I learned how to sign “asshole” in 2005, thanks to The Family Stone. Not particularly because I was actively trying to learn the sign (it is, admittedly, super handy) but because it’s what Sybil (Diane Keaton) says to her son Thad (Ty Giordano) following a chilly dinner conversation about his sexuality.You are more normal than any asshole sitting at this table. I love you. It all started after Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) awkwardly put Thad on the spot. She stumbles into the topic of Thad’s sexuality and hits every branch of the offense tree as she tumbles downward. The Stone family, progressive beyond their years, practically crucify her. The Family Stone—as manic and critically panned as it may be—attempted to create an idyllic world that doesn’t tolerate LGBTQ intolerance, just a year after the first state in the U.S. legalized gay marriage. They quite literally liken being gay to “handedness.” It’s unremarkable and average. But their treatment of it, at least for me, wasn’t. Thad happened to be the first gay character I’d seen prominently featured in a holiday movie. I clung to it, memorizing the scenes. The conversation. The sign language. The insistence that in someone’s world, being gay wasn’t an issue. If you made it one, you were the asshole. When you see an idealized version of your own story, you internalize it. Keaton, Giordano, and Claire Danes in The Family Stone.20th Century Fox/Kobal/ShutterstockShutterstock Granted, representation wasn’t exactly a priority in 2005 pop culture, so Thad (a gay… Click below to read the full story from Esquire
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