The History of the Bury Your Gays Trope

Contents:

• HOLLYWOOD'S "BURY YOUR GAYS" TROPE EXPLAED: HISTORY & CONTROVERSY
• THE HISTORY OF THE BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE
• GAYNGST
• FAVORE GAY ROMANCE TROP

HOLLYWOOD'S "BURY YOUR GAYS" TROPE EXPLAED: HISTORY & CONTROVERSY

While the real world, LGBTQ+ persons are jt as varied personaly and tras as straight/cisgenr on, has sued televisn wrers to e mon stereotyp for their gay characters li of actually makg them "real people". This workaround allowed LGBTQ+ stori to be told but me at the price of queer characters beg portrayed as mentally ill or simply nfed and often rulted their lovers beg "fixed" of their homosexualy after their aths. One of the greatt exampl of the bury your gays trope unr the Hays Co is The Children's Hour, which tells the story of two boardg school teachers who are acced of havg a lbian affair.

As more queer stori are beg told, more diverse queer stori are beg told, and creators are leavg behd "bury your gays" to stead embrace fully-veloped LGBTQ+ characters and their stori. GLAAD revealed at a panel Augt that 62 gay and bisexual televisn characters were killed off on televisn the past two years, cludg on Orange Is the New Black, Hoe of Cards, Pretty Ltle Liars, The Walkg Dead, and Empire.

THE HISTORY OF THE BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE

From Aled Hchck's oedipal Bno Strangers on a Tra to his Leopold and Loeb stand-s Rope to the serial killer offg gay men the servedly much-maligned Cisg to the recent French film Stranger by the Lake, the praved homosexual has been a mastay of the big screen.

Exampl of the evil and nnivg, while not necsarily murro, gay n be found Downton Abbey's footman Thomas, Orange Is the New Black's Pistella, Sndal's Cys, and Bat Motel's eratn of Norman. Atralia's Wentworth rape to terrifyg effect while this season's Orange Is the New Black even clud a flashback sequence of gay male guard Pistella's rcerated love tert beg gang-raped.

GAYNGST

Queer people serve more than the mockery of trans/nonbary people seen the Zoolanr 2 character of All, portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, or the butt-of-gay-jok character Bradley Dirty Grandpa. 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.

FAVORE GAY ROMANCE TROP

Takg place durg the AIDS epimic, the dizzyg loss of life the LGBTQIA+ muny is a val part of that story, so the story endg whout a gay character dyg would have felt disgenuo.

Shows like Killg Eve, and most recently, Hoe of the Dragon, are still btally and needlsly killg off their queer characters stead of lettg them be are 15 of the most egreg -- and btal -- recent exampl of the Bury Your Gays trope.

At the begng of the movie we travel to Derry's past, where we see two gay men on a date get terpted by a group of homophobic bigots, beat up, and thrown to the 's an uncserly upsettg scene that followed a great first movie. Dpe the olr meang of the word "gay, " gay characters fictn tend to be a miserable lot, and not by simple cince — their misery n be attributed largely to their sexualy or, more accurately, other people's attus towards . Characters sufferg om gayngst are prone to alholism and other forms of substance abe, self-loathg, Self-Harm, rampant homophobia towards themselv and others, rejectn by homophobic fay members, fallg tragic unrequed love wh heterosexuals, ntemplatg (and often mtg) suici, and wishg that they were straight.