Are They Gay? - Chad and Ryan from High School Musical 

kelsi is obviously a closeted lesbian and her and ryan going to prom together was peak mlm and wlw solidarity. there was nothing heterosexual about that.

I don’t dance is essentially “I’m not gay” “I know you are”

You know how Ryan's hats are never on "straight"? Well, you'll be interested to know that even though Chad usually wears his cap on "straight", after the clothes switch, the both of them are wearing their hats crooked. Neither of them is wearing their "hat" on straight

Achilles and Patroclus: *have their ashes mixed together so they’ll never be apart even in death* Historians: Just guys being dudes

ryan and kelsey went to prom together as mlm and wlw solidarity

“Hello there fellow homosexuals, have you been acting Straight lately” Me: **Overthinks in Bisexual**

As a child I thought everyone else just kind of knew Ryan was gay.

The dad was literally trying to make Ryan's cap straight which is the craziest metaphor lmaooooo 💀

I didn't even understand the concept of homosexuality and I knew Ryan was a gay

„Now everyone’s gay - what is this?! GLEE?“

He said “ I’ll show you how I swing” .... SERIOUSLY-

10 year old me watching Chad and Ryan's performance: "are they gonna kiss??"

It's funny how homophobes are all like "how am I going to explain it to my children?" as if we all didn't know Ryan was gay when we were seven

“When is Chad gonna tell his girlfriend he’s in a committed relationship?” I SCREAMED

"hes the embodiment of 2000s twink stereotypes" HFSHJHFJ

Remember in the third movie when they were like "Oh shit, we made ryan gay. Lets pair him with the piano playing lesbian?"

Ryan and Kelsi's "relationship" that starts off in HSM 2 and grows in HSM 3 is 100% a gay solidarity thing. Not only is Ryan a flaming gay, but Kelsi is a power lesbian, and no one can convince me otherwise. They are just two gays pretending to be straight together, and that right there is true friendship.

"Chad is clearly a bisexual disaster waiting for a college sociology class to open his heart" literally not cishet in my college soc class pls make your metaphors a little less real next time you're going to give me a panic attack.

even my conservative dad who was forced to sit through multiple screenings of HSM during the mid-00s remarked "oh so Ryan is gay right? They just can't say it cuz it's disney channel"

whats up, sports enthusiast bi here quick point i wanna make: switching uniforms with an opponent after friendly games can be a gesture of friendship & respect. that being said, anyone hiding behind that heterosexual explanation to say it isn't ALSO a gay metaphor is a coward & avoiding the clear subtext of the song beforehand. you can participate in the intricate homosocial rituals of sport and be a self-aware gay, take it from me!

The sexual tension in the "I Don't Dance" scene is thick enough to cut with a knife

there is no heterosexual explanation for them WEARING EACH OTHER’S CLOTHES

I swear, the only time Disney seems to give good representation is when they don’t even mean to lol

Chad: dances throughout every movie Also chad: I don't dance Clearly they r not talking abt dancing in this song

Chad literally said “Ok but you’re the bottom”

Well...Kelsi is a lesbian so ofc Ryan would ask her to prom for both their sakes

one of my friends in high school used to INSIST that the "I dont dance" song was about Ryan trying to tell Chad that he's into men and it's okay Homophobic me: no!!!! it cant be!!! Me a year later, now realizing that I am lesbian and it's okay to be gay: No, no, she's got a point

I always thought Chad was gay, but I overlooked it because all I could ever focus on is how dry his hair is. Its like at this time they had no clue how to nourish those beautiful curly locs of his. His hair just looks like its starving for hydration and moisture.

Kelsi was 100% a lesbian. Those two had that gay solidarity and I live for it.

“i didn’t know someone could unironically be named Chad until last week”

i know its redundant with how much you referenced the lyrics in "i dont dance", but i think it just adds even more since chads response to "if you never try," is "but there's just one little thing that stops me every time", like if thats not obviously a confirmation of his desire to "dance" but his fear of being outed/persecuted keeps him back

i think the crooked hat thing with rian's dad was a really good point about a subtle clue that indicated the repression of his sexuality. and then when they switch clothes, which is gay enough in itself, chad wears ryans hat crooked the same way. and as if that WASNT ENOUGH. chads 'girlfriend' comes over and does what? straightens his hat... WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT PEOPLE?!?!?!?!

