The transwoman they had on the show was also an AIDS activist, and had AIDS herself… *and* in a time when there was MUCH greater social stigma around the disease. Lucy had her on, and kissed her on screen…during a time when people were still afraid of getting AIDS from kissing or from toilet seats.
They also had Alexis Arquette as a character on the show in a later season.
representation not only helps people learn who they are, but also helps educate the people around them so that they can be free to learn who they are
Transcription:
Thread of tweets
[I’m a big advocate for shows having more rep for gender and sexual identities (among many other things) and a major reason is bc damn it would have been easier to figure myself out of I had known being not cishet (even though I didn’t know the term) was an option
so when I was a kid, like 6yo, I was convinced being a boy or girl was dictated by hair length. boys always had short hair and girls always had long hair, idk it made sense at the time, I was 6 okay
So I cut my hair short. Went around being a boy.
Nothing really changed other than that. I still played with the same friends and stuff. Did start going to the boys room
I was very, very sure I was a boy but then my family and all the teachers were like “no, you’re a girl, not a boy”
They didn’t know what being transgender was. In fairness, neither did I, but I knew who I was and I wasn’t a girl. But I was 6 and adults knew better, right? So I let my hair grow out again, went back to being a girl
It went okay-ish until puberty hit and changes started happening. You all know the ones. And I was fucking /miserable/.
I hated my body. Didn’t know why. The concept of being a boy had been pushed out of me for the “better” part of a decade.
Learned about transgender stuff a few years later and now I’ve been transitioning for roughly 2 years
Representation isn’t just about the person who might be trans or gay or bi, etc. It’s also about the people around them learning that stuff like this is normal.
It would have so much easier for me to figure out who I was if I had known about being trans and if the adults in my life had known, too.
So yeah, more representation in media, please.]
End transcription.
Something the media rarely, if ever, talks about is the effects not being cishet has on us other than direct homophobia and transphobia from others
We’re all so socially delayed compared to our peers
We typically get into the dating game later than cishets, and that’s after the whole period of hating ourselves
If we’re dating while we’re in our teens, then we’re either lucky enough to be in a really liberal area, or we’re getting hit with compulsory heterosexuality that leaves us fucked up for who knows how long
And even if we’re in a liberal area (and this seems to be especially true for lesbians) there’s this whole fear that we’re being predatory if we don’t know for sure they like our gender
And then for trans people, or at least for me anyway, there’s this fear that I’m lying to the person I’m trying to flirt with if I don’t reveal that I’m transgender immediately
And after all that, if we’ve managed to get ourselves an SO, that still doesn’t mean both of us are out of the closet (which, in itself, isn’t a great description bc coming out isn’t something we do once, we do it again and again and sometimes we don’t because it’s not safe to), so we have to keep it under wraps
If you go out and support this movie I’ll personally come to your house and suck ya dick
That mom at the end really made the entire trailer worthwhile
I rly thought it was gonna b some generic ass Romeo and Juliet indie shit … I did NOT expect
jadlkjflakfjdaeia
I’m not gonna lie I was screaming in pure joy when I first saw this ad because:
1.) the “hey we’re going to be another quirky hetero rom-com about two outsiders finding lo– NOPE fooled ya our boy here is gay!” within the first 30 seconds.
2.) “Why is straight the default and why are gay people the only ones expected to come out?” in such a mainstream advertisement. That is such a win in my opinion because we’ve all been talking about that very thing for years in gay communities and corners of the internet but I’ve never seen it so bluntly addressed in wider cultural forums.
I’m dragging every friend I have, gay or straight, to this. And here’s why.
Market copyism is fueled by success. This isn’t news—think about how many animated films about talking animals came out in the years following The Lion King. A Bug’s Life, Antz, Ice Age, Ratatouille, Rio, even something like Princess and the Frog—these all came out in the 15 or so years after the Lion King created that market, and then everything else saturated it.
This product of capitalist piggybacking can be used to an activist advantage. For instance, Marvel is now looking at doing a Black Widow movie—Scarlett Johansson has been in like 7 other Marvel films to date, but the subject was never seriously considered because “nobody wanted to see a female superhero"—up until Wonder Woman shook the world.
This movie has the same power.
If this is successful, and I mean wildly successful, it will not only open the door to other mainstream gay rom-coms. It could literally saturate the market with gay characters, to the point, if we’re smart, that people simply expect gay films to be shown in cinema. If this movie expands beyond any studio head’s wildest dreams, and makes a shitton of money, it will not put a gay character into a mainstream spotlight.
It will force everybody to put gay characters into a mainstream spotlight.
You want representation? Save up. Save for 3 trips to see this movie. Save for 5, or 6. Tell your friends to save the date. Drag your shy introvert friends out of the woodworks to go see this with you. Make this movie HUGE.
That’s the way to change the industry. Let’s do it, bitches.
me, a provoked queer, about to go on a rant about LGBTQ representation in the media: “…. listen-”
I adore the way fan fiction writers engage with and critique source texts, by manipulating them and breaking their rules. Some of it is straight-up homage, but a lot of [fan fiction] is really aggressive towards the source text. One tends to think of it as written by total fanboys and fangirls as a kind of worshipful act, but a lot of times you’ll read these stories and it’ll be like ‘What if Star Trek had an openly gay character on the bridge?’ And of course the point is that they don’t, and they wouldn’t, because they don’t have the balls, or they are beholden to their advertisers, or whatever. There’s a powerful critique, almost punk-like anger, being expressed there—which I find fascinating and interesting and cool.
This are good defenses for LGBT+ SW characters from Star Wars Aftermath trilogy author. Thanks for @permian-tropos suggests me to make this easier to read.
“ALL OF STORYTELLING IS BY FORCE. NONE OF IT IS ORGANIC OR NATURAL. ALL OF IT ARE THINGS THE STORYTELLERS WILLFULLY CHOOSE AND IMPLEMENT.”
Question of Smoke 