That’s because we met in spaces where we felt like we belonged. To be honest, a lot of my friends are queer, or POC, or queer POC. That’s a closer representation of what my friend group looks like than the “there can be only one” marginalized narrative I grew up with. Two of the kids are Black (Tara and Elle) and one kid is Asian (Tao). The milkshake table has a gay boy (Charlie), a boy who would go on to come out as bisexual (Nick), two lesbians (Tara and Darcy), and a transgender girl (Elle). There’s a scene in Heartstopper where six of the kids get together for milkshakes, and out of those six, five of the kids are queer. That mindset always frustrated me because, in reality, we find each other and look for spaces that aim to make us feel comfortable, not excluded. Throughout my years of talking about a desire for more variety in queer representation, I remember hearing comments about how “unrealistic” a queer story would be if most (or all) of the cast were a part of the LGBTQ community. There is so much diversity in the queer community
