Contents:
- ‘YOUNG GAY PEOPLE BEG OUT AND HAPPY? IT’S REVOLUTNARY!’ MEET THE HEARTSTOPPER GENERATN
- AGE DIFFERENC GAY COUPL
‘YOUNG GAY PEOPLE BEG OUT AND HAPPY? IT’S REVOLUTNARY!’ MEET THE HEARTSTOPPER GENERATN
Aimed primarily at a younger dience, the show is about an openly gay male sixth former at an English prehensive (played by 18-year-old Joe Locke) who falls love wh the school’s most popular gby player the year above. By the time – episo eight – the two ma characters had tly fallen for each other, teenage Blackpool FC footballer Jake Daniels had e out; he was the first gay male profsnal footballer to do so sce Jt Fashanu 1990.
A week after Fashanu me out more than three s ago, his own brother – fellow footballer John – all but disowned him: “John Fashanu: My gay brother is an outst” read a headle The Voice. When I left school, jt over a ago, LGBTQ+ societi were credibly unmon: my sendary tn began only a year after sectn 28 was repealed, legislatn which banned lol thori and schools om “promotg homosexualy” any form.
AGE DIFFERENC GAY COUPL
Wh mut, one sixth-former, Ada, is tellg me how a heteronormative society, spac n by and for queer people – such as their school’s active Gay Straight Alliance – are important plac for self-exprsn and personal stunt shar reflectns on their own experienc: 18-year-old Greg reunts his disfort his prev tn settg, a fah school, while holdg hands wh his now boyiend; Milo, a non-bary sixth-former, was readily accepted by most rners of the school muny wh ltle send Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian“I had a really posive experience of beg queer when I was younger, ” says Amy, a fal year pupil. Havg spent 14 years workg at the club var paci, she has seen huge shifts the way clivy at the club is implemented: at every level, players and staff have attend Football v Homophobia ssns and trag, and 2018, Leeds Uned was the primary sponsor for the cy’s Pri events. ” On multiple ocsns, young Leeds players have reported homophobic language om opponents on the pch to refere, who haven’t always taken any actn.
There’s no nyg much has changed sce Queer As Folk, the seri he wrote about three young gay men livg Manchter, was first released 1999. In the same way, shows like Heartstopper take the dialogue further: the mentorship picted between an out gay teacher and a gay pupil feels firmly new terrory; as Sex Edutn, young gay male characters are fally shown to foster close iendships wh their heterosexual male peers.
“If we look to the 1980s and early 90s, ” Cook explas, “there was a clear effort by gay and lbian people to make themselv heard and visible. In the ntext of that upsurge of homophobia, sectn 28 and the Aids crisis, there was a fight agast silence as so many were dyg or havg their voic siled. Unr Tony Blair’s Labour ernment, sectn 28 was scrapped, the Equali Act troduced, the age of nsent was equalised, and out gay men and lbians uld for the first time serve the armed forc.