Hot take: Jack is bisexual and demiromantic (but he doesn't know it) and Simon is gay (he DOES know it).
Edit: I feel that sexuality is such an important part of these characters' development that if I tried to explain it, I'd come across as an absolute lunatic. Especially knowing that, well, all this is Fanon (everything related to Simon, at least, and Jack's stuff is just a very stretched extension of what we know about him).
In general, I feel that both of them are people whose sexuality is extremely misunderstood because of how they present themselves to the world.
Jack is constantly trivialized and hypersexualized, to the point where sex is almost a form of dominance for him. I feel that Oscar Wilde quote fits him perfectly, "everything in the world is sex, except sex, sex is power." I don't think he considers sex to be anything that significant; it's simply a biological need. It's sin and body, it's his own release from his mind and worries. My man doesn't love, he doesn't see faces, but he feels, oh, he feels it. He has normalized violence related to sex, fighting, power, careerism, and disputes for honor and dignity.
Simón is the complete opposite. For him, sex is something that signifies humanity, connection, communication—things he finds difficult to achieve and longs for. Even if his experience is limited to the few fantasies he allows himself to indulge in, for him, sex is love and what he needs. It is not the flesh that is satisfied with such salvation. It is friendship, it is freedom. He wants to be taken seriously, to be loved in return, to be desired, to be considered. He wants someone, for once, to want to give him their heart and be honest with him. He wants to be like everyone else, to be a normal human being who has the privilege of loving. I don't know, I feel that, besides, many people around him always assume he's too serious and cold to yearn for those things, and he himself believes that any display of interest or sexuality from his side would be seen has terrible or inappropriate. My brother in Christ is repressed and already exhausted from only being able to desire while in the dark, daydreaming about men he will never be able to touch or care for.
Plus, well, my friend here is gay, so his attraction, his lust, his desires would be depraved in anyone's eyes. I imagine him frustrated by the idea of not being able to be as perverted as the others simply because, to the others, he carried sin and perdition with every glance. Simon was frustrated by the loneliness, the pressure, the distance, and the lack of luxuries.
Regarding Jack's sexuality and attraction, I feel he would struggle to love women because he never managed to connect deeply enough with one. He barely knew their names, how could he love them? He barely knew their lips and their fine hair, nothing more.
Jack, however indignant, horrified, and confused he might be about any attraction he could feel for another man, would feel a different emotional intimacy in his soul with Simon, because he is his friend, his partner, his support, his world, his longing, his struggle, his hope. In his cynical heart, Jack couldn't deny that Simon was worth more than any of his shady one-night stands.
(Jack is so unconsciously sexist that he could only fall in love with a man because he cannot see women as equals.)
Jack doesn't understand why Simon's selfless love exists, and it hurts him, confuses him, and frightens him. The idea that someone might be searching for the man beneath Gamma Jack terrifies him because he doesn't know what to give or pretend. Simon doesn't want the character or the actor, he wants his soul.
Simon would see in Jack light, beauty, and everything the world told him he couldn't have. Jack is pride, freedom, a demon who promises lies and passion. He wants the fun, the life, the honesty that he is. I feel that Simon can see beneath all the falseness of Jack's pose and see the human being, the tormented man who no longer wants to be humiliated ever again. He vows to protect that heart and understand the sensitivity that Jack thought he had murdered long ago.
Basically, they both see in each other what they lack, and even if they remain silent, they will love each other as best they can and as they need. It is them against the world; their love, their friendship, their sin, will prevail.
Or maybe I'm just overthinking two characters who appear for one second in a family movie from over 10 years ago that isn't even popular anymore.
And a lot, a lot of internalized homophobia, oh yes.
