PEN15 Gabe's Gay Storyle Is Shockgly Authentic

Contents:

• "PEN15" HAS THE MOST PAFULLY AUTHENTIC GAY TEEN STORYLE I’VE EVER SEEN ON TV
• FEATURED SHORT STORI FICTN
• ‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ REVEALS GAY STORYLE; CREATORS SAY “LOVE IS LOVE”

"PEN15" HAS THE MOST PAFULLY AUTHENTIC GAY TEEN STORYLE I’VE EVER SEEN ON TV

The Homo Sapiens Agenda and The Mistn of Cameron Post have been turned to blockbter films, and jt about every YA agent out there has “own-voic LGBTQ+ stori” on their mancript wish list. Glee took Kurt through the wrger — everythg om an unacceptg parent to makg love wh another man to an unexpected hate crime — and betifully crafted Kurt's evolutn as an openly gay man. Though the show and the work were h wh some backlash for the 2017 storyle of Cys g out as gay to his iends and later datg a boy, broke ground for Disney Channel to feature a story of a stgglg teen who eventually out and be an openly gay character.

Will Horton Com Out As Gay On Daytime Televisn ('Days Of Our Liv'). Glee showsed every lor of the rabow their six seasons; gay characters, lbian characters, transgenr characters — and wh Brtany S. A s set the late 90s wh half s characters beg gay men wasn't somethg televisn expected only a year after Ellen's ncellatn due to the ma character's g out.

Ellen Man Com Out As Gay On Televisn In 1997 ('Ellen'). In a 1997 episo of her s Ellen, the show's ontnner shocked the world when both the character and the edian me out as gay. And yet, for s, lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people rarely ever saw displays of affectn.

FEATURED SHORT STORI FICTN

It may appear quat now, when we have TV seri like Hulu’s Love, Victor (about a Latx teen explorg sexual fluidy) or Netflix’s Bondg (about sex work and alternative sexualy), but the great gay panic set off by Ellen DeGener g out on her s 1997 was a bombshell that didn’t necsarily nvce the works that they’d open the gat to LGBTQ experienc. Luckily Will & Grace buted 1998 and the groundbreakg NBC seri nvced many that gay people might not be so toxic (and wouldn’t sre off advertisers) — so much so that Vice Print Joe Bin later creded wh changg his md about same-sex marriage. Dpe the fact that lns of Amerins wnsed two men raise a happy and healthy dghter om the fort of their livg room sofas, took a fan mpaign to lobby Disney-owned ABC to fally allow Mchell (gay actor Jse Tyler Fergon) and Cameron (straight actor Eric Stontreet) to kiss ( fally happened 2010).

For years, ranged, perverse, and spible homosexuals were on full display — pecially om Ryan Murphy, who remas our most proment culture czar when to queer characters on TV. But he’s also supplied at least one murro (ghostly) gay man on Amerin Horror Story and too many crazi on Nip/Tuck to unt. From the Roy Cohn-flected Army-McCarthy heargs — which was the first time many people heard the word “homosexual” uttered on TV — through the “don’t ask, don’t tell” Neti, that clud The Goln Girls and Digng Women, to our current glter-and-glam era of RuPl’s Drag Race and almost-anythg-go pansexualy.

‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ REVEALS GAY STORYLE; CREATORS SAY “LOVE IS LOVE”

When her straight male roommate’s twentysomethg girliend, Francis, qutns why Leila is so terrified to tell anyone that she has sex wh both men and women, Leila tells her ’s plited bee ’s “a gay thg. Adapted om gay director Jt Simien’s breakout film of the same name, about black llege stunts g to terms wh a “post-racial Ameri, ” the seri explor them of race, genr, and sexualy by skewerg jt about everyone for hypocrisy and double standards. In the send season, he manag to evolve beyond simple trop and is given space to explore his queer inty, cludg havg his heart broken by Silv (a self-scribed “Mexin Italian gay vers top otter pup”), fdg a boyiend (of sorts), and even beg rejected by another black man bee of his sk lor — provg that, spe all the talk of “muny, ” ’s never easy to fe lastg bonds.

Pl, managed to change many nservative viewpots the black muny — cludg Timbaland, who crafted the seri’ tchy origal tracks — and was a rare moment which a gay character of lor had so much visibily. Thomas manag to upend nventnal storyl and tackl everythg om mental illns to gay-guy/straight-girl iendships to the g-out procs.