21 iconic on-screen kisses to give you all the feelings
Love, Simon – Simon and Bram
Let’s get this list of smooches started with a more recent kiss that will no doubt go down in history, at least in the universe of teen movies. In last year’s groundbreaking film Love, Simon, audiences were treated to one of the first major studio teen films that features an LGBTQ protagonist. For once, the gay character isn’t the personification of gay stereotypes, he isn’t forced to be a sidekick or in the background, and he gets his happy ending instead of being destined for tragedy.
If you haven’t seen Love, Simon, Simon is a gay teen who’s still in the closet, but finds a friend in another gay student that he’s been emailing anonymously after the student came out in a blog post. He has no idea who his friend — who goes by the alias Blue — is, and he spends weeks thinking any cute boy who’s nice to him at school is his secret admirer, but Blue isn’t ready to share his identity.
After Simon and Blue’s emails are leaked by a bitter student named Martin, Simon loses Blue for good, as well as his friends who distance themselves when they realize some of the shadiness that was going on behind the scenes to conceal his secret. Once he comes to terms with the fact that the whole school knows he’s gay, he puts out an open message to Blue, asking to meet him on the Ferris wheel at the school carnival. With the whole school watching in anticipation, Simon waits a painfully long time for Blue and just when he’s about to give up, someone walks up to him: Bram, his quiet, soccer-loving friend whom he briefly suspects to be Blue, but quickly moves on from.
The pair go up on the Ferris wheel, and Bram reveals that he is, in fact, Blue. It’s a very adorable, very realistic moment. Both teens are extremely bashful, but can’t stop smiling, then Simon goes in for the kiss, and the crowd goes wild! And then they kiss again!
It’s rare that gay youth get this innocent moment, especially in a major studio movie, so it definitely deserves a spot on this list!