Fans who completed Volume 2 of "Stranger Things" Season 4 will know Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) has finally, in a roundabout way, come out as gay. The show doesn't actually say he's gay outright. But this shyness is pretty faithful to the 1980s, a time when coded language was often employed to identify someone as queer. The 1980s was also a time when cisgender boys and men considered "too feminine" (i.e. not conforming with society's strict views of masculinity) were unfairly linked with the monstrous. And it's this latter fact especially that paved the way for Will Byers' coming out.
But first, let's take a look back at the instances of coded language. While fans may have missed these brief moments, they certainly were there in prior seasons. Way back in the very first episode, after Will first disappears, his mom Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) seeks local police chief, Hopper's (David Harbour) help. Though Hopper thinks Will might be off playing hooky, Joyce disagrees: "He's not like you, Hopper. He's not like me, he's not like . . . most." She then adds, "Look, he's a sensitive kid." In the '80s, "sensitive kid" usually signaled someone wasn't being heteronormative in terms of their performance of stereotypical gender roles.
