La dulce vida

You know what my real problem is with Glee? My real problem with Glee is that when it’s good, it’s better than anything else on TV. If Glee had never shown any promise, had never proved it could be brilliant, had never given a shit about its characters or its stories or its fans, if it had always been a crappy teenage show about a ragtag band of misfits, I wouldn’t get so enraged about it. But, Good Lord, this show has had its moments of white hot greatness. Especially when it comes to its queer characters. Just listen to this coming out speech Santana gives her grandmother:

I love girls, in the way I’m supposed to love boys. It’s just something I want to share with you because I love you so much. I want you to know me. When I’m with Brittany, I finally understand what people are talking about when they’re talking about love. And I’ve tried so hard to keep this locked up inside, but everyday just feels like a war. And I walk around so mad at the world, and I’m really just fighting with myself. I don’t wanna fight anymore, I’m just too tired. I have to just be me.

Naya Rivera is flawless, of course. And Santana’s abuela’s reaction is so realistic. She’s not angry at Santana for being gay; she’s angry at Santana for saying she’s gay, for not keeping it a secret, for making her uncomfortable. And so she kicks her out of her house and says she never wants to see her again.

For all the bitching I do about Glee, I think these are the moments that matter. In ten years, no one will be talking about Rachel Berry stuffing a ballot box or Quinn Fabray stealing a baby or Idina Menzel humping a teenager. But in ten years, the gay teenagers who stuck with this show — whether they knew they were gay or not, whether they were out of the closet or not — will remember what it was like to watch Kurt come out to his father, to watch Santana come out to her grandmother, to watch Kurt and Santana’s friends accept and adore them, to watch them fall in love. For lots and lots and lots of people, this will be the very first time they ever see themselves reflected on a screen, and they will store those images up and treasure them in the hearts for always.