We risk internalizing the storytelling! Which is what makes telling our stories so important... When we have control of them.

As I mentioned in passing yesterday, even the fluffy romantic comedy Red White & Royal Blue centers around a conflict created by a predatory gay villain, a baddy who doesn't even appear in the novel the film is based on.

The message is disturbing. Gotta watch out for those gays! Their culture is predatory!

When I watched the film, that was one of my first questions to myself. Why is this storyline here? Who decided that? Why?

And I think those are the same questions you're asking about these biopics. With all the real, complicated conflict in these two artists' lives, why make their struggles center around gay villains?

Isn't that an overtired concept by now?

Evidently not, but maybe we can finally get to place where that's true — especially if we keep talking about it.

So, thanks for your story!