“Disney is the most progressive group of people I’ve ever met.” *PRESS X TO SEMI DOUBT* (Side note: This dude sings pretty good-)

maybe disney should pay for what they did when they tried to give Ryan a straight love interest

may i suggest my theory that Troy is also a very heavily queercoded character and that his soliloquy song Scream in the third film is his inner monologue of figuring out his bisexuality. in the song he sings about how confused he is and how he doesn’t know which team to pick - basketball or theatre. especially, with the ending of the film being that he’s going on the study both at college, i believe that he finally learns to except himself and realises that he doesn’t need to choose, he can be a part of both teams and be bi !!

He opens the video with "Fellow homosexuals." I already love this.

As someone who played Ryan onstage for years I can honestly tell you “be more gay” was a note I got a lot lol.

The fact that Chad dances multiple times throughout the first and second movie leading up to the baseball scene... I Don’t Dance was never about dancing 😂

"Doing something gay like eating a quiche" I´m dead

They had more chemistry and tension in those four minutes then troy and gabriella did in the entire series and you cant change my mind

Ryan: so like, you gay? Chad: nah Ryan: 🤨🤔 Chad: *sweats*

Short answer: yes Long answer: yes.

“Deeper than chad went on his and Ryan’s wedding night”💀💀

For me high school musical was an allegory for being bi: Troy wants to sing and play basketball, and everyone’s telling him he can’t do both

not to mention that when you talk about relationships you can use the term "base" like "they went to second base" and you know what else has bases? baseball

Still waiting for the High School Musical reunion movie where it's just a Hallmark movie of Ryan coming home from his big city life and meeting Chad and the two reconnecting and realising they had something in high school, falling in love, singing a duet, and finally getting together.

"Sharpay is presented as popular but no one seems to like her. I don't get it" Um have you been to high school? lol

The biggest disrespect is that there wasn't a follow up scene with them in HSM 3

“bisexual disaster?” *awkward finger guns at phone*

when discussing chad, you forgot the moment where he references michael crawford from phantom of the opera to troy then quickly tries to excuse that away as his mom being obsessed. i think that fits as perfect evidence of his hidden bisexuality in this theater as gay metaphor

11:51 Okay, but the dad is *literally* putting that cap on 'straight'. He's son ain't straight but he's trying to straighten him up.

I love the book The Outsiders and I remember reading it and thinking, " Wow, are Ponyboy and Johnny gay?" Anyways I haven't seen anyone make a video talking about them I just found fan fiction and ship art.

Look I'm just saying, that Chad is, in fact, a complete BOTTOM in this relationship.

Also, don't forget that at the part in the music that says "there's just one little thing that stops me every time" it cuts to Chad's playmates. Insinuating that he's afraid of his friends reaction to his coming out. Edit: omg, I never received this many likes before, on any platform, omg. Thank you 💙

I thought Ryan was out at school, when I first watched the movies. When the second movie came out, I got that feeling even more so when he was interacting with his family. I had thought that Ryan's dad had known for years, to the point that they didn't even say anything about it, it just was. I mean he wasn't thrilled about it, but had accepted it. I mean, some of the lines when the family interacts with each other, gave me the sense that he had hoped to have an athletic masculine child to hangout with. Which is why I think he was so excited about Troy, because he would finally have a child to do those things with. He has to at least be out to at least his family, I mean he is so much more relaxed around his parents. Also what closeted teen gay was that comfortable in their own skin, if they weren't out to someone and had no support system.

my fav way to tell someone your gay without actually saying it is "i like being roommates in the historical way."

the part when Chad says "there just one little thing that stops me everytime" and then looks at his team mates... Like, can it get more obvious??

In the words of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "I believe the subtext is rapidly becoming text."

The fact that they went with baseball for that song, and included asking how he's "swinging" like which way your sexuality swings in tHaT like come on.

12:56 ummm you’re forgetting a very important factor... kelsi is clearly a lesbian and they’re beards 🙄

i cant believe you didnt mention chad's line "theres just one little thing that stops me every time" thats literally internalized biphobia to a T

Didn’t the writers originally want to make them gay but Disney said “No”? I think the actors talked about their characters being gay for each other? Also another allegory is the pitcher and the catcher, in reference to a top and a bottom.

PLZ DO A TORI VEGA AND JADE WEST ONE, JUST REMEMBERING THAT YES THEY ARE GAY

“I don’t dance” = “I don’t gay”

Literally there is no heterosexual reason for these two characters, who have never interacted up until this scene, to be playing baseball together, which is doubly weird as Ryan is a theatre kid and Chad plays basketball. And how the whole point of this song is Chad singing “I don’t dance” even though we literally see him dance multiple times throughout the series. Then in a later scene we see that they have switched clothes! Seriously I beg anyone to give me legit explanation other than they’re gay.

