Normalizing Queerness, One Gay Kiss at a Time ‘Love, Victor’ stars Michael Cimino and George Sear on bringing gay sex to their YA series and impacting LGBTQ+ youth
By Chris Azzopardi
“Love, Victor,” now in its second season, refuses to navigate coming out as simply a one-note experience.
The gay teen-romance, a series spinoff of the groundbreaking “Love, Simon” feature film, launched its debut season last year on Hulu. The first season was created for Disney+, but the company declined to air it after filming was complete. The show, Disney execs decided, was too grown-up for its young audience. Season 2, then, was created with Hulu audiences in mind, which means more mature emotional themes and a good amount of gay nooky — in fact, an entire episode is devoted to the show’s romantic leads, Victor (Michael Cimino) and Benji (George Sear), having sex.
This season, the series follows Victor as a newly out high schooler, from all sorts of Benji-Victor (“Venji,” as they’ve been collectively coined) romantic side plots –– meeting the parents, learning about gay sex — to how homophobia, when complicated by deep-rooted cultural and religious beliefs, has to be unlearned.
Before you read any further, know that this interview with Cimino and Sear, who talk about all that making out (and why they opted out of an intimacy coach for those sex scenes), includes some spoilers.
You guys owe me a few boxes of tissues for all the crying I did last night binging this season.
George Sear: Yeah, it’s an emotional one.
Michael Cimino: It’s a roller coaster, for sure.
Sear: I, myself, was tearing up yesterday because I watched the first three episodes, and particularly the scenes with the parents.
I also just have to start by saying that if I saw two boys making out as much as you two do in this season of “Love, Victor”when I was 16 years old, I would have made out with a lot more guys. Like, where were you in 1995?
Cimino: I was still, um, not even a thought! I wasn’t even a thought in either of my parents’ heads. But no, I think we’re moving in the right direction. I don’t think we’re in a very different time, but I think that we’re moving in the right direction (with) shows like this, where young LGBT youth can watch it and be like, “Oh, this is normal. This is OK.”
I feel like a lot of straight teens are like, “Oh yeah, I can make out with this person or this person, and it’s completely fine.” But it should be exactly the same for the LGBT community. They should feel no pressure and (it) should be completely normal to just kiss people in public.
Or have sex with your boyfriend and have your mom or dad catch you, because that also happens with gay people.
Cimino: Yes — yes, it does. It totally does. And I think that, obviously, right now, we’re definitely talking about… this show is definitely (about) queer Latinos and I love that about it. I think that it’s kind of exactly like every other straight teen show but except through a queer lens. I love that part about “Love, Victor.”
Sear: It does show the difficult realities of coming out in today’s age, which is a difficult thing for most people, but also just the joy in celebrating who you are and embracing who you are on the other side of that. And living your truth.
I think gay sex has been really neglected on television and I was pleased to see the second season of “Love, Victor”really go there with the sex. What did you appreciate about the way that this season tackled sex, George?
Sear: I think just having LGBTQ writers bring their stories and their experiences into the script brings this authenticity and realness to the stories. So the writing is all there. You know, as an actor to be able to play this part and then have such great quality writing is really kind of everything. What about you, Mike?
Cimino: Honestly, the whole representation of Victor’s sexual awakening and his sex life with Benji definitely relies a lot on George and I’s chemistry. I think that George is — sorry to give you your flowers on here — so easy to work with and so incredibly understanding and so willing to just do things and try different things (to) see what works and what doesn’t.
Sear: Yeah, it felt very explorative on set, didn’t it?
Cimino: Yeah, for sure.
Sear: They did say, “Do you want an intimacy coach?” and we felt, to be honest, both really dedicated to these characters and wanted to honor this writing and we just sort of felt like we had a closeness and were able to do that on set.
Cimino: We actually completely opted out of having an intimacy coach. George and I both felt like we were very comfortable with each other already. We really just went for it, and I think that that kind of reads on screen, where it felt very explorative. It felt very new and exciting, and I think that’s something that’s really, really cool.
I don’t know how you guys identify, but there’s this conversation about straight people playing queer roles and if you are straight, you know what, you did your job. You were so believable in these parts. I really felt this relationship was a real relationship.
Cimino: Thank you.
Sear: Thank you for saying that.
Cimino: That means a lot to hear because that is obviously a topic for discussion, and I’m glad it’s a conversation we’re having. I think conversations such as those should be had, but I think, realistically, it relies purely on an actor-to-actor basis. I feel like there are actors that are taking LGBT roles and not representing the community in an accurate way. They’re taking it as a cash grab and then they don’t represent the community afterwards, where it’s like you’re not advocating for the community. They’re not donating money to LGBT charities, they’re not trying to do things that will help the LGBT community, but they’re just taking the role because it’s a cash grab or, “Oh, it seems like it will make a difference in my career.”
