How 'Love, Simon' Could Change Hollywood LGBTQ Representation Forever

Why is straight the default?

For decades, the 'Teen Movie' genre has been a Hollywood mainstay. 10 Things I Hate About You, The Fault in Our Stars and The Breakfast Club - all coming under this pseudo-category - took their time to dig in to adolescent issues and infuse heartache with comedy to create classic coming of age tales. One community, however, has been almost completely left out of the spotlight, with LGBTQ+ characters only really ever attaining a supporting role (Easy A, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, etc). Greg Berlanti's adaptation of the best-selling book 'Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda', though, could change everything in terms of LGBTQ representation in mainstream Hollywood film.

Berlanti, the visionary behind the DC Comics CW-verse (including The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl etc.), was signed on to direct the screenplay adaptation of Albertalli's book in 2015 when its film rights were acquired by Fox 2000 (the studio division responsible for Paper Towns and Hidden Figures). Openly gay himself, he was tasked with the job to create a John Hughes-esque coming of age film featuring a gay male lead. In terms of big budget, Hollywood movies, queer representation - specifically in films marketed towards Under 18's - has always been scarce and problematic, with the gay characters always serving as the butt of the joke. In an age that gay people are more accepted though it seems time that their stories should be told and given the same respect as their heterosexual counterparts. 

Love, Simon is not the first LGBT coming of age film to be released by American distributors though. The now iconic But I'm A Cheerleader (starring RuPaul Charles and Orange is the New Black's Natasha Lyonne) was released in 1999 by Lionsgate, and revolved around a teenage girl who was sent to gay conversion camp for being a lesbian. Lionsgate in 1999 was not the titan it is today, and the film was far from the mainstream hit it aspired to become, making a dismal $2.6 million at the US Box Office. In comparison, Clueless (1995) grossed $56.6 million in the US alone. In the UK, Pathe released the critically acclaimed Pride (2014), but even that only grossed $16 million dollars at the US Box Office, and technically speaking was more of a bio-pic than a Teen Movie. All in all, the lack of money made by these films have only reinforced the idea that audiences don't want to see gay people on screen, a mindset responsible for creating the lack of representation that queer people, people of colour, disabled people and women have today.

Indeed, the more successful LGBT films have always been marketed as adult, unsuitable for children and are Oscar-bait films. Brokeback Mountain, Carol, Moonlight, Milk, Dallas Buyers Club, Blue is the Warmest Colour and this year's Call Me By Your Name are all regarded as fantastic and 'important' films, but most emphasize the idea that LGBTQ romance is inevitably doomed, either to the HIV/AIDs epidemic, societal pressure, murder or another dismal inevitability that more often than not leaves the audience in tears, as opposed to feeling the same warmth that permeates the likes of Silver Linings Playbook, Good Will Hunting or Sleepless in Seattle. 

While the films mentioned in the previous paragraph are all excellent - acclaimed by audiences and critics alike - it is the trope of the 'heart-breaking gay film' that becomes damaging when nothing else is offered to counter it in the mainstream media landscape. Furthermore, when LGBTQ movies only succeed under the umbrella of the Academy Awards, it furthers the notion that these types of love stories or characters are 'a risk' to put on screen, 'niche' and 'bravely casting light on a lesser explored part of society'. It tells LGBTQ people they're different, and still not accepted by wider society as a whole.

Very slowly, movie studios are starting to introduce LGBTQ characters to the big screen. Deadpool and Harley Quinn (from Deadpool and Suicide Squad respectively) are both technically bisexual, although nothing has been done to actually reveal this on-screen. In last year's Power Rangers, too, the Yellow Ranger was revealed to be queer, but her reference to an off-screen girlfriend was fleeting and hard to notice. The most recent inclusion of a queer character in a mainstream blockbuster was during this year's Beauty and the Beast, in which Disney revealed their "first openly gay character". This, though, turned out to be just as farcical, with the extent of this 'representation' being a nameless character dancing with another man in a ballroom for 2 seconds just before the film's end. Even Pixar are responsible for this, with Finding Dory's infamous lesbian couple (who had no lines and appeared for about 1 short second) causing an uproar on social media.

The most Hollywood Blockbusters have really done so far (in terms of alluding to the existence of queer and gender-queer people) has been via "queerbaiting", a term cottoned in recent years. It refers to the act of creating two leads of the same sex with an incredibly intimate relationship, publicly acknowledging how fun it would be if they were in a relationship, and then failing to pull through with the obviously gay-undertones present within their relationship. Marvel's Captain America and Bucky Barnes are prime examples of this, with the writers of Captain America: Civil War admitting to putting in extra scenes only featuring Cap and Bucky together in a pseudo-romantic context in an effort to 'reach out' to their large queer fan-base. The same happens in Pitch Perfect. The characters of Chloe and Becca are constantly entangled in flirting and innuendo for *gasp* comedic effect. Hollywood, though, is starting to learn that simultaneously acknowledging and mocking the LGBTQ community isn't exactly a recipe for success, as the backlash to the uncomfortable trend is getting stronger and stronger each time it resurfaces. 

So what has any of this got to do with Love, Simon? Sure, this all seems unrelated, until you realise that Hollywood is solely steered by money. If Love, Simon - a fun teen movie just like Paper Towns but with a gay lead - is massively successful at the box office, you can undoubtedly expect more openly queer characters to pop-up in the mainstream media landscape. If a couple of queer-central teen movies or 'rom-coms' are successful we might even get an action film with a gay lead, or a superhero film with a lesbian wearing the cape. We're getting ahead of ourselves though, because for all of that to happen, we need to prove that Fox was right to invest in a gay teen film. It shouldn't be brave, and it shouldn't be groundbreaking, but such a high profile film starring queer characters tells young people, young people that feel different, that their story is worth telling. That their life can be fun too. That they aren't abnormal, they're just another type of the same. Love, Simon is a super, super important movie with the power to be a catalyst for amazing changes to come. 

You see, Hollywood is just an electoral service, you just need to vote with your ticket purchases, and, as with any democracy, you'll see a lot more of the people that you vote for.

Written by James Green