G.B.F.
G.B.F. is an American teen movie that was released in 2013 about Tanner, a closeted high school student who is perfectly happy blending into the background. When his (also closeted) best friend Brent finds out that the latest teen magazine trend is having a gay best friend, he decides to orchestrate a grand coming out moment at prom to make him the most popular kid in school.
Things don’t go exactly as planned, and instead, it’s Tanner who gets outed to the entire school because of the gay dating app Brent made him download. Soon enough, the three most popular girls in school (and queens of their own respective cliques) Fawcett Brooks, Caprice Winters and ‘Shley Osgood are fighting over who will be his best friend.
But Tanner uses this to his advantage and unites all three queens in order to protect him from the school’s homophobic bullies. This is much to the dismay of his bestie Brent, who is bitter about Tanner getting the spotlight.
Even though it’s cheesy and over the top, G.B.F. is a step in the right direction for teen movies. For one, two of the main actors playing gay characters (Michael J. Willett and Paul Iacono) are, in fact, gay in real life. The film is also not overly sexual, nobody dies or is dying, and there’s no tragic ending or instances of extreme homophobia. As far as LGBTQIA+ movies go, that’s a rarity.
G.B.F. also deals with some pretty important issues, such as women who see gay men as accessories, the struggle of coming out in high school and homophobia in religion. Most importantly, much like in Love, Simon, the film also tackles the complicated relationship between a gay teen and his parents; in this case, it’s Tanner and his overly accepting mother, played by the hilarious Megan Mullally (who even rents Brokeback Mountain and other queer movies when her son is outed to her).