Every teenager dreams of a magical moment on top of a ferris wheel with their significant other. Love, Simon gives the opportunity for everyone to have the love story of their dreams. 

Love, Simon tells the story of a high schooler, Simon, who struggles with a big secret. He’s gay. He has yet to tell his family and is exchanging emails with another classmate who he secretly loves. Simon’s life suddenly turns upside down and his struggles are hilarious as well as heartwarming. It truly is one for the books, with a mix of a classic love story and a modern twist that appeals to younger generations as freshmen and Gay Straight Alliance member Alex Lewis stated. 

“Love, Simon presents the perspective of the struggle of coming out and it gives a happy ending, which a lot of films about the LGBT community do not,” Lewis said “It also shows the different reactions from it, just from immediate acceptance to taking a long time to reconcile yourself with it which is something that is often not portrayed.”

This movie also was an extremely standout in portraying gay people because it portrayed the LGBT community in a more positive light. Gay Straight Alliance co-President, senior Zoe Pham, discussed whys she thought this movie was especially positive. 

“I think it is unique because a lot of other LGBT movies show how society degrades them or their struggle in the world,” Pham. “But, in this one, even though he was outed, like when he came out to his parents it was a very positive response and his friends were there for him even though they were hurt in other ways. It portrayed how it should be, how people should still have a positive relationship with your friends and family, versus a lot of the other movies where people are gay, and are not accepted.” 

The movie was especially popular among teens as sophomore Olivia Baba states. 

“I really loved the movie,” Baba said. “It made me laugh and cry both which rarely happens. I think people liked it because it showed real interactions between friends that was more relatable than what is generally seen in movies.” 

Love, Simon also manages to help change society’s perspective on not only gay people, but on the whole LGBT community as a whole. Pham discussed how people were becoming more open to this idea. 

“We are slowly becoming more accepting worldwide and there are starting to be more gay rights,” Pham said. “And as it is getting represented in the media, people are acknowledging that these people exist and that we need to accept them.”

While Lewis was happy about the promotion of the LGBT community in society, she discussed how she hoped that the media would continue to help make this a more open and conversational topic. 

“I think that because it is occurring more, it is talked about more and more,” Lewis said. “People are starting to realize that this is not something that is going away. It is not a phase of society, which is what we are often told. It is a community that is here to stay, and we have been here for as long as humanity has existed like we even see examples of homosexuality in animals. And I think we are finally realizing it is just a normal thing and that is really important.”

Lewis continued to discuss how while this is a positive move toward the right direction and a more accepting society she hoped that this positivity would continue to grow. 

“I think this is a really good first step,” Lewis said. “It was a huge wave of acceptance and I think in Hollywood and people in general need to take this and take a step further where we see more films with trans, binary and gender fluid characters and all of the nuances of the LGBT community because it is such a wide and diverse community. We need to keep this going and have this normalized.”courtesy of imbd.com
courtesy of imbd.com