this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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[โ€“] dandroid@dandroid.app 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I really liked Billy Eichner's character in Parks and Rec for this. I don't even think they mentioned him being gay directly other than his character mentioning a boyfriend or going on a date and use male pronouns or something like that. It was just a matter of fact that the was gay. There was no reveal, no plot about it, it didn't affect the story. He was just a worker in the department that happened to also be gay.

It probably also helped that Billy Eichner is actually gay, and he was probably able to use his perspective to guide the directors and such to what he would want to see in a gay character on a sitcom rather than what the directors think the gay viewers want. Which is what I think is normally happening when a character being gay is a huge plot point. I think it comes from a good place. But I think to normalize being gay, being gay has to be portrayed as normal.