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CLOSETED GAY DATING SITE TV
To have your teen years celebrated, or just seen, is a right all of us should have had and Heartstopper shows an essential part of growing up that future queer generations will hopefully always have access to.įor many of us growing up LGBTQ+, the most transformative example of the LGBTQ+ experience on TV was Queer as Folk, which no doubt built our confidence, united us and showed the world just how brilliant the community can be. While so many of us mourn the queer love we never had by watching Nick and Charlie, speak to any LGBTQ+ person today and I’m sure they’ll tell you, ‘thank god the queer kids coming up next have Heartstopper’. Until not too long ago, I could never have imagined Charlie and Nick’s story even existing, never mind being told with the authenticity, care and promise that you’ll find in Heartstopper. From there I moved to Bristol and found the friends I would love and grow with for the rest of my life, who would show me what it felt like to be accepted.īut it wasn’t until I moved to London at 26 before I plucked up the courage to ever go on a date, because the closeted teen I spent years being was still there, and probably always will be.
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It’s been almost 15 years since I left Stoke. Instead, he was tormented by bullies with few people coming to his defense, including me, which is something that regularly haunts me today.įor the LGBTQ+ generation that came before Heartstopper, coming out at school felt impossible, let alone holding hands or kissing someone of the same sex in front everyone else.īut it’s not just the experience of teenage love that wasn’t an option for gay kids like me, it was the joy of sharing it with everyone else who was experiencing it at the same time too. There was a boy at school who came out when we were 14, which in 2001 was pretty much unthinkable. Not just because my internal shame would never allow it, but it wasn’t safe. Growing up in Stoke, which isn’t famed for its pioneering liberalism, there was absolutely no way I’d be able to share the moment I lost my virginity, had my first kiss or even felt a spark fly when my hand grazed another boy’s like that might have meant something. While my friends and I were all coming of age, I watched on as they had their first kiss behind the school tennis courts, and then gleefully dashed back to the playground to tell everyone about it.Īs we got older, some lost their virginities and we all celebrated like it was a triumph we were all striving for – to become young adults in serious relationships.