What has it been like for both of you to bring this Venji romance to life on screen?
Sear: It’s an ever-ongoing journey, particularly the difference between Season 1 and Season 2. Being on Hulu this time around, being able to tell more realistic stories, it’s been great to be able to continue playing these characters and exploring their journeys collectively and individually and just exploring it in other areas, really, that we maybe weren’t able to do in Season 1 (on Disney+). So, it’s been great, and I hope we get the chance to get back to it.
Cimino: Definitely.
You have to do it again. You cannot leave me like you left me at the end of this season.
Sear: No, no. We’ll manifest it.
Cimino: Yes. For sure, for sure. We’ve got to manifest it.
Michael, are you Team Venji or Team Vahim?
Cimino: Oh, man. I feel like… I don’t know. I haven’t been able to watch the show in its entirety, so I can’t really say. I’m so torn.
Sear: Yeah. He doesn’t want to let you down on this interview, that’s what he’s saying.
Cimino: I feel so torn.
Sear: No, I think ultimately you probably just want Victor to be happy.
Cimino: Yes, exactly. We just want Victor to be happy.
That’s a pretty good non-answer.
Sear: That’s a very good deflective answer, isn’t it?
Cimino: I’m just… I’m confused, OK!
My opinion on the third season is that you three just form a throuple.
Sear: Hey, we’ll pitch it.
Cimino: (Laughs.) Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll pitch it. We’ll put you in the “special thanks.”
Because the show has had an immense impact on LGBTQ+ youth —I mean, it would have changed my life, like I told you, when I was 16 —what’s one letter you’ve received from a queer fan that really made you feel like what you were doing here was really affecting lives?
Sear: Off the bat, one that sticks out to me — because there have been many — (was a) message from someone who’s in the military. I don’t think they had a very good experience with their sexuality, obviously, with the way things are in the military. And they said watching the show really just made them feel some sort of acceptance, and heard.
Cimino: I’ve gotten so many messages, but some of the ones that stick out to me the most are (from) people that are literally Latino and they’re like, “This is my exact story and this is exactly what I’ve been going through with my mom, or my dad, or my uncle.” It’s crazy to know that we’re still not in that place where people can just accept their children or their family for just being true to who they are as people. I think that it’s really inspiring for me as an artist to continue to push myself harder and to continue to represent the community in an accurate way because I get to see the impact it’s making on people’s lives.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Chris Azzopardi is the Editorial Director of Pride Source Media Group and Q Syndicate, the national LGBTQ wire service. He has interviewed a multitude of superstars, including Cher, Meryl Streep, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, GQ and Billboard. Reach him via Twitter @chrisazzopardi.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America, in partnership with Gill Foundation, will further build the capacity of local Boys and Girls Clubs staff members throughout the country to enable staff members to create a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) youth, their families and caregivers.
With over 4,700 local Clubs nationwide, Boys & Girls Clubs of America serves around 4.6 million youth a year, many of whom identify as LGBTQ. As research shows that LGBTQ youth with supportive communities have greater self-esteem and resilience, Boys & Girls Clubs of America remains committed to doing whatever it takes to position our youth for great futures, including young people of every sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
Adding to its 160 years of experience in youth development, Boys & Girls Clubs of America will gain specialized knowledge and skills for how to best support LGBTQ youth, a critical component to the enhancement of overall safety and well-being for youth, serving as a protective factor for major health risks and negative outcomes.
“Being inclusive goes beyond creating safe, welcoming spaces for youth, it means that we are allowing everyone the freedom to be exactly who they are and reminding them that we accept them every step of the way as they continue to explore their most authentic selves,” says Crystal Brown, National Vice President of Youth Development at Boys & Girls Clubs of America. “We’re extremely grateful to the Gill Foundation for its continued commitment to educating Club staff as they continue to support LGBTQ youth.”
With support from Gill Foundation, a 2-hour instructor-led foundational course, “Serving LGBTQ Youth (101)”, will offer participants the knowledge and understanding needed to offer a safe, positive environment for youth, staff and families of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions.
The course will be digitized and made accessible to all Clubs year-round covering definitions for common language used when discussing gender identity and sexual orientation, how to use affirming language while working with LGBTQ youth in Clubs and how to support LGBTQ youth through common scenarios that occur at the Club.
