Heartstopper, Netflix's new YA romance centrg two gay teens an English boys' school, has been hailed onle as a pneerg work for gay reprentatn. But sweet as might be, 's nothg new
Contents:
- HEARTSTOPPER REVIEW: ‘GAY TEEN ROMANCE IS THE UPLIFTG LGBTQ SERI WE NEED’
- A TV ADAPTN FOR GAY COMIC “HEARTSTOPPER?!”
HEARTSTOPPER REVIEW: ‘GAY TEEN ROMANCE IS THE UPLIFTG LGBTQ SERI WE NEED’
Most PopularRed, Whe & Royal Blue: Alex and Henry “keep sual” racy exclive clipOrigalsBy Sam DamshenasHow Barbie lls out queer men’s role the patriarchyOrigalsBy Josh OsmanNoah Schnapp reveals how he me out to Stranger Thgs -star Millie Bobby BrownCultureBy Josh OsmanSharg The Journey: GAY TIMES and Berghs partner to show the outdoors is for everyoneLifeBy Gay TimQueer Joy: A new outdoor exhibn opens London for the summerIn Partnership WhBy Gay Tim. The charmg same-sex romance, which began (and ntu) life as a thrice-monthly web ic, follows openly gay Nick and gby player Charlie as they bee unlikely iends and, eventually, disver they have feelgs for one another. Many mixed the two (thk: the 1989 awards ntenr Longtime Compann, which varly closeted and open gay men ntend wh the first of the New York epimic, or 1986’s die darlg Partg Glanc) whereas others alt centrally wh the sticky notn of g to terms wh, and revealg, one's sexual inty.
The late ‘90s prented somethg of a nveyor belt of g-outers both at home and abroad: thk 1998’s Get Real, about a nerd and an athlete who fall love an English school — more on that later — or Edge of Seventeen, which released the same year and als wh the trials and tribulatns of g out amid the anti-queer hostily of Reagan’s 2010s saw a new surge of tert the gay g-of-ager, wh g out an evable plot beat. Followg the Love, Simon (2018) — another gay g-of-age film set a school, more notable for beg the first-ever LGBTQ+ stud movie than s artistic mers — off-shoot Love, Victor, Heartstopper is another show among many shows (and movi, songs; list your artistic mediums here) about g out. It's a very sweet ltle seri, stars Olivia Colman — she who n seldom do wrong — and, for somethg actually ma for and marketed towards kids, do a fair b to subvert the typil g out-slash-queer g of age-slash-gay rom trop.
Rather than shoulr barge Charlie the halls and make a Great Big Deal about keepg public distance, he mak a pot of “allyship” around his peers, llg out loutish mat for their sually homophobic 's the ensemble, too, rehgly diverse for a genre tradnally domated by cis whe male homogeney (even if the central duo, cute as they might be, are your typil twks).
A TV ADAPTN FOR GAY COMIC “HEARTSTOPPER?!”
This might've ng te for gays growg up the ‘80s, and there’s an argument to be had that the accsibily of Heartstopper on a major streamg platform mak for a watershed moment, but g out stori have always been there for those of who looked for them. I distctly remember the movi I pirated when I was 13 and workg out the Gay Stuff for myself — My Own Private Idaho was there, as was Edge of Seventeen, and the major motn picture You Should Meet My Son! ” Heartstopper follows Charlie Sprg (Joe Locke), an enargly awkward stunt at Tham Grammar School who has been recently outed as gay.