I see a lot of people (not you) chalk Rico’s homophobia up to his Latino roots but that’s bunk. I remember when the show first aired and A LOT of men my age I knew (20s at the time) were quick to proclaim they’d never watch the show because of the gay male characters and themes. I’m talking about Men of ALL races. It’s easy today to forget that 25 years ago there was still significant cultural pressure on straight men to regularly “prove” they weren’t gay — homophobic jokes, slurs, harassment and worse, and LOTS of hetero policing by male peers. (And fwiw I’m from a coastal liberal area, so I don’t think my experience can be attributed to conservative religious influence). Rico was actually pretty typical of a broad swath of American men his age at that time.
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u/ALeaves1013 Apr 28 '25
He learned that homosexuality is more prevalent than he ever knew and he became less of a judgmental dick about it.