UPDATE: Other celebrities, including Neil Patrick Harris and Kristen Bell, have also sponsored free showings of the film in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Actor Matt Bomer and his husband Simon Halls have bought out an entire showing of Love, Simon in Bomer’s hometown of Spring, TX. Based on the novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Love, Simon is about a closeted gay teen in Atlanta, Georgia who falls in love with another gay teen online and subsequently gets blackmailed by another student. Bomer wrote on his Instagram, “This is an important movie, and a really good one. I know you’ll love it so come watch for free this Sunday!”
After the film’s premiere back in March, Bomer also posted on Instagram about his love for the film: “I loved this movie so much (and not just because of the title), and I’m so happy that a generation of young people will have this to watch and realize that #loveislove.”
Now, Matt Bomer himself hasn’t always been a good ally to the “T” in LGBTQ. His role as a trans woman in the movie Anything is, based on our first look, pretty much the definition of “not okay.” Doing this one great thing doesn’t undo the damage of taking that role and performing it like he did. This article is not meant to suggest that you should change your feelings about Bomer.
But as we’ve seen recently with the fundraising campaigns for movies like A Wrinkle in Time and Black Panther, representation matters, and mainstream media profoundly shapes our views of the world. I’m happy that Bomer is trying to bring a compassionate view of gay teens to people who might otherwise never encounter it, and I hope that queer kids in Spring, TX who might be afraid or embarrassed to buy a ticket for themselves will be able to see it.
(via The Hollywood Reporter; featured image: 20th Century Fox)
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