“Love, Victor”: A Precious Pride Month Gift
One month ago today, a streaming series spinoff of the groundbreaking big-screen teenage romantic comedy premiered on Hulu. And it was a lovely escape from one of the darkest Pride months in history.
2020 was supposed to be a landmark year for Pride. New York City was set to host a 50th anniversary celebration of the first Pride Parade in June and huge events were set up all over the world. But with the havoc wrought by COVID-19 this year and the stunning and long overdue racial reckoning that erupted in the U.S. in June, Pride events were moved online or canceled altogether. Typically, I participate in some sort of outside festivities and use the month to make a renewed effort to catch up on LGBTQ books, music, movies, and television series I have missed. This year, however, Pride — both the celebration and the emotion — were far from the forefront of my mind.
That’s what made the arrival of Love, Victor so special for me.
The high school-set series is a spinoff of the groundbreaking 2018 romantic comedy Love, Simon, which marked the first time a major Hollywood studio released a teenage romantic comedy with a gay lead. The release of that film impacted me immensely and my reflections on what it would have meant to me had it been released when I was a teenager resulted in my most resonant and well-received article to…
