I can see that. He certainly seems to have a sorta old school view of being a coach and is only now realizing how limiting that has been and how little he really knows about "his boys".

No one cared when I came out. I did have a friend who when he came out (before I knew him) apparently his best friend of at least ten years had exactly that reaction. But yeah, it is a bit of a trope in a lot of fiction,

Right. It's pretty much a much more extreme take on the (*really* common) attitude of some that "Hey, I'm just a regular guy who has sex with men—why should I care about some 'gay community' etc

I don't for a moment think Kevin is gay or closeted (I could be wrong…) but that's absolutely true. And Eric still seems to be trying to manage that (ie his I'm gay but not a fag comment which honestly is a sentiment that I know guys who have been out for a good decade still feel). Certainly it seems that Kevin knew…

While looking completely bored. I loved that moment. You can totally imagining Leslie, with a Cheshire Cat grin, madly handing out those flags as the students walk in. (And I still insist she stayed up all night making those banners…) If anything it just led to the students, who probably mostly would have cared…

He was not—he left earlier, and he wasn't in the scene in Eric's house. I think it's pretty important that the two people who really instigated in a way the attack—Kevin and Eric—were not actually the attackers.

I mean they seem to have the world's best dance/ballet program in any high school ever—surely they have some other gay members there… (Of course the way Eric is being made a hero, the fact he was an accused rapist and how that tarnished the school's name, etc, etc, all play into it)

He is trying I think. And I give him points for that. He's just—like most adults here—out of his depth. He obviously wants to show Eric that nothing has changed, yet everything has. Even when he deflects Eric's attempt to "talk about being gay" by saying "We will when you're ready" (Obviously Eric was reaching…

But he doesn't want her "support" and obviously it's not doing him an inch of good. (And really who could blame him? I kinda came out in my final year of high school and I remember having one teacher—who I think meant really well, unlike Leslie—pull me aside who had somehow found out, and went on about how proud he…

I think she is excellent at managing *adults*. SHe has little direct interaction with the kids, and is completely out of her depth there—something she's not used to. (This could be a common theme to an extent—look at Kevin's mom who has pretty much every adult easily wrapped around her finger and while Kevin listens…

Yes, it always has—in fact it was worse in earlier episodes. They seem to do it when, I am gonna guess, they think you could read the lips? Otherwise they just mute it out. Which is all kinds of crazy and bizarre but… (I assume this was a compromise and John Ridley and crew refused, quite rightly, to instead use…

Right. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have the guts to confront someone who I had been close to for a long time (a friend, or especially a family member/family friend) and just decide to let it slide, even though I absolutely think that's the wrong approach—but I would worry too much about upsetting them or making…

I am sure the show's writers knew that that would be the immediate impression that the audience would jump to and played that up. I'm really impressed with how they managed that all (showing that Taylor did have genuinely loving paternal-like relationships, or a relationship anyway, in his life—and how,…

Oh, I didn't say I was impressed by it. And didn't mean to imply that. Just that, probably partly because it was so random and vague (on purpose) I was at least intrigued by it, unlike some of the school racism scenes which felt a bit obvious etc.

To be fair, they did have the principal say exactly that.

I got the feeling he probably was a parent—but if he was or wasn't he was someone who was giving the school large donations (she has mentioned her "doners" before almost as a separate category). It sounded at any rate like he had more clout than the average parent.

Yeah a school that obviously has trouble with funding would never have a good shrink like that (the therapy scenes ring true actually and remind me, as beneficial as I think therapy is, how frustrated I was as a teen going to see a shrink over some past trauma—seriously, I think I am now programmed to want to punch a…

I was just thinking how they really should be involving Evy more in this story to kinda tie the plots together—since in a way it's about her and we've barely seen her connected to it (is SHE still going to school? Was she picketing?) But now I am wishing against hope that she stays FAR away as that scenario sounds…

Right—I kinda thought "writing themselves into a moral quandry" that may may be impossible to really get out of on either side was kinda AC's point?

"The fact that Anne is bringing so much of her issues to this situation
is clear. As Taylor says, she has completely detached herself from him
as she pursues this crusade."