About Gill Foundation
The Gill Foundation is one of the nation’s leading funders of efforts to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. The foundation makes grants to nonprofit organizations that advance equality by doing research, educating the public, analyzing policy, and working within the legal system.
About Boys & Girls Club of America
For 160 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA.org) has provided a safe place for kids and teens to learn and grow. Clubs offer caring adult mentors, fun and friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours. Boys & Girls Clubs programming promotes academic success, good character and leadership, and healthy lifestyles. More than 4,700 Clubs serve over 4.6 million young people through Club membership and community outreach. Clubs are located in cities, towns, public housing and on Native lands throughout the country, and serve military families in BGCA-affiliated Youth Centers on U.S. military installations worldwide. National headquarters is located in Atlanta. Learn more about Boys & Girls Clubs of America on Facebook and Twitter.
A digital exhibition “A Day in the Queer Life of Asian Pacific America” is now available at smithsonianapa.org. The exhibition, which will be updated with new material through August, is a collaboration of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, AARP and Kundiman.
The past 50 years have witnessed huge strides in visibility for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, but with little attention focused on Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences. Featuring solicited and crowd-sourced media, including short film, photography, boomerangs, video poems and a long-form essays, this virtual exhibition explores queer life in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities throughout the country.
Featured sections of the exhibition include:
Queer Elders: a series of four video shorts of queer elders in San Francisco, Los Angeles and sites in the South and Midwest U.S., curated by archivist, photographer and filmmaker Mia Nakano
Queer Check-ins: a series of 12 video poem “check ins” by queer diasporic poets throughout the U.S. and beyond, curated by poet Franny Choi
Queer Youth: crowd-sourced photography and short video by queer youth
Queer Motion: crowd-sourced boomerangs exploring queer survival, heartbreak and joy set to motion
Queer Time: a long-form essay on queer experience of time by poet Rajiv Mohabir
“As an extension of our 2014 digital exhibition ‘A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America,’ this project examines everyday life all across Asian Pacific America in order to illuminate the vast and complex nature of the Asian Pacific American identity,” said Lisa Sasaki, the director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. “Most importantly, it brings much-needed visibility to the Asian American and Pacific Islander LGBTQ community by sharing the stories of elders, youth and—through calls for crowd-sourced material—any community member.”
“A Day in the Queer Life of Asian Pacific America” uses the designation “queer” to understand sexual and gender identity as often fluid and complex, while recognizing the term’s histories of derogatory usage.
“The 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall uprising feels like a good time to take stock of how far we’ve come and how far we must go to ensure that all LGBT older adults are free to be their whole selves, in every community under the rainbow, without fear of any kind of discrimination,” said Nii-Quartelai Quartey, AARP senior advisor and national LGBT liaison. “AARP is proud to do our part to advance and maintain the dignity of all of our members.”
Todrick Hall talks reinvention, industry bias and what drives his advocacy By Eve Kucharski
Todrick Hall is serving bitch but making it, as he says on his latest record, fashòn. The album’s title, “Femuline,” is exactly as it seems: the blending of feminine and masculine attributes to create a greater, queerer whole. That theme serves as the perfect narrative for an artist who has made a music career out of reimagining classic stories like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Cinderella” through his own creative lens. The difference this time, he says, was that there was no “pre-existing blueprint.”
“It may exist, but I’ve never heard a song talking about how you can be both: you can be a prince, you can be a princess; you can be the bride, you can be the groom. And that was very interesting for me to explore,” Hall says. “But it was uncharted territory as far as I know.”
Full of club-ready bangers that seem tailor-made for Pride season, “Femuline” is Hall’s “open love letter to the LGBTQ community,” he says. An already queer experience is made queerer thanks to both LGBTQ+ and allied icons like Brandy, Tyra Banks, TS Madison, Chaka Khan, and, of course, Hall’s signature Broadway vocals.
So far in his career, Hall has been part of multiple Broadway smash hits, secured a spot as a recurring guest judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and amassed a whopping 44 million views on YouTube with his 2019 “Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels” breakthrough single. Considering Hall only made the move to Los Angeles a decade ago, it’s all the more impressive that his hard-won successes have been so consistent and plentiful. Not even the vision board that he created upon his permanent move out West could’ve prepared the Plainview, Texas, native for everything he has accomplished at this point in his career. “It wouldn’t have included any of these things because I wouldn’t have had the courage and the wisdom and the diversity and the acceptance and the permission from society to be able to put things on there,” Hall says. “As a dreamer, I still even limited my dreams at that time.”
