For many, many years now the media has been fixated on representing one thing: heterosexual couples. They are the underlying love plot lines in action and horror movies and they are the stars of almost all of our romances, and it seems that is the way it has been since the beginning of film and television. Now, 2018 did give us some great films such as Love, Simon and Boy Erased that have a main focus on the LGBT+ committee, but they are not what I am referring to per say.

Im ready for movies to start coming out that show LGBT+ couples in the same relationships and facing the same problems as straight couples. Personally I think its important for everyone, no matter how they identify, to have a movie or a television show that they can see themselves in, that does not make them ashamed of who they are, they they can watch over and over and over again and really feel like they belong in this world and that they are normal.

I never realized how important this was until I started watching a show and found a character that I related to more than any one I had ever seen before. I used to be so confused about myself but that show took all my confusion, put it into words, and put it out into the world like it was no big deal. It means the world to me that they did that because they did not have to. They could have easily passed it off as something else, put the blame on something more relatable to so many other viewers, but they didn't. The way they wrote the character, even if not relatable to every viewer, was relatable to me, and it was something I had never witnessed in my 19 years and it made me feel like I mattered. Like I had a place in this world and I was normal, not just some confused weirdo who will get over it eventually.

Since watching that show I have truly realized just how influential media on the screen can be. All I want for 2019 is for directors and producers to realize that yes, everyone loves a good romance, but diversify it! Gay relationships, trans relationships, even ace relationships all deserve their time to shine, and every person who identifies as LGBT+ deserves a chance to see themselves on the big screen.