zlacker

Also a gay man & I disagree that we have "normalised" gay in current pop culture.

We really haven't. It used to be that gay characters were written as overly feminine, by straight writers bc we were being used as a joke. Actual gay writers in the industry now also write...exactly the same femmy characters into stuff (as someone working on theatre/media industry is quite likely to be a more fem gay).

What I want to see more of before I'm happy: young, interesting gay characters that demonstrate their love for one another without it being a Big Deal, that don't get killed off or only play a minor role.

Atm all the gay characters I see are: * Older men * All femmy, not just average dudes * Get killed off/removed from the story quite quickly * Are labelled as "gay character" but they aren't really shown being gay (making puppy dog eyes at cute guys, or having a boyfriend, etc).

Also lots of shows take shortcuts by having a lesbian character (which is also great to have), but gay men are still far less accepted by society/in media at this point. People would rather see two women kiss on screen than two men.

>>fennec+(OP)
> It used to be that gay characters were written as overly feminine, by straight writers

Are you sure this was always straight writers? It might also be gay creators using certain tropes to sneak in gay-coded characters without stating it outright.

>>bazoom+Ld
Yes, because gay male characters went from being completely unacceptable in media, to being acceptable when written in by str8 writers as a joke/to be made fun of. It's only fairly recently that we have gay characters written by gay writers where said character is there to further the plot rather than as a joke.

That said, while I feel like gay writers are able to write more realistic gay characters because of personal experience (just as it would help with any topic) I know for sure that str8 writers can write perfectly good gay characters as well, all the better if they chat to community/gay friends if they need help with certain aspects.

Idk man, I just want to see more regular guy gay characters that get treated just like everyone else. Gay sex scenes in TV are still so rare because it's considered gross/disgusting by people, which is interesting bc when I get the invariable hetero sex scene played in something I don't mind it at all, I don't find it gross, I'm just not turned on by it.

It's just so in your face for someone who's gay because basically all media has a "boy meets girl" aspect, relationships/sex etc are a part of being human after all, would just be nice to see more people like me on the big screen. Hell it's it's 1/10th~ the characters, fine. But they always skimp on that stuff with gay characters.