Closet Bustdown

Darlene’s gender fluid son comes out of the closet on ‘The Connors’

Continuing Roseanne‘s creative storylines without the creator herself, ABC’s The Connors broke down another barrier by having Darlene’s (Sarah Gilbert) son Mark (Ames McNamara) come out of the closet at age 12.

Mark always has been portrayed as somewhat gender fluid. The episode opens with Mark in trouble with Darlene for violating the school’s PDA rule–by kissing his best friend Austin.

Related: Roseanne reveals how her character dies in TV spinoff “The Conners”

“I guess he’s my boyfriend,” Mark tells his mom of the incident. “When we found out they were gonna start serving personal pizzas at lunch, we got so excited that we kissed. … And that was the first time. He only told me he was gay last week.”

Things escalate when the boys and their guardians get called into the principal’s office, and Austin denies being gay. Both boys receive detention for their public displays.

We don’t want to reveal any plot twists in case you have not already seen the episode, but let’s just say the plot gets even gayer…

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