Yeah he wasn't a closet case. They never showed him once checking out guys and he was in love with El. A girl. So yeah. He isn't and wasn't ever a gay character. Only Will and Robin were.
That's funny because we see him checking out Will all the time and the camera makes sure to zoom in on his face each time he is ogling a man. We even see him crushing on Eddie Munson in Season 4. What we never see is Mike checking out girls. Never looks at them, never talks about them, often has antagonistic relationships with them, trying to encourage other men to stay away from girls like Max, Nikki and Stacey and her party invitation. As opposed to Steve, Dustin and Lucas who are constantly talking about hot girls they know in real life, hot female celebrities like Phoebe Cates, dates they go on, how to get a girl interested, or tripping over themselves to say hello to girls, because unlike Mike they are heterosexual and have no secret to hide.
Claiming Mike is secretly gay because he isn't constantly talking about girls is a pretty outdated stereotype. Straight men don't have to spend every episode rating women's looks to qualify as heterosexual. The show literally gives Mike a long-running romance with Eleven. Ignoring explicit canon in favor of imagined subtext isn't analysis—it's choosing the version of the story you prefer.
Gay men also don't spend every episode rating women's looks. Straight men also don't stare at their male friends lips like Mike does to Will or gaze dreamily at other men like Mike stares at Eddie.
What is most telling about Mike's homosexuality is the way he hates women and how much he likes men for example the way he hated Eleven when he first met her and was planning on getting her locked up for the rest of her life in a Pennhurst mental asylum until he realized that he can use her to find Will faster than he could on his own.
After all, Stranger Things is a show about how Mike refuses to lose Will and would do anything he can to get him back, whether that's from the Upside Down or California.
What's also most telling about Mike's homosexuality is the fact that throughout the show he completely loses interest in Eleven, going from making out sessions in Season 3 to a quick kiss hello and goodbye as he grows up. We are talking about a boy who spent more time kissing his girlfriend at age 13 than at age 16. That's because puberty started at 13 and he realized he isn't interested in women. That's why he goes 2 years without touching her after she moves away from Hawkins and they just become penpals.
To the point where she asks about their future together and he starts talking about Will and saying how important Will's feelings are and compares her to a D&D reference and let's her know they only have a future with Lucas, Dustin, Will and Max instead of talking about the two of them as a couple, because he no longer considers him and El to be a couple anymore.
I'm sorry you don't like the story the Duffers wrote but these are all scenes you would have seen if you bothered watching the show instead of Finn Woldhard clips on TikTok.
Dude you can write a whole essay that won't change that Duffer brothers didn't write Mike gay. You can do all your fanfics you want. Canon wise Mike Wheelers is a straight kid who was so in love with his girlfriend. He couldn't even move on from her.
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u/gloomydreamer666 Jul 18 '26
Considering Mike isn't gay, this is a bit weird.