Way back in mid-March my husband and I went to see “Love, Simon”.

I felt that it was important to support a teen romantic comedy with a gay lead on it’s opening weekend. The main reason I wanted to see the Movie was to support a mainstream LGBT movie. I figured I would like the movie but, I absolutely LOVED the movie. I don’t think I really understood how much I needed this movie to have existed thirty years ago until I saw it. I grew up on 80’s teen movies like “Sixteen Candles”, “Pretty in Pink” and” The Breakfast Club” but I never imagined until I was an adult that I could ever see a gay male character in one of these movies. In my mid 20s there was “Mean Girls” with one gay character but he is the only one that doesn’t have a romantic love interest in the film. He was just there for comic relief.

I really wish “Love, Simon” had been around when I was a kid. I think it would have led to my own self-acceptance years earlier. But I am so glad that “Love, Simon” now exists for LGBTQ kids and teens today and in the future.

The movie is pretty standard teen movie fare and in a way that is what makes it so great. It doesn’t really matter that the protagonist is gay. It hits all the standard benchmarks of teen movies, as it should. The ending sequence is a major shout out to 1999’s “Never Been Kissed.”

It’s interesting how an actor can be so awful in one movie but so good in another. An example of that is Rooney Mara who is a two-time Oscar nominee but was truly awful in the remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. This movie is another example of that. The lead actor Nick Robinson was really horrible in 2015’s “Jurassic World”. He made a bad movie nearly unwatchable, but he is really wonderful as Simon. His excellent performance on convinces me further that “Jurassic World” was a bad movie that was very poorly directed by Colin Trevorrow. The rest of the cast is good. Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel play the parents that every gay kid would want.

Another thing I loved about “Love, Simon” was that it was very diverse in terms of race and ethnicity. Needless to say, I highly recommend “Love, Simon” regardless of whether age, sexual orientation or gender identity.

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Here is a description:

Justin Gomez and his sister, Terri, have never been close. Separated by nine years and distant in adulthood, Justin and Terri have little in common, except for the love of her three children. In the days before they embark on a road trip to visit the father that once abandoned them and their now deceased mother, both Terri and Justin are dealing with unexpected changes in their lives. Justin surprisingly realizes he might want more than a series of one night stands after a first date goes unexpectedly well. After a lifetime of being a strong type A personality, Terri is forced to confront the reality of the end of her marriage. As they hit the road, with Terri’s children in tow, they find themselves forced to rely on and confide in each other following a devastating event. Confronted with memories from the past and challenges from the present, Terri and Justin must dig deep and unearth the truth about themselves and their parents in order to build a new family based on their love for each other.