10 Tim TV Used the Gay Bt Friend 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.

THE HISTORY OF THE BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE

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. 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.

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.

GAYNGST

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. Gayngst is a Pet-Peeve Trope of many bee while ually portrays gay people sympathetilly and addrs an issue many gay people Real Life go through, n be terpreted as sayg that 's impossible to be gay whout beg miserable, or that gay people don't serve Happy Endgs, or at s very worst and most eptly-handled, gay relatnships are nately disastro.

FAVORE GAY ROMANCE TROP

If the story wants an upliftg tone, the character will eventually e to terms wh their sexualy, have the obligatory Comg-Out Story, and eher live Happily Ever After wh their love tert or morph to some other gay archetype (ually Straight Gay or Lipstick Lbian; eher this is their natural personaly or they still have some lgerg secury). Don't e up que as often works wh a Cast Full of Gay — even if a uple of characters are of the angsty persuasn, they're ually balanced out by the rt of the st such a way that the Unfortunate Implitns are done away wh. Sister Trope of Bury Your Gays, which equently overlaps wh, as well as Trans Tribulatns and Trans Relatnship Troubl, Intersex Tribulatns, Bi-Wilred, and Wanted a Genr-Conformg Child.

Dependg on how they're played, n be a Sub-Trope of Bullied to Deprsn, Why Couldn't You Be Different?, Internalized Categorism, Boomerang Bigot, and You Are What You Hate, and a Super-Trope of Inpatible Orientatn, Armoured Closet Gay, Out of the Closet, Into the Fire, Homophobic Hate Crime, and Gayngst-Induced Suici. Sayaka Saeki is mostly ntent wh beg gay, even though her feelgs for Too go unrequed, but took que hard when her senpai at her old school broke up wh her and apologized for makg her like gays, due to seeg homosexualy as a "phase" (which is actually a pretty monly held belief Japan; see Gay Romantic Phase for more tails). Setsuna's angst is ls about the fact that she is que thoroughly gay for Konoka, than that she thks herself of the wrong social class for the Ojou of a very rich fay, and that she feels unworthy of her.

In Octave, Shri go through two rounds of gayngst: the first wh her girliend, who dumps her and returns to her former lover and the send wh Yo, to whom she offers a muddled nfsn mixed wh love and lt, and is met wh rejectn. Averted spe the explic Inpatible Orientatn on Outlaw Star; Fred Luo is perfectly fortable wh his nature as a Camp Gay merchant and even though he profs his undyg love for Gene Starwd, he's perfectly aware of the fact the heterosexual Gene don't reciprote and fact seems to enjoy teasg him by flirtg. Probably the most extreme example of gayngst Milk Moraga's work would be Miu's angst about her feelgs towards Fujiwara Secret of the Prcs, which nearly rults her jumpg off their school buildg's roof before Fujiwara talks her down.