Have you seen the movie Bros? (WARNING: spoilers).

Bros is a romantic-comedy movie in theatres now across the US. It’s about 2 gay men who meet and fall in love. It is very very gay. There is so much of gay life in the movie.

The more I think about it and the more I talk to my gay friends, the more we like the movie.

There are no closeted characters except for one who starts that way. He comes out and is celebrated and loved in a very public way.

Billy Eichner is a very good actor. The inability to stop talking about gay themes is part of the character. The scene with the black man from the gym in which he can’t stop talking is hilarious. It’s a mark of a vulnerable character who is trying to make the situation suitable.

The parody of some aspects of gay culture was telling. He uses steroids and goes off the rails.

There was only one scene that hinted at internalized homophobia, the dinner in the restaurant with Aaron’s parents, and that was called out in a very loud way, and Aaron apologized for it.

There was no shame! All these characters were happy, out LGBTQ people. LGBTQ people were allowed to be happy and comfortable in their LGBTQ skins.

No one died. No one was fag bashed. No one was struggling with their sexuality.

These were happy LGBTQ people!

Hollywood has never made such a unabashedly happy gay movie.

Did you see it?

I read an online commentary that was telling. The movie has not done well at the box office. It’s opening weekend sales were not what the studio hoped. The commentator wrote that the reason it failed to draw straight crowds was because homophobia is still alive and well in the US in the 21st century.

He explained that other gay movies gave straight audiences an out. They didn’t present the characters as exclusively LGBTQ or happy about the sexuality. In each romantic pair, one character was always presented as LGBTQ by circumstance and not by inclination. This escape allowed straight audiences to imagine that one of the romantic pair might possibly have chosen a “normal” relationship had the circumstances been different.

Have you seen the movie?

Do you have thoughts about the movie?

Do you have thoughts about seeing out, happy LGBTQ characters?