GAY TIMES Magazine

14 October 2022

This issue of GAY TIMES Magazine, however, shines a spotlight on some of the positive movement on screen in recent years that has helped progress a wave of positive queer love stories that subvert the tired heteronormative tropes we’ve been fed. Edvin Ryding and Omar Rudberg became international stars last year playing Wilhelm and Simon in hit Netflix series Young Royals. The premise is familiar; a privileged person from high society falls for a working class ‘commoner’ and love attempts to break through the institutional and societal barriers at play. But this one comes with a twist; their queerness adds a new dynamic. “I think that our honesty telling the story is what people connect to because when we meet people and when they write to us and see what they're posting online... They feel seen and like they're being listened to and embodied in a fictional story about love,” Edvin tells us. Considering the Swedish drama cracked the top 10 of various English-language countries around the world, the story has connected with viewers in a big way. Elsewhere we turn our attention to the horror genre and how historically it has always been linked to queerness – and not always in the best 2 way. Queer audiences love the genre and we’ve started to see more multi-dimensional queer representation in its characters and storytelling. We speak with the cast of BBC Three’s new six- part series Wreck, which boasts plenty of LGBTQ+ actors playing queer characters, but not falling flat where horror has in the past. We also explore why the horror genre wouldn’t be the same without LGBTQ+ women, taking a look at the writers and characters who have made the supernatural super queer. Their legacy paved the way for the progress we are seeing be made today.