Tuesday, November 23, 2010

"You can't punch the gay out of me anymore than I can punch the ignoramus out of you! "

No surprise for those who know me, but I love Glee. Musicals plus high school drama and really awesome characters = Love. Also no surprise, Kurt is my favorite character.

Kurt has had a pretty awesome arch. Last season was the coming out and his father's reactions, as well at the beginning of the problems with Finn. This season we've seen so much from the actor, who is the youngest in the cast. The bullying issues, his relationship with Finn developing, etc. Tonight's episode was amazing and painful. I wanted to hug him...and punch the other kid. Right in his scared, fat nose.

The bullying issues around the country aren't new, they're just getting coverage. I've had friends tell me about the nightmare of high school because they were known to be gay - or even just suspected of it before they came out themselves. After a strikingly similar episode of Queer as Folk, a friend cried to me about taking a baseball bat to the ribs. I spent my teenage years in a medium town in the Midwest, where you'd expect this kind of thing to be prevalent, but I was blissfully unaware if it was happening, with one exception. In high school, my best friend got thrown up against a wall and was being strangled when someone finally intervened. It was horrific, but literally the only episode like that I can recall.

Watching it on TV breaks my heart as much as hearing about it on the news or online. Kurt is a character, but the experiences are real. Chris Colfer, the actor, brings such a beautiful and horrific reality to the situation. I hope he's not gone from the show. I hope his transfer is temporary. I think he's too valuable as a character for them to lose. His story has been the most compelling one in this show.

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