"Is Chad okay? Like, does he needs some slides for his projector? Because he really likes to project his feelings onto Troy." BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURN

I would love a gay remake of high school musical

The only reason that Chad caddied along with Troy was because Ryan was into him. The twins were helping each other out.

Honestly the subplot of Ryan and chad is more interesting than the entire series

RYAN AND KELSEY WENT TO PROM TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY'RE BOTH IN THE CLOSET AND HAVE GAY LESBIAN SOLIDARITY

17:24 I'm not gay BUT if I was-- omg the quintessential closeted phrase

‘ But this goes deeper, deeper than Chad went on his and Ryan’s wedding night ‘ IT TOOK ME A SECOND TO UNDERSTAND! I was sitting next to my mum and I burst into giggles, I had no clue what to tell her I watched

Ryan and kelsie were each others beards for their prom. I refuse to believe anything else.

Troy wasn't even jealous about Gabriella maybe being involved with Ryan, he was jealous about the time she was spending with Ryan instead of with him

also... Chad was one of the first people to stand up and clap to Troy and Gabriella singing breaking free, that's gotta have some meaning. he's embracing art by the end of the first movie

“Hello fellow homosexuals “ *blushes in straight woman 😳*

This video should be 5 seconds long, just the word “yes”

Suddently everyones gay "WHAT IS THIS GLEE?"

When this came out I was 6 or 7 years old and even back then I could feel the tension between the two of them

"Chad, oh silly boy Chad, Chad, Chad, Chad, Chad, Chaddddddddd, No Chad" this one got me xD

"So what, Troy and Gabriella kissed like once? Well Ryan and Chad consummated their marriage on a baseball field in broad daylight." I need that on a shirt. ALL of it

isnt the swapped clothing thing usually to indicated the the characters had sex? like, oh no someone's coming put your clothes on and they grab each other's clothes

Also adding to the need for Chad to hide any bisexuality is the fact that he is black and there was, for a long time (and still is in many areas), a larger stigma put onto LGBTQ people of color and especially on black men as there was a feeling of having to embrace certain stereotypes, one being black men were "more athletic, harder and rougher". There was a film that broke it all down, can't remember what it was called but it was fascinating and I am sure Kenny, being a closeted gay man himself for a long time and, while not black, he wasnt white either, he definitely would have been aware of that. There was a study on the film series that he used both Ryan and Chad as Y/N characters (aka characters the writer writes that represent themselves, either who they are or who they want to be). Chad was who he was, closeted and scared to be his true self, Ryan was who he wished he could be... open, honest, free to be himself and do all but say he was gay. Also we can't forget that after Kenny confirmed he was gay, the actor Lucas said he played him as such and would play him again since he did play him originally but if he could go back in time he wouldnt because he feels like an actual gay actor should have the opportunity.

a man and a woman end up together: *they get to be gay together*

I'm straight am I still allowed to watch? Edit: Don't forget that in the clothes switch scene, Ryan is playing with a ball and Chad is shaking a ketchup bottle.

this was 23 minutes of me getting repeatedly slapped in the face because i forgot that 2000's fashion was *like that*

Did I listen to a 23 minute essay on why Chad and Ryan are gay? Yes, yes I did. Do I regret it.. No, I can’t say I do.

also, switch hitter a term used in baseball, was also used for bisexual people

I haven't watch this movie in ages but OMG! The underlines and subtitles... - Ryan's father straighteing his hat - Ryan topping... the bat with his hand - The I don't dance / swing that way - Dodging the ball - Eyes messages - clothes trading

The baseball bat thing? Trying to decide who's top and who's bottom.

Even when I was a kid I knew Ryan was meant to be a walking gay stereotype.

When he said "is it a baseball thing to look seggsually into your bros eyes?" yes, yes it is. But thats becaue they're all gay

The actors 100% wanted their characters to get together, if you watch the outtakes for HSM3 they full on make out during the graduation ceremony

"Hello there fellow homosexuals, have you been acting a little straight lately" Me: **le gasp** oh no I forget to cuff my jeans

“I’m not saying that if you dance you’re gay..but you are” Me: aYe *pan*

Just realized Kelsi also wears her hats on a tilt.

Also can we give a second that in "I dont dance" -scene Chad's girlfriend is wearing a rainbow shirt

The way Chad literally carries that damn basket ball around everywhere he goes is sending me to outer space

Short answer: They better be or I will cancel Disney.

I remember there was a photo around at somepoint of the actors of chad and ryan wearing matching rings... i guess they met up and wore their highschool musical grad rings but i