Warning: This contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen it yet, don't read further.
"Love, Simon" is the coming out story we all needed to understand. Sure, it is a movie and there is a happy ending, but it is all one and the same. In the movie, the main character gets "outed" by one of his classmates because he couldn't get his friend to go out with that person. Simon then tells him that he took what wasn't his; that coming out was HIS decision and it was taken away from him.
Simon's classmate was very angry at first because he was rejected by the girl, so he put up pictures of Simon's emails with another closeted gay kid at school online and that stirred up trouble. Surprisingly, almost everyone was fine with it. But that is not the point. Even out of vengeance, coming out should have been left to the person who is closeted, not an angry straight male who didn't get his way.
The movie itself was also very funny. It had that "Mean Girls" style of humor in it. The part where they showed what it was like "coming out" as straight in the reverse scenario was HILARIOUS. All the teachers in the school are pretty dumb so that adds to the humor.
Going back to the closeted LGBTQ storyline, it is EXTREMELY hard to come out in real life, not for others, but for yourself. It is not so much about acceptance from others (even though some of it is), it is more about the acceptance of yourself. I've known many people who have come to terms with it themselves and are actually quite confident about it. It is all about comfort. And once you feel it, it is less important what other people think. I believe Nick Robinson, the actor who portrayed Simon, did a great job of displaying that confidence.
It is important to have movies like this because they aren't so common and normalizing the situation makes people feel more comfortable with the idea. Showing the point of view of Simon is groundbreaking. Also, the fact that it was someone who was "popular," and seemed to "have it all," and was hiding this, shows that you never know what is going on in someone's thought process and you can't assume their life is perfect.
This movie got a 91% from Rotten Tomatoes and I couldn't agree more. It combines a tough subject with humor and overall it is a great experience. I'd watch it again!
