh Rachel (Lea Michele) and her hab of llg Kurt her "bt gay" had some crics wonrg if he was beg treated like an accsory, a bate that n set off Tumblr fandom shoutg match to this day.
Chigo improv edy troupe The Send Cy left their mark wh Sassy Gay Friend, a viral YouTube sk starrg Brian Gallivan as a GBF who talks sense to Shakpearean hero and other women om ancient history.
HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY
Instead of him supportg the female lead, 's actually Olive (Emma Stone) who looks out for him, by pretendg to (loudly) have sex wh him at a party so he n keep homophobic bulli off his back until he n graduate high school.
A llege ex-boyiend of Dunham's character Hannah, Elijah reveals that he's gay early Season 1 when she tri to fd out if he gave her HPV -- and then drops the memorable bombshell, "It was nice to see you. F., remiscent of Mean Girls and Not Another Teen fashn magaz clarg a Gay Bt Friend to be this season's hottt accsory, three would-be prom queens fight over recently outed stunt Tanner (Michael J.
The movie featur gay culture ins like pop star JoJo, Will and Grace's Megan Mullally, and Natasha Lyonne of But I'm a Cheerlear and Orange Is the New Black fame. The Tough Fashn Edor and her Bchy Gay Sikick were revived yet aga Freeform's The Bold Type, wh Srlet Magaze EIC Jacquele (Melora Hard) and her assistant Andrew (Adam Caprlo). The enuragg takeaway om this progrsive-md show, however, is that if your queer reprentatn also clus a bisexual, biracial lead character (Aisha Dee), her lbian Mlim love tert (Nikohl Boosheri), and a Black gay man who is head of the fashn partment (Stephen Conrad Moore), the GBF character stops beg a potentially harmful stereotype and be more of a playful wk at whe gay men.
THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY BT IEND ROMANTIC EDI
")Like a te GBF, Donny seems to have no purpose beyond obssg over Natalie's love life and givg her a makeover montage scene -- but the good news is, when she fds her way back to the real world, turns out her neighbor really is gay and datg Bowen Yang. 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.
Dpe this apparent betrayal, when a 2003 TV movie tried to pat Ronald Reagan as a vilent homophobe, Hudson's former lover Marc Christian wrote an open letter to CBS, sayg, "The notn that Print Reagan was a homophobe strik me as silly beyond belief.... Here are some tips and tricks that will help you support your iends as they beg to unrstand and thrive while embracg their ’t refer to them as your gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, or queer bt iend. Stop sayg you’re “a ltle b gay” bee you have a gay the same way no whe gay man has a “sassy black woman” livg si of them, no straight person has a “ltle gay man” unrneath the surface eher.
Jt like straight people, gay people n be fashnable or cluels, sporty or un-athletic, sassy or straight-laced, supportive or distant, iendly or gff, and any other mix of personaly tras. Instead, the wrers relied on a seri of stereotyp and trop about gay men, cludg his love of mils and his fascatn wh his boss, rather than dog anythg tertg wh him. If you're tryg to figure out if your iend is gay bee you want to date him (as a woman), 's important to remember that jt bee he might be terted men don't mean he's not terted women.
HOW TO TELL A FRIEND YOU'RE GAY AND YOU LOVE THEM
Although some people the gay culture may put on a certa voice or a way of speakg, your iend talkg a siar or "effemate" way is still not a very good way to judge. Say somethg like, "You know you're stuck wh me as a iend no matter what, but I jt have to ask bee I don't want to make assumptns and e to the wrong nclns: are you gay?
"Some movi like "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" prent LGBTQ people as the butt of the clu LGBTQ characters but eher cly mock them, like "Zoolanr 2, " or relegate them to supportg, shallow rol like the gay bt iend, such as "My Bt Friend's Weddg. "Even LGBTQ movi by gay directors get wrong sometim, as "Stonewall" whewashed the Stonewall Rts by prentg a whe twk as the hero stead of the people of lor and trans women who were the real hero behd the are ne movi that got their LGBTQ reprentatn pletely Insir's homepage for more stori. While the cln of a proment gay character is great, would have been better had said gay character not been entrenched and fed by the ual stereotyp about gay pictn is ma worse bee so many other films and TV shows of the same era ed those trop and clichés, too, meang that they beme worn, tirome, and unimagative pretty quickly.
FRIENDSHIP TROUBLE: AN EXAMATN OF THE GAY BT FRIEND INTY AMERIN CONSUMER CULTURE
"My Bt Friend's Weddg" is another movie emed a classic by many, and aga sums up 90s cema pretty well this Julia Roberts is much to be admired here, and Rupert Everett as the gay bt iend was a step forward on-screen reprentatn at the time.
He has no agency of his own, and is wrten as a plot pot for seems like the sort of character who is emed gay entirely so the movie n ll self diverse whout ever actually puttg the effort to explore said character or give the him the pth Everett's talents serve. Won an Osr for 1996's "Jerry Maguire, " so 's really que bizarre that he would agree to star this tanic failure of a film six years later (somethg 2005 Osrs host Chris Rock actually joked about) this movie, one of the worst offenrs on the list, two iends ci to take a cise hop of hookg up wh women, but end up on a gay cise after offendg two gay travel follows is a feature film that prents every gay character as hypersexualized clichés, and homosexualy as a punchle every other le of dialogue. The story follows two straight firemen who pretend to be a gay uple orr to get domtic partner movie then ntuoly mak crass joke after crass joke about how horrible is for straight men to pretend to be gay, and any sort of msage about gay rights gets thoroughly lost the crassns of all.
Instead, jt feels like we are beg ma fun of, and gay people once aga are ma the butt of the problem is, this is a edy ma entirely for and terg to straight dienc rather than the LGBTQ dienc should have been tailored for.