For a long time, iendships between gay men and straight men – what some now ll “bromosexual” iendships – were unmon. But, that's changg.
Contents:
- HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS: AN LBGT FRIENDSHIP GUI
- MEETG YOUR FIRST GAY FRIEND
- GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT MEN AS FRIENDS
- HOW TO FD YOUR GAY BT FRIEND
- HOW TO TELL A FRIEND YOU'RE GAY AND YOU LOVE THEM
- HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS
- HOW TO HAVE A GAY FRIEND
- WHAT THE WORLD CAN LEARN FROM GAY-STRAIGHT FRIENDSHIPS
- WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN MAKE THE BT OF FRIENDS
- I’M 35 AND MY BT IEND IS 64. HERE’S WHY OUR AGE DIFFERENCE AS GAY MEN IS A GIFT
HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS: AN LBGT FRIENDSHIP GUI
Love him or hate him, the Gay Bt Friend (GBF) plays a big role pop culture. * gay friendship example *
Outsi of LGBTQ+-specific meetups, a great way to fd LGBT iendships is actually by attendg meetups that gay people typilly like. Almost as long as rom-s and high school TV shows have existed, the Gay Bt Friend(tm) has been a source of edy and ntroversy. Often an important first step troducg queer storyl to mastream dienc, the GBF trope had a tenncy to rerce stereotyp about gay men: that their only terts are makeovers, shoppg and drama, that their stggl and relatnships fa to the background unls they're supportg a straight person's story, and that they only exist to be wise oracl about love and LGBTQ+ reprentatn Hollywood improv both onscreen and behd the mera, movi and TV shows are gettg creasgly self-aware, creatg gay characters who provi the ic relief we love while tearg down outdated ias.
MEETG YOUR FIRST GAY FRIEND
Could gay guys be the ultimate wg men for their straight, male iends? * gay friendship example *
Perhaps the earlit example of the classic Gay Bt Friend character is 1984 movie The Woman Red, a Gene Wilr edy about a married man who be obssed wh a mol (Kelly LeBrock) after he se her skirt get blown up by a wd grate, Marilyn Monroe-style.
A mor character wh limed screen time, Buddy do w pots for beg portrayed as jt another one of the guys, who happens to be gay -- a big al for movi the 80s.
Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cz) of ABC's short-lived cult classic My So-Called Life (1994-1995) is one of the first exampl of a gay character a high school ensemble seri -- but what mak him pecially noteworthy is that he challenged the Gay Bt Friend trope before was even a trope.
GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT MEN AS FRIENDS
Heterosexual and gay men n heal and grow as a rult of their iendships. * gay friendship example *
Cz, an Ao-Puerto Rin man, was the first openly gay actor to play an openly gay character a leadg role an Amerin televisn show.
While Rickie was bt iends wh straight girls at his school, the way his storyle alt wh homophobia and self-acceptance was years ahead of s time. Helen Hunt stars as Carol, a sgle mom and his love tert who "mak him want to be a better man, " while former Talk Soup host Greg Knear surprised dienc wh his imprsive actg chops as Simon, the gay neighbor who be iends wh the curmudgeonly Simon, an artist, is badly beaten up by a iend of one of his mols, his agent (Cuba Goodg Jr. She enlists the help of her gay iend Gee (Rupert Everett), who drops everythg to fly to Chigo, pretends to be Jul' fiance to make Michael jealo, and trolls the hell out of her while dispensg nuggets of wisdom about her love is such a fantasy of a character that he may as well be a unirn, but Everett is jt so charmg about the whole thg.
The real gay bt iend of the seri was Jack (Sean Hay), a diva-lovg queen who cycl through men, jobs, and random fixatns.
HOW TO FD YOUR GAY BT FRIEND
If the h 90s TV show, "Will and Grace" was one of your favor, you may be yearng for that perfect gay bt iend (GBF). The iend who, asi om beg totally hot, knows you like the back of their hand, offerg sage sightful... * gay friendship example *
"People playg gay characters jumpg up and down screamg that they're not gay, like that would somehow be a bad thg if they were.
In The Object of My Affectn, New York social worker Na (Jennifer Aniston) is roommat wh Gee (Pl Rudd), a gay elementary school teacher. The flash-forward at the end, wh all the characters beg one big happy fay, was progrsive for s time; but the ia that a gay man uld be attracted to a woman if she plays her rds right is a b unfortable.
But then Abbie meets a guy who wants to get married and move to New York, and the romantic edy spirals to a bizarre urtroom drama as they fight over ctody of their Ebert gave the movie one star and lled "a garage sale of gay issu, " bombed at the box office, and Everett later revealed that led to the llapse of his iendship wh Madonna.
HOW TO TELL A FRIEND YOU'RE GAY AND YOU LOVE THEM
Perhaps you have realized you are gay and that you have fallen love wh your iend. You have also probably realized that this is a lot to al wh! You may want to be hont wh your iend about your sexualy as well as your... * gay friendship example *
Ta Fey's 2004 high school edy is proof that the gay bt iend don't have to be an offensive or trivial character, bee what would Mean Girls even be whout "too gay to functn" Damian (Daniel Franze) and "big lbian csh" Janis (Lizzy Caplan)? (Y, Janis' classmat spread gay mors about her and she's datg a boy by the end of the movie, but we're not buyg for a send that she's heterosexual.
