Are eddie and richie gay

As was demonstrated in IT Chapter One, the pair were close in the book — with Richie even going on to kiss Eddie on the cheek following his sacrifice. However, there was nothing to imply that their dynamic was anything but a deep friendship. While Richie never openly says he’s gay or bisexual, the intention is there, and that is what matters.

The writer, director, and stars all seem to treat this plot as a love story. It Chapter Two made text what had only been subtext in Stephen King's original book: wise-cracking Losers' Club member Richie Tozier is a gay man, and has romantic feelings for his fellow. Richie only teases Eddie because he knows that Eddie likes it deep down, an assumption that is later confirmed by adult Eddie.

Richie is an oddball, who Eddie admits he doesn’t understand. I feel like of the two, Eddie is probably more queer/gay-coded in the novel AND miniseries than Richie is. In the novel, Richie mentioned how he could have unknowingly fathered children, where Eddie seems to angrily gloss over the entire subject. Welcome to Gayly Dreadful, your one stop shop for all things gay and dreadful and sometimes gayly dreadful.

I remember when I realized that IT Chapter Two was more than likely going to lean into the queer readings of the text that have been present since the book was released in the eighties. I was seated for a press screening of the film which I was woefully underprepared for in that I had forgotten to bring tissues yes, it made me cry. After being bullied for his sexuality and, though this is never explored, also growing up during the AIDS crisis , he remains closeted as an adult, though his feelings for Eddie return once he remembers his childhood.

And then Eddie dies. No easy ending for him. And yet, for myself and for queer fans, many found Richie to be an incredibly powerful and important character and moment of representation. IT Chapter Two is an…interesting film. I both love it and deeply wish I could script doctor it quite a bit.

was eddie gay in stranger things

Even as a defender of the film, I find that those arguments hold weight, especially when the film opens with a brutal act of homophobia in the murder of an openly gay man, Adrian Mellon, in front of his boyfriend. Ultimately, it stings that Richie gets a tragic ending while his presumably straight friends all get to live their dreams, made even harder by the fact that Richie never comes out in the film and never has his fears of rejection disproven by his friends acceptance of him.

So why does Richie mean so much to so many? To fully explore the history of Eddie being read as queer would require an article of its own; to summarize it neatly, this reading is so prevalent that Dennis Christopher, who played Eddie in the miniseries version of IT , shared with fans that he pushed for Eddie to be gay in that adaptation.

Christopher currently regularly interacts with Reddie fans on Twitter, which is perhaps the most delightful thing to come out of all this. Howard was drowned by three homophobes in King was so disturbed by the event that he included the crime in the novel to showcase both the evil of Pennywise and the evil that lurks in the heart of Derry.

The murder of Adrian Mellon therefore is not, in theory, just for exploitation, and Muschietti has stated that he included that particular scene because homophobia is still very much a destructive and violent form of persecution present in the s. I find it harder to stomach in the film, though I recognize that it is because Muschietti needed to remind straight audiences how dangerous it is to be gay in a world that hates you so that they could understand why Richie remained closeted.

As I mentioned above, Richie is the only Loser without a happy ending. Sure, we can hope that after he leaves Derry, he comes out and finds love. His love interest is dead. Queer pain is a popular trope in all forms of art. Ultimately, we can speculate for another 27 years about what was intended, what got scrapped, and why the creative team made the decisions they did.

Richie is gay, and that does matter. The flashback to a young Richie being tormented by the town bully hurts. He cares for his friends deeply. He just happens to be gay. His sexuality is also tied to his story in a way that cannot be ignored. If you take out his sexuality, nothing about his story makes sense.

We need more Richies in horror and in non-horror projects. We need Richie Toziers across the board, because we so rarely get queer characters in major projects. Television has been stepping up.