He says that shortly after breaking into the industry he realized that, because of societal stigma and bias, his identity as a Black gay man would only make achieving his goals more difficult than he imagined. Hall recalls a distinct moment on the Broadway stage when another Black performer in “The Color Purple” pulled him aside and told him that he was never going to get away with mediocrity.
“And in every Broadway show that I’ve ever been in, I had to tumble,” he says. “I had to be doing backflips and leaping across the stage, and riffing and singing high, and understudying 8 billion roles while I saw my counterparts that were a different race come in and give, in some cases not even a mediocre performance, but the skill set that was required for them [to succeed] was lower,” Hall says.
In some ways, Hall says he views the high standards society places on him as a compliment, as an expectation to only bring the best quality to his work. Yet he recognizes their deeply problematic nature, racist origins and the consequences those standards have on both himself and fellow Black performers.
“You expect Black women to get up and out-sing everyone on the stage. If she doesn’t sing ‘And I Am Telling You’ or ‘I Will Always Love You,’ then why is she there?” he says. “To me, I think a Black woman should be able to get up and sing ‘Part of Your World’ from ‘The Little Mermaid.’ The reality is that there are a lot of people who are musical-theater performers that, if they can’t deliver a gospel Jennifer Holliday-, Jennifer Hudson-, Beyoncé-esque performance, their opportunities to perform and exist in entertainment are almost nonexistent.”
To Hall, one of the keys to dispelling the stigma that still persists around identity, whether conscious or not, is to push for representation whenever possible – not only of Black entertainers but those who are LGBTQ+ as well.
“Some days I wake up and I’m like, ‘You should be grateful for the things that you have.’ But then there are other days where I’m like, ‘You can count on one hand, without using most of your fingers, the amount of gay men who have come out and been gay when they were popular on the radio,’” he says, lamenting that he’s never heard a man sing a love song to another man on mainstream radio.
He adds that Hollywood’s acceptance of Black queer artists in 2021 isn’t enough: “We’re accepting breadcrumbs when we should get a slice of bread at this point.” Hall believes that it should be a requirement and not an exception for radio stations to play same-sex love songs as a means of normalizing ideas of LGBTQ+ acceptance. Really, though, he’s out of patience for people who use a handful of examples of Black representation in popular culture as an excuse to say that visibility is equitable. “People can make the decision to be like, ‘Yeah, there wasn’t a lot.’ Or they can bring up the fact that Oprah existed and be like, ‘That’s enough,’ when that wasn’t enough,” Hall says.
That extends to LGBTQ+ artists, too. He points to Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” as an example of audacious content created by a talented Black gay artist who’s seeking to break free from societal expectations of what Black queerness should look like.
“He probably knows singing a song that’s just a format that the Jonas Brothers, that Shawn Mendes, that James Arthur, that Ed Sheeran, that Sam Smith have been able to do would not be enough,” he says.
His passion about this topic and advocating for representation in his work comes from a personal place. A place, he says, that was born of being told “no” because of his Black, queer identity. It’s those roots that inspired him to take on advocacy projects outside of music like being the face of Morphe’s “Live With Love” palette whose full proceeds will go to benefit The Trevor Project. But as vocal as he is about causes he cares about, Hall doesn’t feel every artist needs to be required to use their platform for advocacy — it’s just the “cherry on top” if they do.
Looking ahead, it won’t be until 2022 that fans will get to see Hall perform “Femuline” live, seeing as how COVID-19 has thrown things off-kilter for nearly every touring artist’s schedule. But until then, there’s no question about what he needs to do next: “knock down walls and barriers so that the people that come after me are able to just strut without having to stress out [about] the things that I had to worry about that made me believe that I could never accomplish my dreams.”
Dallas Woody’s Neighborhood gay bar offering a mix of special events, from showtune sing-alongs to comedy nights. dallaswoodys.com
JR’s Bar & Grill Sprawling, iconic gay club serving American eats in contemporary & traditional spaces since 1980. www.jrsdallas.com
Round Up Saloon Tequilas, line-dance lessons & special events star at this country-western gay bar & dance hall. www.roundupsaloon.com
Station 4 DJ-driven nightclub featuring a 24,000-sq.-ft. dance area, plus a top-floor drag show lounge. station4dallas.com
Hidden Door Inc Long-standing GLBT watering hole with a patio offering cocktails & draft beers, plus pool & darts. www.hiddendoor.bar
Kaliente Latin, LGBT nightspot offering beers cocktails, DJs, events & other entertainment. (no website)
The Mining Company Gay nightclub featuring live entertainment & DJs with a dance floor, billiards & two outdoor patios. tmcdallas.com Pekers Enduring neighborhood gay hangout in a strip mall offering happy hours & karaoke in a relaxed space. www.pekersbar.com
What did the first run of “The L Word” get wrong? It’s a question that was posed to veteran stars Jennifer Beals, Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig on Zoom one recent afternoon.
