We need queer stories with happiness at the forefront, too.
In Heartstopper, bigotry and prejudice are far from the primary focus, and the show has proved to be so wildly popular that it has already been commissioned for series two and three. Each of these three was a positive presentation of a new generation’s queer experience, the angst and trauma that we’ve become so accustomed to witnessing taking a back seat. These weren’t stories that centred on overcoming prejudice, like countless others.
There’s the triumph of musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, first on the West End stage and now a feature film produced by Amazon the runaway success of Netflix’s Sex Education, which is impressively LGBTQ+ inclusive and Russell T Davies’ drama It’s a Sin about the Aids crisis, too.Īnd yet, something about Heartstopper, Doctor Who and this news from the world of football sat a little differently.
These were, by no means, the first and only examples of recent milestones in LGBTQ+ visibility and representation. In the same week came the announcement that 18-year-old transgender woman Yasmin Finney – another Heartstopper cast member – had been cast as Rose in the upcoming Doctor Who series. Thankfully the response to Daniels sharing his sexuality has been the total opposite: the FA labelled him an “inspiration”, while England striker Harry Kane tweeted: “Massive credit to you … and the way your friends, family, club, and captain have supported you”. In 2019, he and his daughter launched the Justin Fashanu Foundation to eliminate prejudice in football. Years later, John spoke about his regret over how he treated his older brother. Brian Clough, Justin’s manager at Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, described his star player as a “a bloody poof”. A week after Fashanu came out more than three decades ago, his own brother – fellow footballer John – all but disowned him: “John Fashanu: My gay brother is an outcast” read a headline in The Voice.
By the time – in episode eight – the two main characters had truly fallen for each other, teenage Blackpool FC footballer Jake Daniels had come out he was the first gay male professional footballer to do so since Justin Fashanu in 1990. Photograph: PA Images/AlamyĪs the Heartstopper plot unfolded, however, so too did a real-life event. My own similar experiences at school, I believed, had taught me far better the notion that television executives would commission – or that British audiences would welcome – a mainstream, queer and adolescent happily-ever-after was firmly beyond the realms of possibility in my jaded millennial mind.Ī Norwich City player wears a t-shirt supporting Jake Daniels earlier this month.
The idea that the show might end as it did – with a tear-jerkingly joyful celebration of young queer love in full bloom, depicted gorgeously – seemed impossible. “There’s no way,” I declared to my partner with confidence, “that this is going to end well.” His love would go unrequited. Aimed primarily at a younger audience, the show is about an openly gay male sixth former at an English comprehensive (played by 18-year-old Joe Locke) who falls in love with the school’s most popular rugby player in the year above. B arely three minutes into the first episode of Heartstopper – Netflix’s new LGBTQ+ coming-of-age romcom series, which has been a knockout success with critics and viewers – I turned to my boyfriend, curled up next to me on the sofa.