As a queer person I loved Derry Girls, but last night’s episode has ruined it

I am sick of shows like Derry Girls destroying lesbian happiness

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The Derry Girls season three finale aired last night and like many of the show’s fans, I was left feeling robbed by its ending and pissed off. Derry Girls is one of my favourite shows and a lot of that is down to Clare Devlin being a lesbian. The lesbian representation in the show made me feel so seen but after last night’s episode all I feel is disappointment.

After Erin fumbled it when Clare came out, I really felt seen with the lesbian representation in Derry Girls. I loved how Clare’s mates were all so supportive. They wore rainbow pins in every single episode, Michelle was often wearing long sock with rainbow colours at the top and even Clare’s parents were comfortably making jokes about her not being a “fully qualified” lesbian yet. The girls even gave up the chance of seeing Fat Boy Slim just so Clare could see the girl she liked and then it all went to shit. Why did it have to happen to the only queer person? Why did it have to happen after her first lesbian kiss?

via Channel 4

The last thing I expected and wanted was Derry Girls falling into the “let’s emotionally traumatise our only lesbian character” category – but here we are. To me, as a lesbian, it tells me that queer people like myself don’t deserve a happy ending. Being queer is hard enough, let alone when it feels like there’s not a single bit of happy queer representation on TV and film.

Making Clare experience her first lesbian kiss and then forcing immediate giref onto her is cruel. It’s cruel for her character and the queer audience who watch the show. The death of Clare’s dad felt completely random and didn’t contribute anything to the plot other than trauma. All it did was prove queer women on TV can never experience prolonged genuine happiness. We’ve seen it recently in Killing Eve with the brutal death of Villanelle.

Essentially, destroying a queer character’s happiness within a two brutal minutes destorys the entire show for a queer viewer. Watching Clare for the past two seasons has been full of hopefull thinking she’d finally find queer love. And the single time she did, it was ripped from her and never again will we be able to watch with pride or hope knowing how season three ended.

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