Age-appropriate gay romance movies or shows

Our young son enjoys classic "happily-ever-after" feel-good shows and movies, like those on the Disney Channel. However, since he is pretty sure he's gay, he has been searching for heartwarming romances/family movies featuring gay leads. There seem to be no end to lite high school shows with heterosexual dating and kissing, but not boy-boy couples. I'm aware of a few gay "coming of age" movies, such as "North Sea Texas," but I'm not sure he's ready for that level of pain and angst. His taste is more "Leave It to Beaver" and less "The Matthew Shepherd Story." Is there no such thing as a fluffy homosexual teen romance? Or a Hallmark Channel-style love story between men? As he matures, he will be ready for more complex content, but for now...any suggestions?

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Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Leviathan -- it is a book, but light and enjoyable. I would talk to the teen/children's librarians at the Berkeley Public Library about both books and videos.

You don't say how young your son is, so these may or may not interest. But here are some recommendations from my teen:

Ugly Betty- has a great character who is a pre-teen and then teen navigating his sexuality. He finally gets his boy kiss in the later seasons when it is age appropriate. The family and friends are supportive. It's pretty sweet and a totally fun show (and campy in a good way).

Web series are much more diverse in their inclusion of LGBTQ characters. 12th grade or Whatever is pretty much all queer (my daughter says its her fav right now) and a very cool show from New Zealand called Nothing Much to Do (based on Much Ado about Nothing) has some gay boys navigating their crushes, as well as other romantic follies. Web series are great because there is a whole community watching and commenting, so you get recommendations for other series, tv, movies.

Movies: Stardust, Get real, Priscilla- Queen of the Desert, Curiosity of Chance, Geography Club, In and Out, GBF 

Other TV shows- Modern Family, Will and Grace, and That 70's Show

I highly suggest that you watch a little of whatever you are going to recommend (or check out Common Sense Media reviews to assess age appropriateness, they have kid and adult opinions which I always appreciated). I've always really appreciated the opportunity to talk about where things succeeded with representation and where they failed. 

Have fun watching!

And P.S.- my daughter says that the glut of gay angst and tragedy is referred to as "Dead gays for the straight gaze", which I thought was pretty apt and funny. So kudos to you, mum, for wanting a little gaiety with your gay.

Two additional possibilities: Brooklyn 99 (very funny) and Shadowhunters (the show, not the movie).

I am a 30 something year old mom of young kids, but my guilty pleasure is "happily ever after" teen shows and movies, so I have more suggestions than I'd care to admit! 

One of my favorite feel good family TV shows right now is The Fosters (ABC family/Netflix) which features a young (middle school?) aged gay boy. The storyline regarding his sexuality is kind of slow to develop, but in the second or third season there is a sweet little romantic plot that seems to be developing for him. And the entire show is about a family that has two awesome lesbian moms and a bunch of foster/adopted kids, so it shows a lot of positive homosexual relationships and role models.

The other thought I had was Glee. I stopped watching after a couple of seasons because the singing got to be too much for me, but one of the main characters was gay and I seem to recall him having a cute romance with a boy from a competing glee choir at some point. 

Good luck! 

You might check out the movie "But I'm a Cheerleader."  Another movie option would be "Big Eden" - it's a very sweet gay romance, but unfortunately the leads are about 35 rather than teenagers. 

The GSA Network put out this list with ratings, not sure how current it is: https://gsanetwork.org/files/resources/Movies.pdf. There are lists of youth-oriented movies on wolfevideo.com/subcategory/queer-youth, but no indication of age-appropriateness so you'd have to review each one.  "Ready? OK?" fits your description, very cute. The public library probably does keep lists as well!

Totally second The Fosters recommendation. My daughter and I watch it religiously. It's not light and fluffy -- but I don't associate light and fluffy with teen genre stuff, generally. It is very warm, but mostly serious.

Over the years Degrassi has had several gay characters/romances/arcs. I'm not up to date, so can't comment on the current episodes but there's a slew of seasons. (The 80's ones didn't have much in the way of gay characters, if I recall correctly; I'm talking about the rebooted one.)

Does he like comics? Lots of queer comics - for teens, young adults.. "Honor Girl" "Drama" ..

And yeah, again, I guess a lot of the gay teen stuff I'm thinking of is concerned with heavyish stuff like coming out - not always fun and light. There's also the autobiographical comics by Ariel Shrag (She went to Black Pine Circle, then Berkeley High, is gay, and wrote a comic each year of high school.)

From the 90's -- The Incredibly True Story of Two Girls in Love was not fluffy by any stretch of the imagination, but was a romance, and not intensely painful.

My So Called Life's Wilson Cruz was an amazing character - not light but a must see (imho!)

If he likes sci-fi stuff.. there's Torchwood - the Doctor Who spinoff starring John Barrowman, who's a time traveling immortal bisexual, who mostly has relationships with men. Not fluffy (esp in later seasons) but the heaviness is more on the sci-fi front aliens are killing us angle than 'real life' pain.

Lastly - Skins - the BBC version - has a number of queer characters but it is dramatic/melodramatic and more explicit than network TV here.

Not sure if any of this will be useful, good luck. 

You don't mention your son's age, but I recently watched a film that would probably be appropriate for middle school up (take that with a grain of salt--I wasn't thinking in terms of age appropriateness when I watched it). The Way He Looks is a Brazillian coming-of-age film about a blind teen struggling to assert his independence and navigate his first (gay) romance. Wikipedia has an uber-detailed plot summary.

Maybe the tv show Glee? Here is a quote I found: 

The biggest gift Glee gave the gay community was, of course, Kurt Hummel. Played with sweet charm by Chris Colfer, the fashion-forward soprano singer glided into the hearts of America in season one. He was the rare gay character that wasn't a sidekick