Few straight actors play gay as well as Stanley Tucci 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, about aspirg journalist Andy (Anne Hathaway) who gets a job at Vogue-spired Runway Magaze. In particular, Mo's cutthroat creative director Wilhelma Slater (Vansa Williams) and her schemg gay assistant Marc St.
HOW TO MAKE GAY FRIENDS
Every time you attend a Pri March, ftival or cent Gay Club Night, you may have noticed jt how many fellow queers live your cy. The qutn is how to fd them outsi of the special events? Follow the steps to extend your... * gay friendship example *
As much as we love and appreciate Ryan Murphy's high school mil seri (2009-2015) as a formative experience for lennials everywhere, s portrayal of LGBTQ+ people ran to a few be fair, Chris Colfer's character Kurt was a TV breakthrough, offerg a much-need posive role mol to gay kids. His relatnship wh Blae (Darren Criss) was one of the first tim we got to see two young gay characters kissg onscreen a mastream, fay-oriented edy, and we'll never fet the way his father Burt (Mike O'Malley) fied stereotyp by beg pletely supportive when Kurt me out to him.
HOW TO HAVE A GAY FRIEND
Whether you're gay and lookg for gay iends or you're tryg to help a iend who's e out, we've got you vered! Wh a ltle searchg you n fd a rich work of gay iends your area or you n meet people onle. Havg a... * gay friendship example *
But his gossipy iendship wh Rachel (Lea Michele) and her hab of llg Kurt her "bt gay" had some crics wonrg if he was beg treated like an accsory, a bate that n set off Tumblr fandom shoutg match to this day. Chigo improv edy troupe The Send Cy left their mark wh Sassy Gay Friend, a viral YouTube sk starrg Brian Gallivan as a GBF who talks sense to Shakpearean hero and other women om ancient history. Instead of him supportg the female lead, 's actually Olive (Emma Stone) who looks out for him, by pretendg to (loudly) have sex wh him at a party so he n keep homophobic bulli off his back until he n graduate high school.
WHAT THE WORLD CAN LEARN FROM GAY-STRAIGHT FRIENDSHIPS
A llege ex-boyiend of Dunham's character Hannah, Elijah reveals that he's gay early Season 1 when she tri to fd out if he gave her HPV -- and then drops the memorable bombshell, "It was nice to see you.
F., remiscent of Mean Girls and Not Another Teen fashn magaz clarg a Gay Bt Friend to be this season's hottt accsory, three would-be prom queens fight over recently outed stunt Tanner (Michael J. The movie featur gay culture ins like pop star JoJo, Will and Grace's Megan Mullally, and Natasha Lyonne of But I'm a Cheerlear and Orange Is the New Black fame. The Tough Fashn Edor and her Bchy Gay Sikick were revived yet aga Freeform's The Bold Type, wh Srlet Magaze EIC Jacquele (Melora Hard) and her assistant Andrew (Adam Caprlo).
The enuragg takeaway om this progrsive-md show, however, is that if your queer reprentatn also clus a bisexual, biracial lead character (Aisha Dee), her lbian Mlim love tert (Nikohl Boosheri), and a Black gay man who is head of the fashn partment (Stephen Conrad Moore), the GBF character stops beg a potentially harmful stereotype and be more of a playful wk at whe gay men.
WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN MAKE THE BT OF FRIENDS
")Like a te GBF, Donny seems to have no purpose beyond obssg over Natalie's love life and givg her a makeover montage scene -- but the good news is, when she fds her way back to the real world, turns out her neighbor really is gay and datg Bowen Yang. And you look great this at" -- but the dynamic is a lot better when 's all about gay/lbian solidary and makg fun of cluels straight people. For a long time, iendships between gay men and straight men – what some now ll “bromosexual” iendships – were unmon.
Homophobia was likely one reason; another was that straight men probably assumed they didn’t have much mon wh gay men. Specifilly, we’re terted lookg at the reasons gay men and straight men bee iends (or rema iends after the gay iend out).
We currently have a survey vtigatn unrway that explor some of the posive out of “bromosexual” iendships, cludg our theory that gay men and straight men n be optimal wg men for one another. Gay men – particularly those nservative and ral environments – rema wary about tryg to beiend straight men, fearg prejudice-fueled rejectn. At the same time, many straight men still doubt that they’ll be able to relate to gay men any meangful way and, for this reason, may not try to iate a iendship.
I’M 35 AND MY BT IEND IS 64. HERE’S WHY OUR AGE DIFFERENCE AS GAY MEN IS A GIFT
If they’re open-md about beiendg gay men and make the effort to try to fe iendships based upon mon terts, gay men should feel more fortable reciprotg. Gay men who disclose their sexual orientatn to their straight male iends earlier life may be able to build more open and hont iendships wh them to adulthood. Send, recent rearch has argued that genr and sexual orientatn might not be as black and whe as prevly thought, which opens up new avenu for explorg how gay and straight men n relate to one another.
If a straight guy and his gay male iend are ls rigid about their masculy and sexualy, they’ll probably be more likely to discs tails about their sexual and romantic liv openly wh one another. In short, women are able to tst the datg advice om gay male iends bee they know their gay iends don’t have any ulterr motiv: They’re not tryg to hook up wh them or pete wh them for guys.
Bee of the tst they engenr om straight women, gay men are uniquely posned to be excellent “wg men” for sgle straight men.