Time to watch some movies and I pick the 2014 Brazilian film "The Way He Looks"; ironically, the movie is about a gay blind boy, like I could relate to that

Sometimes, I feel like a unicorn, being both gay and legally blind (I am fully blind in my left eye and have 20/300 distance with 20/70 reading in my right eye). It's a rare subject and it's a rare concept. To me, this subject is extremely interesting and important. Through boyfriends and hook ups, one thing I learned about modern gay males is that there is a shallowness to perception and desire. People are attracted by a picture or a living image of their fantasy without substance.

If you assume that homosexuality or any type of sexuality for that matter is derived by visual stimuli, a blind person should not be capable of sexual predilection. They would not know about twinks, bears, leather, or muscular men, which popular and pornographic media would portray as the subjects of gay fantasy. However, I would argue that sexuality does not need to be about aesthetics, it can exist without phyical beauty being any part of the equation.

With that said, this Brazilian movie, which is in Portuguese by the way, is charming and explores this idea that love can exist without first sight. Leonardo is a blind teenage boy, who gets picked on at school without ever noticing (That's a reality; kids are cruel and don't get how hard people with disability have to get by). He has one female friend, who is in love with him, but he does not reciprocate her feelings. Then, like in a lot of gay movies (Why can't it happen in real life? or at least for me ! ), a new boy joins his school named Gabriel and they slowly fall for one another.

Gabriel and Leonardo don't have rough and tumble sex, but the simple kissing and embrace between them is more than enough. If I ever fall for a guy, I pray that he is as understanding, compassionate, fun loving, and open minded as Gabriel.

I am not going to ruin this movie for people with too many spoilers, but suffice to say I really thought they were being authentic with this movie. They even used braille and while I could not actually feel the braille on the page to verify this kid was typing the real thing (I can actually touch read braille a little), the producer was being authentic and I can attest that a real brailler is that noisy and clunky. I used a laptop in school for note taking, but I do have a brailler at home, in case I ever lose my sight in the one good eye.

This movie might not appeal to everyone, but to me, it was a spotlight for me

I give this

9.5 out of 10 as a near perfect representation of a blind teenage boy growing into his sexuality