"For the longest time, the word “gay” has seemed taboo to the general media. Children’s shows have only ever shown explicit heterosexual relationships, never alluding to the vast and common LGBT youth who consume this media. However, recently, with movies such as Love, Simon or Bohemian Rhapsody featuring gay main characters, it has become more of the norm. Now, in a huge step for LGBT representation in the media, a character on the popular Disney Channel show has said the words 'I’m gay.'"
--Charlotte Porter
For the longest time, the word “gay” has seemed taboo to the general media. Children’s shows have only ever shown explicit heterosexual relationships, never alluding to the vast and common LGBT youth who consume this media. However, recently, with movies such as Love, Simon or Bohemian Rhapsody featuring gay main characters, it has become more of the norm. Now, in a huge step for LGBT representation in the media, a character on the popular Disney Channel show has said the words “I’m gay.”
Andi Mack premiered back in April of 2017. According to IMDb, the show is “A contemporary coming-of-age story about a girl who's trying to determine where she fits in, when her free-spirited older sister returns with a revelation that changes everything, it sends Andi on an uncharted course of self-discovery.” It’s all about teens discovering who they are and where they fit in in the world.
Cyrus Goodman, Andi’s friend and one of the main characters on the show, had come out twice before the recent episode. Both times, however, he had confessed his crush on a male friend and had avoided explicitly stating his interest in boys. But in this recent episode, he said the rarely uttered words, “I’m gay.”
This admission was exciting to many young members of the LGBT community. An excited Twitter user wrote, “They had a main character actually say the words ‘I’m gay’ on the show. No beating around the bush or anything.”
Andi Mack premiered back in April of 2017. According to IMDb, the show is “A contemporary coming-of-age story about a girl who's trying to determine where she fits in, when her free-spirited older sister returns with a revelation that changes everything, it sends Andi on an uncharted course of self-discovery.” It’s all about teens discovering who they are and where they fit in in the world.
Cyrus Goodman, Andi’s friend and one of the main characters on the show, had come out twice before the recent episode. Both times, however, he had confessed his crush on a male friend and had avoided explicitly stating his interest in boys. But in this recent episode, he said the rarely uttered words, “I’m gay.”
This admission was exciting to many young members of the LGBT community. An excited Twitter user wrote, “They had a main character actually say the words ‘I’m gay’ on the show. No beating around the bush or anything.”
 |  |
However, although most reactions have been positive, there have been a few negative ones. Andi Mack has been banned in Kenya due to the gay character. On Twitter, the chief executive of the Kenya Film Classification Board wrote, “Children must be given correct information tht [sic] family is a union btwn [sic] people of opposite gender.”
While other shows might feature a gay character, they’re usually somewhere in the background and the only proof that they’re gay is that they have a crush on a character of the same gender. They never explicitly come out. The fact that a teenager on a children’s tv show said the words “I’m gay” is a huge step for LGBT youth.
In a recent interview, Joaquin, a sixth-grader who identifies as gay, described it as a “first step in the right direction.” When asked about how he feels represented in the media, Joaquin said “gay people are sort of ignored in the media, and when they are represented, it’s in a very stereotypical, superficial way.” This sort of representation could make younger, impressionable people believe that there is a certain way to be gay, trans, etc. That can be very harmful to their coming out experience. According to an article titled “3 Reasons Positive Stereotypes aren’t that Positive”, stereotypes for gay people can “set the bar unrealistically high” and “inhibit an individual’s ability to perform.”
Ava Losee-Unger, an eighth grader who identifies as lesbian, stated her worries about the subject of LGBT media. “A lot of new shows and commercials are including some kind of LGBT thing to just kind of project non-homophobia onto the community… but it’s mostly commercialized so they can get money.” Hopefully, forced representation will be omitted in the future and including the LGBT community into media will be a natural and normal thing. Based on the immense amount of positive reactions, this forced representation doesn’t seem to be the case with Andi Mack.
Exposing kids to gay people at a young age in a casual way is a good start to ending “forced” representation. When asked what might have changed about her experience in the LGBT community if she had been exposed to it at a younger age, Ava responded, “I probably would’ve been more comfortable with my sexuality.” “I think it would’ve been a lot less weird and confusing,” said Joaquin. If more shows take the same route as Andi Mack, then maybe LGBT youth will be more comfortable with who they are.
