A History of the Gay Bt Friend Film and TV

Contents:

• TV LEGENDS: WAS CHANDLER ON FRIENDS ORIGALLY MEANT TO BE GAY?
• THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF “FRIENDS”
• FRIENDSHIP TROUBLE: AN EXAMATN OF THE GAY BT FRIEND INTY AMERIN CONSUMER CULTURE
• THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY BT IEND ROMANTIC EDI
• GAY IEND

TV LEGENDS: WAS CHANDLER ON FRIENDS ORIGALLY MEANT TO BE GAY?

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movi and TV shows are gettg creasgly self-aware, creatg gay characters who provi the ic relief we love while tearg down outdated ias. 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. 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.

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 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.

THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF “FRIENDS”

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. 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)?

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.

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.

FRIENDSHIP TROUBLE: AN EXAMATN OF THE GAY BT FRIEND INTY AMERIN CONSUMER CULTURE

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 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.

")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. Although the show largely follows Otis and Eric is technilly Otis' bt iend, would be wholly accurate to place Eric the "gay bt iend" box; actor Ncuti Gatwa, who is also gay real life, says that's by sign.

It was jt one year after Ellen Man beme the first character to e out on TV — a move that subsequently tanked "Ellen's" rankgs and likely led to the show's "Will & Grace, " a show that largely foced on two gay men, was so popular that was revived 20 years Msg, who plays Grace, told TheWrap that she origally saw their gay lead (Eric McCormack's Will) as the most "revolutnary" aspect of the show.

THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY BT IEND ROMANTIC EDI

Fox's "Glee" was often praised as an LGBTQ haven, but Kurt — the show's first openly gay character, who famoly kicked a field goal for the football team while performg Beyoncé's "Sgle Ladi" dance — had a particularly strong one of his most memorable moments, Kurt shared a climactic kiss wh Blae that produced ltle to no outrage, a symbolic moment of progrs for onscreen queer reprentatn. The Showtime show, adapted om the origal Brish versn on Channel 4, followed a group of gay men navigatg discrimatn, the AIDS crisis, same-sex marriage, and the tle suggts, the show featur a number of beloved queer characters. The realism of "Sks" mand that young adults on TV be taken serly as they navigate sex and the show's first out gay character, Maxxie helped open the door for elevated queer story l teen dramas, pecially on that didn't jt revolve around g out.

Especially the ntext of a fay-oriented edy, Mch and Cam helped normalize gay relatnships on TV — pecially sce the show premiered 2009, four years before the Defense of Marriage Act was overturned.

GAY IEND

Netflix's "Special" tells the story of a gay man wh cerebral palsy, givg voice to an extremely unrreprented inty — and starrg someone who unrstands first-hand, as a gay man wh cerebral O'Connell, who wrote the memoir the show is based on, told GQ that was "really hard" to sell the show to works. As an androgyno teenager, Rickie alt wh real discrimatn and harassment, long before "Ellen" or "Will & Grace" tackled siar issu wh adult by gay actor Wilson Cz, Rickie was richly veloped throughout the show and transcend stereotyp. The wildly popular, long-nng BBC seri "Doctor Who" has featured a variety of "panns, " which is the tle given to each character who travels alongsi each rnatn of the show fally troduced s first gay pann 2017: Bill Potts, whose sexualy was ma explic right off the bat.