jelly-bean-jones:

Just a little sprinkle of golden information for you in this day and age where every Hollywood executive seems like a piece of shit: My personal hero and inspiration, Greg Berlanti, who probably has a hand in at least 2 of your current favorite shows, was the show runner of the best season of YA TV ever, Season 3 of Dawsons Creek. During that time, the network was considering not airing the episode where Jack comes out as gay to his father, just to have his father reject him. Berlanti, instead of rolling over for the network as so many others would do, simply stated that if they chose not to air the episode (which was close to his heart, as he lived throughs similar experiences) he would walk away from the show completely (the biggest show on TV at the time). 

The episode, as you know, aired. It was groundbreaking then, and 20 years later, still grounded breaking now. 

Yes, Greg Berlanti is a white man, but he’s a gay man. A gay man who in the early 90′s was working his way up in television and insisting that his struggles and his identity get represented through the work he did, no matter the cost. He persisted, and because of that, was not only able to gain a wild amount of success in his own life, but actually influenced and created safe environments for people who were facing the same battles he once did. 

And now, today, he releases “Love, Simon”. The first ever major motion picture to star a gay male protagonist (and it’s a romantic, comedy, too!), proving that all of us want, deserve and can relate to and epic love story. No matter what our sexual orientation. 

I know a lot of CW affiliated writers/directors/producers are shunned on social media because of their choices and their writing and their creative decisions but please remember to celebrate the ones who are still around fighting to create voices for those of us that are still screaming to be heard. Greg put his entire career on the line so that every single scared, closeted gay man (or woman) could finally see themselves represented on television (wrote in the first gay kiss on network TV). Now he is directing the first romantic comedy staring a gay male that not only members of the LGBTQ community can relate to, but who everyone can relate to. 

Thank you, Greg Berlanti. Look at what you’ve done for us.