,” the entrance of any queer story into a mainstream medium such as television will obviously have its paradoxes. One cannot help but point out thatstill operates within the heteronormative frameworks and binaries that queering itself tries to challenge — the divisions between girls and boys; the pressure on the closeted to become out individuals; the dichotomies in the roles expected in a relationship; even the adherence to a heteronormative gender presentation.
The product is a show that imagines a different kind of coming-of-age — one wherein teenagers are not beholden to their traumas or peer pressures; wherein miscommunications are addressed before they snowball into something too large to handle; wherein transparency and accountability is a first response rather than a last resort; wherein complex questions can have simple and honest solutions; wherein decisions are guided not by fears but by hopes.
I wish shows like this existed when I too was 15 years old. But I am glad that they exist for this new generation. Queer lives in high school used to be obsessed with languishing in a past that can no longer be recovered or a future that has yet to arrive. Butpresents us with a queer story that is anchored in the present, no matter how it may hurt, as long as it is spent with the ones you love.Jason Tan Liwag is an openly gay scientist, actor, and writer.