friedfrogs

[friedfrogs]

It's happened to Becky Albertalli, who wrote a book about how terrible it is to be outed.

It's happened to Keiynan Lonsdale, who starred in the adaptation of that book.

It's happened to Kit Connor, who starred in a show that makes it clear you don't owe people your sexuality.

This list will only ever get longer, because you are weaponising the concepts of authenticity and "own-voices" to creep into strangers lives to find out some of the most personal things you could find.

"Queer actors for queer roles" is a right idea until all you can focus on is harassing anyone who's not stated they're gay. Forcing them to tell their parents, their whole extended family, their neighbours, their old pre-school classmates, and thousands of people who will never ever even see them in person let alone interact with them.

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Y'know, there's this gripe I've had for years that really frustrates me, and it has to do with Love, Simon and people joking about it and calling it too-pg and designed-for-straight-people and all the like. (A similar thing has happened to Heartstopper, but that's another conversation.)

I saw Love, Simon in theaters when it came out my senior year in high school. I saw it three times, once with my friends/parents on opening night, once with my brother over spring break, and once with my grandparents.

On opening night, the air in the room was electric. It was palpable. Half the heads in there were dyed various colors. Queer kids were holding hands. We were all crying and laughing and cheering as a group. My friends grabbed my hands at the part where Simon was outed and didn't let go until his parents were saying that they accepted him. My friend came out to me as non-binary. Another person in our group admitted that she had feelings for girls. It was incredible. I left shaking. This was the first mainstream queer romance movie that had ever been produced by one of the main five studios, and I know that sounds like another "first queer character from Disney" bit but you have to understand that even in 2018 this was groundbreaking. Getting to have a sweet queer rom-com where the main character was told that he got "to breathe now" after coming out meant so much to me and my friends.

But also, from a designed-for-straight-people POV (which, to be frank, it was written by a bisexual author and directed by a gay man, this was not designed for straight audiences), why is it a bad thing that it appealed to the widest possible audience? That it could make my parents and grandparents see things in a new light? My stepdad wasn't at all interested in rom-coms but he saw it with me because it was something I cared about and he hugged me when we came out of the theater. My very Catholic grandparents watched it with me and though my grandpa said he still didn't quite understand the whole 'gay thing,' all he wanted was for me to be happy and to have a happy ending like Simon did. My Nana actually cried when Simon came out and squeeze my hand when his mother told him he could breathe.

And when Martin blackmailed Simon, my mom, badass ally that she is, literally hissed "Dropkick him. Dropkick him in the balls" leading to multiple queer kids in the audience to laugh or smile. Having my parents there- the only parents, by the way, out of my group of queer and questioning friends- made multiple people realize that supportive adults were out there. That parents like those in Love, Simon do exist in real life.

When people complain about Heartstopper not being realistic or Love, Simon being too cutesy, I remember seeing Love, Simon on opening night. I remember my friend coming out and my stepdad hugging me and my mom defending us through this character. I remember the cheers that went through the audience when Bram and Simon kissed and the chatter in the foyer after the movie was over and the way that this movie made me understand that happy endings do exist.

Queer kids need happy endings. Straight people need entry points to becoming allies. Both of these things can come together in beautiful ways. They can find out about more queer culture later, but for now, let them have this. Let them all have a glimpse at a better, happier world. Let them have queer joy.

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Kisses 💋

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In very sad news unfortunately Olivia Colman couldn’t do season 3 of heartstopper. We will be gutted not to see Mama Nelson in season 3! 🍂

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Since Boygenius sweeped this year, here ya go.

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boygenius meets snoopy.

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JOY

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Gay people will be like “this is my comfort show!” And then show you the most emotionally devastating, stress-inducing, tragic piece of media you have ever witnessed

#REALLL #STOP MAKING ME CRY

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#their spot by the window

PRINCE WILHELM & SIMON ERIKSSON Young Royals (2021-) | 1.02 & 1.03 & 3.04

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But I like you. And that is not fake.

YOUNG ROYALS 1.04 | 3.06

[friedfrogs]

okay but imagine being Linda in this situation like: you got married a while ago but he turned out to be an alcoholic and just generally a bit of a loser so as soon as you aren't at risk of being homeless anymore you divorce him and it may be tough but at least you got your two wonderful children out of it and you decide you're going to raise them into good, responsible, polite and hard working people. They've always been a bit different, your daughter is neurodivergent and gets along with horses better than with people and your son is a really polictically active gay musician who probably wants to sing at some point in his life. Neither of those things are paying really well but you'll be damned if you don't support their dreams. So you make them work hard at school so you can get them into this really popular and renowned boarding school where they can follow their dreams. All of your good parenting and support pays off and they actually get into said school.

Within a year both of them get involved in a national sex-scandal involving the royal family, your daughter sets a building on fire and now owns a horse and a car apparently, while your son briefly dealt with drugs, fistfought a guy, changed the schools anthem and also made the current crown prince abdicate by being a bit too woke and cute at the same time. Also the school closed down due to all the shit your children were involved in and your son owns a lot of money now.

Like- Linda really just released two well raised children into the upper class and watched the system crumble. Queen behaviour nobody is doing it like her.

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YOUNG ROYALS 1.06 | 3.06

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Who else thinks we should get a movie of just Wille, Simon, Sara and Felice spending the summer together traveling around Sweden in Saras car? Anyone?

#make it happen #GIMME MORE CONTENT

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killing myself (in a good way)

#REAL #I SOBBED

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this was everything to me

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PRINCE WILHELM | FIRST & LAST LOOK | 1.01 - 3.06

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The only line between Wille and Sara in the whole 18 episodes

#LMFAO #WTF I NEVER NOTICED #BEST DUO