Enhance Productions

I’ve held residency in one state my entire life. I’ve never seen the white house or the U.S. capital. I’ve never visited London or experienced Buckingham Palace. I’ve only ever experienced what it is to be a gay man living in a red state; Alabama, USA.

Luckily, I’ve been fortunate enough to build a pretty amazing career in film which has brought me in contact with people from all over the world. A very close friend of mine I met through work told me about a movie she was working on throughout 2022 that was going to be called Red, White, and Royal Blue. She raved about the cast and story, assuring me that I’d love it, but I wasn’t convinced.

Shortly before the movie started its production, I experienced a deep heartbreak that only someone who has experienced the loss of the person they loved could relate to. Being a gay man who had never dated anyone from outside of the barren southeast had been unkind to me.

While my friend was in England experiencing the adaptation of the LGBTQ+ love story, I was in Charlotte, North Carolina working on a feature that could only be described as a “dude-bro comedy”. As you could guess, there was no relatable LGBTQ+ representation. As a matter of fact, I’ve only ever worked on one feature that had a character like me and it was for a total of about five minutes before the script shifted back to the straight love story.

With the overturn of Roe v Wade and hatred for the underrepresented skyrocketing, my expectations of valid representation and even love were pushed to an all-time low. However, in the middle of the 2023 strikes in my industry, a film was the very thing to start breaking through to my closed-off heart. A little over a month after its release, I saw a trailer for the cheeky love story between two men that my friend told me about around a year before. The energy of the cast was alluring and fun. Just from what I had seen, it was nothing like I had imagined.

I decided to give it a watch and was not ready for the impact it had on me. The movie was cheesy, quirky, and a little cringy at some points. It was everything my soul and heart needed. The chemistry between the main actors, Nicholas Galitzine (Henry) and Taylor Zakhar Perez (Alex), was hypnotic and convincing. Their relationship was what every young gay guy dreams of and hopes for. There was passion, drama, and an extravagant plot wrapped up by a happy ending.

For the first time since college, I didn’t find myself critiquing the cinematography, special effects, makeup, or any other practical component of a film. I only found myself lost in the love story of two people like me. Watching Henry and Alex fall for each other reminded me of what it was I’d closed myself off to for so long.

Though the story may be flashy and a bit unrealistic to the average American, the compassion the two main characters share is absolutely real. We’ve seen cis straight love stories told in countless ways. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Something stands in the way of the boy getting the girl. The boy overcomes the obstacle and gets the girl. Though it’s a simple equation, the entertainment industry has found thousands of scenarios to fit that exact plot into. You’d think by now, we’d have the same thing for all types of relationships. Cis boy meets trans girl. Lesbian meets non-binary. The possibilities are endless.

Instead, the LGBTQ+ community is continuously oversexualized, ostracized, queer-coded for symbolism, or made for straight viewer consumption. Where is our happy ending? Where is the story written about us for us? Why does it seem like we are only allowed to be supporting characters or the victims of a tragedy in straight media?

Enjoying this article? Check out season one, episode two of Enhance Podcast! It’s all about feeling part of your community from the point of view of a gay man and black woman.

Tragic stories like Broke Back Mountain are so important to show us where the LGBTQ+ community has come from, but daydreamy and euphoric stories like Red, White, and Royal Blue are just as important to show us where we may go one day. Stories like these give us hope and longing for a future where even a sheltered and privileged prince can be openly gay. Bi man falls for gay prince. Something stands in the way of bi man and gay prince. Together, the two overcome it all. We get our extravagant plot wrapped up by a happy ending. Though the film gave its fair share of sexual content, we still got to see it paired with compassion, patience, understanding, and intimacy. 

Critics will tear into the production for things straight content gets away with every day. Nonetheless, this was a win for people like me. To the author of the novel, the writers of the movie, the cast, and the crew, thanks for the representation. Thanks for reminding me that even I, a lone gay man caught in the crimson tide, can hope for a happy ending.

Be sure to keep an eye out for more representation highlights from the Enhance team!

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This article was written by Enhance Production and Publishing’s Owner and Producer, Samm Brown

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