How HBO's The Last Of Us subverts the Bury Your Gays trope

Contents:

• THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• THE LAST OF US FOUGHT BACK AGAST THE PAFUL BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE. IT PAID OFF
• HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ SERI WILL SHE A SPOTLIGHT ON GAY UPLE BILL AND FRANK

THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY

What we got stead was a psule episo, and a particularly bracg one, given the show’s opprsively bleak mood th far: The hour is dited to the love story of Bill and Frank, a gay uple who—due ially to Bill’s skills as a bunker-stockg, booby-trappg, Don’t Tread on Me survivalist—manage to build a largely happy existence together an abandoned and eventually fortified ral hamlet for almost 20 years.

HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE

Wh Bill and Frank, we were given a portra of love—specifilly gay love—that feels surprisg and urgent. In our own 2023, we are not exactly lackg for media imag of whe gay men.

For one thg, we see gay sire portrayed all s plexy, but wh a touch as light as a breeze playg through curtas. Bill’s is not a “type” of gay man I n say I’ve ever seen mastream media before, and watchg him slowly reveal and epen that aspect of himself wh Frank’s help—sexually, y (Hollywood: more hairy bear love scen please!

But Bill and Frank create somethg else, a ltle oasis of their own that’s regnizably gay, full of quiet bety and joys the size of new strawberri. Frank wants to fix up the block and some of the “not stupid” shops—the we and furnure stor, the clothg boutique—bee he hop they might one day have unfected guts (which they eventually do, the form of Joel and Ts), but really bee makg thgs nice, pecially when nicens isn’t valued, is one of the great gay llgs. As an echo of the gay experience wh AIDS, is, as veteran activist Peter Staley put a Facebook post, a ftg tribute to the “tenr love & bravery gay men summoned when facg ath durg the plague years, cludg those who did so on their own terms.

THE LAST OF US FOUGHT BACK AGAST THE PAFUL BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE. IT PAID OFF

How powerful, then, to see not only a gay uple given an entire hour of a marquee show, but a gay uple who are held up as the keepers of civilizatn, as stewards of bety, as emblems of human digny and possibily.

Bill is gay the game, but ’s referenced so vaguely that plenty of players missed . The cisn to keep muted, hted at a sgle le of dialogue and a hidn letter, was both praised and cricized — was easy to overlook, but also avoid a lot of gay-character trop, and allowed Bill to be a human and not “a maniftatn of sexualy, ” as Polygon’s Danielle Rien put at the time.

The game’s storyle don’t avoid trop altogether, though: It was cricized for “buryg s gays. The Last of Us actor Nick Offerman lash back at a Twter er who was attackg the show for s portrayal of a gay uple Episo 3. This is due to people floodg the se wh one-star ratgs due to the portrayal of a gay uple.

HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ SERI WILL SHE A SPOTLIGHT ON GAY UPLE BILL AND FRANK

Wisler died his arms, and like so many other gay men, he died before the most effective treatments to ntrol the vis stroyg his immune system were available — after polil difference stifled early medil efforts. Peter Staley, one of the untry’s most proment AIDS activists of that time, lled the episo’s metaphor “a gift, ” sayg that “tears flowed rememberg the tenr love and bravery gay men summoned when facg ath durg the plague years” as he watched. The relatnship between Bill and Frank didn’t ronate wh him as a metaphor for those wh HIV or AIDs — and Halkis has spent time documentg the lived experienc of other HIV-posive gay men who survived that era.