#5.07

Much of the fandom argument I saw was about Will's coming out scene. I watched it, and I cried. It was so beautiful. Some people were angry because it didn't happen the way they wanted. Some people were angry because they felt like it was unnecessary and detrimental (and maybe that's true in some way in 2025, but it absolutely isn't for a show set in 1987. More on that in a minute.) Some people were upset because they felt like Will came out under pressure or through fear, but I didn't read it that way at all.

Let's address the 1987 question first. Remember that even with all of the supernatural hell these teens have been through, for someone who is gay, it is smack in the middle of the AIDS crisis. Gay people were told they were going to hell, that they deserved to die from AIDS, that it was God's judgement on them for being gay. Why do you suppose Will spends seasons so terrified to say anything? Why he doesn't let even a little bit of that out until Robin? Why it eats him alive for years? Because everything around him, culturally, tells him that he is sinful and perverted and damned for daring to love another boy, and that if he dies, he will deserve it for being such a sick individual. All of those fears he sobs over during the coming out scene *are so real.* They happened to so many people. People lost whole families and communities after coming out. They lost jobs. They were refused housing. All of those fears are so powerful in Will's mind, and Vecna is determined to use them against him, *because they were all real, in history.* And almost NO ONE had a coming out like Will's, where his closest friends and family embrace him unhesitatingly, where they all reaffirm that he will be loved and cared for. Almost NO ONE had that.

Is it any wonder I cried so much?

It should be said that the Byers' family and the Party's response to Will is very much a product of the last forty years of fighting for queer equality. It is very much the response that we would hope for and expect *now,* and that almost never happened *then,* and the Duffers know that. Of course they do. (They're younger than me by just a couple of years, so they won't have lived in the middle of it, just as I did not, but I'm sure they know. I certainly do.) They are giving Will those minutes of beautiful affirmation and support *because they want that for him.* Because *that's how it should have been,* in 1987, and never was. (I'm sure they wanted to give that to Noah, too. More on that as well, in a bit.)

Robin is an important part of the portrayal of '80s history, also. A lesbian, slightly older than Will, who supports him, listens to him, befriends him, loves him just the way he is, and shows him that he can be happy and healthy as a queer person. I saw another post on here that pointed out all the ways lesbians supported and cared for their gay friends during the AIDS crisis, and that is absolutely true. They did, and they were crucial to the queer mutual aid networks of that time period. So many queer people lost their biological families, so they made their own (and to a large extent, that's still true). I loved all of the Robin and Will friendship this season because Will needed that, so badly. He needed someone to tell him he wasn't a terrible person, wasn't evil, wasn't wrong for existing. Jonathan has always done that for him (and I love their relationship as brothers so much), but Robin isn't Will's brother, or his family, and she didn't have to befriend him or support him or care for him, and she does anyway. That's *so* important. I also love that she has Vickie, that she can be that healthy model for Will, and that Vickie isn't afraid of who she is, either. They *don't* live in terror, and that's so important for Will to see.

Now let's talk about how and when Will comes out, because there was a *lot* of discussion about how people felt his coming out was pressured, that it came from trauma, that all of his fears and the upcoming battle with Vecna forced him into it. I don't think that's what was happening, at all. We saw Will finally tap into his powers in "Sorcerer," and when he's taken again by Vecna, he says that Vecna was making all of his fears real in his head - watching his family leave him, watching his friends drift away. He doesn't want Vecna to be able to do that to him again, and so he tells the truth about himself, and his family and friends *take those fears away.* They tell him that they will always love him, that they will never leave him, and so when Will goes with El and Kali, he can face Vecna knowing that he is loved, and that any vision of abandonment Vecna conjures up is a lie. Will came out for himself. He came out because he needed to acknowledge the truth of who he is, face his fear, and know that he was still loved unconditionally, by so many. He can face Vecna now with that love in his heart - not fear, not self-loathing. Just love. And we all know that is the source of his power. He has his mother. He has El, who loves him like a brother and who is his Wonder Twin. He has Mike, and Max, and Lucas, and Dustin, and Jonathan always. He has Robin, and Steve, and even Erica. He has a *family,* both biological and chosen, who will love him forever and go into hell and back for him, and he needed to know that, down to his bones. *That* is what the coming out scene was about, for me. As well as about giving Will a beautiful moment of affirmation, and about writing hope into a decade that was often hellishly hopeless for queer people.

I came out in the early 2000s, and by all measures, my experience was pretty easy. *Wildly* easy, compared with my spouse's experience and those of some of their peers, who came out right around the same time Will does, in the late '80s. They knew earlier in life, and had earlier significant others, and some of them had absolutely awful experiences. My parents were shocked, and it took them some time to adjust, but they didn't hate me. They didn't put me in therapy. They didn't tell me I was a terrible person. They voiced their worry over what it would mean for me, but also their love and support, and they were glad I was happy. My extended family was supportive, if not the most vocal about it (except for my Nana, who was in her eighties at the time and overjoyed for me, and ready to fight anyone in the family who wasn't supportive enough by her standards). But it was still incredibly stressful, and scary, and there were a lot of tears. And I still lost a dear friend, one who I still miss. She didn't like that I was queer, didn't like who I was with (the same person who later became my spouse), and didn't even invite me to her wedding. And sometimes I still think about the girl who was my dear friend, and I still miss her, and it still hurts. I still would have given a lot for that beautiful scene of support that Will had, for those unhesitating affirmations and vocal declarations of love. Even though my family was mostly supportive, it took some time, and it was still very difficult.

I would never want that for Will. The Duffers didn't, either. And I am 1000% sure that they didn't want that for Noah, and that Noah didn't want that for Will. He has poured so much of himself into Will, and he *came out* during the show that made him an international phenomenon, and I can't *imagine* how stressful that was, even with the family support he received. He has made Will into this character we all love, who is so extraordinary, and we got to watch Will face his fears, have his family's love reaffirmed in the best and most important way, and see him come into his full self. And that's so incredibly beautiful. (And you can bet everything in your wallet that it's going to matter in the finale! Will is a sorcerer. His powers are innate - and they just got so much stronger.)