I was concerned that they were going to be just like the people I’d seen online. It turned me off of interacting with a lot of guys who were that little bit older. I have received some of the weirdest and concerning messages from men who were 40+ years older than me. I’ve been on apps and websites a lot since coming out and I always seem to get attention from older men. I remember the reason I initially came out was to find someone and have that elusive romantic relationship. I’ve been at the receiving end of a creepy message from an older guy but at the same time I’ve felt anger towards a community that seems to have forgotten what Pride was originally all about. I’ve been an out gay man since I was 14 (I’m now 26), and I’ve experienced both of these attitudes. Or appearing bitter and deriding younger people who don’t’ understand the history of what people went through just a few decades ago. It’s a supposedly comical slant on the fact there is widespread discrimination against older people in the gay community.Īt the same time, there has been criticism of the older LGBTQI+ community overstepping boundaries when it comes to dating. That means it's likely to be seen by a much wider audience than any of the films listed below, which were smaller, quirkier, independent productions.It has long been a joke that any gay man over the age of 30 is considered old. Love, Simon isn't the first film to tackle what it's like to come out in high school, but it is the first one released by a major studio. That's admirable, even if the film's chaste attitude toward sex means they're seeing only a part of a version of themselves onscreen. It's entirely intentional - in interviews, filmmaker Greg Berlanti says Love, Simon presents a well-scrubbed version of the coming out process so that queer kids can finally see an idealized version of themselves onscreen. But once again that familiar apportioning occurs - Simon's sexuality is kept feathery and abstract, and any depiction of same-sex attraction is saved for the film's emotional crescendo.
Love, Simon is also set in a high school, and also features a young man struggling to come out - it's the story of its main character's private and public acknowledgement of his Queer Identity. Monkey See A Gay Teen Romance, Sealed With A Peck: 'Love, Simon' That fact also serves, intentionally or not, to cause these films to concern themselves more expressly with Queer Identity than Queer Desire. In American films like Making Love (1982), In & Out (1997), Beginners (2010) and 4th Man Out (2016), the process of coming out is complicated by the fact that it occurs later in life than is usual. Which is probably why we keep making movies about it. It's marked by fits and starts, denials and avowals, fraught conversations in somebody's car, the fear of rejection and, hopefully, the relief of acceptance. It has a timeline, and not necessarily a smooth one. What does not vary in the process of coming out is the fact that it is a process. The process of coming to terms with one's sexuality varies widely, depending on the individual - it can be scary, invigorating, heartbreaking, life-affirming usually it's some complex combination of those feelings and more. Billy (Alex Lawther) and Blah Blah Blah (AnnaSophia Robb) in 2018's Freak Show.