sciatrix

One thing I fucking love about Holt is that the portrayal of an older, well-established gay man is absolutely pitch perfect, in the sense that–he is neither a one-dimensional Activist Who Cares About Nothing But His Community nor the other trap that middle-aged gay men tend to fall into on mainstream comedy, going “eh, fuck it, I got mine” and joking about fleeing the city for Pride and being faintly embarrassed by activism. Holt’s not a professional activist–he’s got his career and that’s his priority–but he also clearly cares about his community, and tbh as someone who has done the whole founding something because no one else cared enough to do it and then being challenged by someone who has better ideas for the organization… well, his response to the whole AAGLNYCPA thing is 100% on point. Fuck. I have so many feelings about him.

( tucked under a cut so as to not take up TOO much room )

I think that’s a huge strength of the show, and one that ought to be replicated more often: if you’re having a character stand in for one marginalized experience in your writing, make an effort to bring in a second character occupying a similar experience to play off of them with. Just one, and nothing you do with the character can escape the notion that you’re making a commentary on stereotypes or the dialogue between stereotyping and personhood and reality. But if you have two, you immediately can point to the places where their personalities respond to the expectations around them differently, and surprise: there’s a fully realized, human pair of characters that suddenly feel 100% more human and deeply realized than otherwise.