One Day at a Time and Young Queer Love
by Maya Williams
I am so grateful to PopTV for picking up the series One Day at a Time after its cancellation from Netflix. For those who haven’t seen or heard of it, One Day at a Time is a sitcom about the Alvarez family, a Cuban American family who are, literally, taking one day at time in their daily lives of antics at home and social issues outside of the home. The show has also been praised for its LGBTQ+ representation, particularly in the character Elena (played by Isabella Gomez). Elena is the oldest daughter of the Alvarez household who comes out to her family as gay in Season One and in Season Two starts dating Syd (played by Sheridan Pierce), who is non-binary and likes being called by Elena as a “syd”nificant other.
In One Day at Time’s first episode of its fourth season, Elena and Syd are preparing for college, and initially decide to break up before school starts. Their decision is influenced by not wanting to be “those” young couples that stay together from high school to college only to break up later. However, after unsuccessfully trying to give each other distance as a way to prepare for what’s to come, Elena’s grandmother Lydia (played by Rita Moreno) calls Syd over to help Elena feel better. Elena and Syd eventually decide that because they love each other in the now, and they don’t want to give in to other people’s perceptions of them as a couple, Elena says, “Screw it. Let’s be ‘those people.’”
It is a really sweet story to open this season. As more and more queer relationships are becoming normalized on our television and movie screens, it’s refreshing to notice how they face challenges whether they are explicitly related to their status as a queer relationship or not. Elena and Syd talk about the queerphobia they have faced as a couple in Season Three, but throughout the course of their dating we see the pressures of wanting to come across a certain way either to each other or the people around them outside of being gay or non-binary. I’m certain that their conversation about the future of their relationship is like a lot of conversations queer and trans youth are having as they continue navigating what may be their first romantic relationships; especially a relationship that has been out and open to their families, friends, and communities.
I hope that youth are watching the episode and are able to question how Elena and Syd’s communication may be applied in their own dating lives. I also hope that they watch it while also remembering how this is one young queer love story being represented. Whatever their story is, or whatever they want it to be, they can make the choices that feel right to them. None of the viewers know the future of Elena and Syd, but we do know that we’ll enjoy the course of their journey in the now, as they have invited each other to do the same.
About the Author:
Maya Williams (she/they) is a Black Mixed Race queer suicide survivor currently residing in Portland, ME. She has a Masters in Social Work with a Certificate in Applied Arts and Social Justice and published essays in venues such as The Tempest, Rooted in Rights, O.School, Black Youth Project, and more. They also work as a spoken word poet and actor/consent educator with a non-profit in Maine. Follow Maya @emmdubb16 on Twitter and Instagram. Maya also has a website: https://www.mayawilliamspoet.com/
