NBC is coming out with a new series about a high school drama teacher that is based on a true story and a book about it. But in real life the drama teacher is openly gay and in the tv version,
they've made him straight.
Sign the petition to demand the show stays true to the inspiring real person and portrays him as he is: gay.
The main character, Lou Mazzuchelli, is based on Lou Volpe. He was an amazing high school drama teacher who revitalized the theater program in a working class town in Pennsylvania. The whole show is about him putting on Spring Awakening, which is all about sexual awakening and features a relationship between two teenaged boys. The actual Lou fought to put on this show, making him straight in the show misses a huge part of his reason for fighting for this programing.
Having a show featuring a gay person in this way would have been an amazing way to make the LGBTQ community more seen and appreciated. Not only did they miss a chance to kindly represent a community that is misunderstood and misrepresented so often in media, but they practically slapped the actual man in the face by changing a huge part of who he is.
The show's creator justified the change by saying he wanted to make the story more his own and more relateable. Which is practically saying that if someone is gay then anyone who isn't gay can't relate to their experience. If the show's creator can't write a gay character, then he's not a very good writer. It's another shot at turning the LGBTQ community into "other" and we can't stand for it.
Please sign my petition to demand the show stays true to the actual folks it's based on.