“Haircuts!” Hailey, 50, exclaims. “First season outfits, sunglasses,” adds Moennig, 43. Of course Hailey can’t deny it: “There were some bad sunglasses,” she emphasizes. But the actresses who helped revolutionize queer characters on TV with “The L Word” when the show first aired on Showtime from 2004 to 2009 are also fully aware that the shades, the cuts and the outfits aren’t the only thing that hasn’t aged particularly well.
The series, for as groundbreaking as it was then, has been criticized for missing the mark on trans representation. It’s hard to ignore that fact retroactively in the years following the show, as trans issues are finally at the forefront of our cultural and political landscape. “We were where we were when we were there,” Hailey says, noting this is a common response of hers when asked about the passé parts of the show’s initial run, something she seems to be asked about often.
“It’s so easy to be the Monday morning quarterback at this point. The show is dated stylistically, but thematically I think it still holds up.”
Moennig isn’t reticent about holding the show accountable for “storylines that are considered problematic now.” “There’s no denying that,” she says. “But at that time, no one was there to hurt anyone’s feelings or disparage anyone. That’s what we knew then.”
As the tide keeps turning for LGBTQ+ progress in this country, so does content that reflects those shifts. Between the original series and the 10 years that passed before the reboot premiered on Showtime in 2019, Hailey, Moennig and Beals saw an opportunity: to feature a young, diverse cast of LGBTQ+ characters who could reflect contemporary queer life, along with delving into modern love dynamics like polyamory.
Though the three actresses aren’t writing the episodes, they’re still doing their due diligence. “We need to make sure that our show is relevant,” says Hailey, who adds that during the decade the show was off the air “the world was changing before our eyes.” She says they felt not only a “responsibility to bring these characters back to show how they’re living in today’s world, but also: ‘Let’s bring on some new characters to represent people in the community.’”
Seeing as though they’ve “completely changed language,” Beals, 57, was thrilled to spotlight a new LGBTQ+ generation. “They’ve added words to the dictionary — non-binary used to be just a mathematical term,” she says. “We look at language in a different way (because) of this generation who refused to be anything other than self-identified. So to be able to bring the show back on and explore those stories is really important and exciting to me.”
At the onset of “Generation Q,” Beals, who plays Bette, expressed what subject matter she wanted to see represented in the series. One of those issues was race, especially colorism, in the LGBTQ+ community. Aging, which was also on her mind, was a topic she brought to the writers’ room. Her suggestion led to an exploration of Bette’s menopausal experiences in Season 1 of “Generation Q.”
“For me, the show in itself is doing a lot of that work when it comes to personally my character,” Hailey says. “I want to go into personal stories and I feel like through that kind of representation, just being a gay woman and showing what we go through, is doing that work. It’s not always about getting on the soapbox — it’s about the subtleties of what we do.”
Moennig’s on the same page. She feels the show, by its very queer nature, is innately political, and always on her mind while filming is: “How do I make this as honest as possible?”
“It’s the little things that actually seem to provide a lot of impact,” she adds. Moennig recognizes that, from the beginning, the show was always meant to be a “celebration, not a woe-is-me fest.”
It still is, she says.
Beals wholeheartedly agrees: “It’s primarily centered in joy and the smaller moments, and I think in that way it’s been really forward-moving.”
In Season 1, Alice (Hailey) navigates a throuple, Shane (Moennig) opens a queer bar, and Bette (Beals) is co-parenting Angie (Jordan Hull) with ex Tina (Laurel Holloman). Season 2 finds Bette more deeply exploring her mother-daughter relationship with Angie, while Alice writes a book that brings buried personal issues to the surface, things she hasn’t quite figured out yet — “a lot of stuff you would think she might’ve at her age,” Hailey says, laughing. And what’s going on with Shane? Moennig says to expect “a very, very slow burn where you’re going to have to watch a good majority of the season to get any kind of answer.”
As for bringing their Alice, Bette and Shane together with the cast of the upcoming “Queer as Folk” reboot — well, it’s not an impossible idea. “That would be amazing!” Beals says. “Boy, would that be cool,” Hailey adds. “That’d be fun.”
And Beals, enthused by these two queer universes colliding, knows just the person to unite these iconic casts: “I know Alice is going to host a party and everybody’s going to be there.”
