Pop Culture Fix: Should Showrunners Announce LBGT Characters or Just Shock Our Gay Socks Off?

Welcome to your weekly Pop Culture Fix, which contains all of the pop culture news you will ever care about, ever, for the rest of your life. It’s all right here.


Comic Con

DANGER AND EGGS PANEL OF QUEERDOM

Comic Con happened in San Diego last week, and we were not there because we are busy and poor! But, luckily, lots of other news outlets WERE there and they wrote about their experiences on the internet for us to process here together.

+ I was quickly drawn in to this week’s SpoilerTV Roundtable, which recapped highlights of the conference and eventually came around to the question, “OUAT and Riverdale announced te arrival of new LGBTQ characters and stories. Is it really necessary to “ANNOUNCE” them? And does it feel a bit like baiting?” Responses ran the gamut, and here’s one that gave me pause:

Shows should stop doing this and let us find out for ourselves about these characters. It’s better if we’re surprised and not expecting it – more often than not this will lead to us enjoying the story more anyway. Now that we know we’re going to have pre-conceived notions and ideas about these characters which will bias how we feel about them already. This can be egregious if put in the wrong hands – and since OUAT and Riverdale already have reputations for having poorly done storylines and characters of this kind it’s not going to add anything good. I’m not surprised that these shows would announce these characters like this, but I’m annoyed nonetheless. I hope the storylines are handled well, that’s about there’s left for me to say.

It’s true that nothing compares to a character’s queerness revealing itself to you as you watch with no prior expectation at all — for me, this happened with Santana in Glee, Tara in True Blood and Annalise in How to Get Away With Murder, among others. Of course, for me the joy is twofold: I’m thrilled ’cause I like queer women on TV and because I know I can break the news on Autostraddle to y’all, which makes me feel like I am doing a solemn and important duty for my community. My second-favorite way to find out is through extensive internet sleuthing because again; important duty for my community. Third-favorite way is from y’all — when you tell us in the A+ inbox or twitter or email or the comments to check out this or that show that you’ve just had my #1 experience with. Those ways are all great ways. Finding out from a GLAAD report is pretty good, too. Finding out from a Comic Con panel? Eh.

+ Supercorp: Supergirl’s Jeremy Jordan did an improv recap of the season in song, during which he insisted that when it comes to Supergirl and Lena Luthor, “They’re only friends! They’re only friends! They’re not gonna get together! They’re only friends.” The entire cast laughed and it kinda felt like when you walk in on your friends talking shit about you? Then Jeremy Jordan apologized, but it wasn’t really an apology, it was just him digging himself a deeper grave. Good job everybody! Also man, Chyler Leigh has consistently been such a genuine LGBT ally and she missed ComicCon because of a funeral, and this is what she had to come back to at the weekend’s end.

+ Riverdale: Ottawa-born actress Vanessa Morgan will star in hit series Riverdale.Vanessa Morgan’s character Topaz came out as bisexual in the comics and will be exploring her “sexual identity” on the show.

+ Once Upon a Time: I have zero faith that Once Upon a Time will do justice to its latest attempt to include an LGBT character, whoever that is:

One of the show’s franchises is love. This iteration is reflecting the world today. It will not be anything more than just one of other love stories that are happening. I don’t think it’s an arc, it’ll be a character who is gay and that’s who they are and they exist in the world. They don’t have a sign that says ‘special episode.

Westworld:

+ Wynonna Earp: Wynonna Earp was picked up for a third season and here is Syfy’s Wynonna Earp Cast on Diverse, Inclusive Stories

+ Shannon Purser Surprised ‘Stranger Things’ Cast at Comic-Con

+ Black Folks Killed The Comic-Con Carpets ‘Cuz That’s What We Do

+ Star Trek Discovery Gay Romance: Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz Set To Make History Okay I know this is men but ANTHONY RAPP AND WILSON CRUZ ARE GONNA BE GAY LOVERS ON A SCREEN!

+ The Young Justice: Outsiders, Revealed – Could This Be Their First Gay Member?

+ Q & A with World of Wakanda’s Roxane Gay

+ HiFight Club’s 30-second pitch, via our very own Carly Usdin: “Empire Records and Sailor Moon and made gayer and put in a blender.”

+ Here is your Black Lightning trailer

+ Here is your The Defenders trailer

+ Here is your Stranger Things trailer

+ Here is your Justice League  sneak peek


Teevee

+ In Glamour Magazine: ‘The Bold Type’ Finally Gave Me a Queer Coming Out Story I Could Actually Relate To.

+ Queen Sugar has been renewed for a season three! Oprah’s stoked: “I’m so proud of Ava and her ability as a filmmaker to challenge the status quo and push for inclusiveness onscreen and behind the camera. I love, love, love the work we have been able to create so far. I am looking forward to developing many more meaningful projects together.”

+ IF I HAD A PENNY FOR EVERY TIME I ASKED MYSELF THIS QUESTION: Is Willow Smith Starring In The TV Series Based On RuPaul’s Life?

+ Australia’s first openly bisexual The Bachelor contestant, Adelaide’s Natalie Holmberg, talks about Matty J and being on the show

+ ‘Game of Thrones’ Came So Close to Giving Queer Women a Chance This Week

+ Our very own Carly Usdin is the showrunner for this new webseries on Newform called “The Thread” which you can watch yourself for free on @go90 right now!

+ Nisha Ganatra will direct Margaret Cho’s TNT Pilot, which is inspired by “Cho’s own history of drug use” and “follows two extended, dysfunctional Korean-American families who share the same patriarch [and] must come together after tragedy strikes. As it turns out, the most reliable person in both families is the one who just got out of rehab.”

+ Great British Bake Off’s Mel and Sue Have Found Their Next Hosting Gig

+ Lena Waithe Talks “The Chi” Series On Showtime

+ Legends S3 Will Introduce New Character as Sara’s Love Interest

+ Why won’t Game of Thrones give LGBT characters like Yara a break?

+ Forget Netflix, there’s a new Asian streaming service that’s 100% LGBTI

+ Roxane Gay in The New York Times about Confederate: I Don’t Want to Watch Slavery Fan Fiction 

Rachel Maddow’s Ratings Juggernaut Is Not Slowing Down

+ Look! It’s a new trailer for One Mississippi!


The Movies

Professor Marston & The Wonder Women, directed by Angela Robinson, features a thruple that contains two ladies and other cool stuff

+ A same-sex kiss was apparently cut from Disney’s “Descendants 2,” and fans aren’t happy

Apparently, the lesbian sex scene in Atomic Blonde “makes Blue Is The Warmest Color look like Captain Underpants.”

I Saw Girls Trip In A Theater With Like 17 Million Black Women There And Now I Have Thoughts About That Experience! 

+ Girls Trip Shows Yet Again that movies starring Black women can crush at the box office.

+ Also if you haven’t already watched this, THE TIME IS NOW: Tiffany Haddish Said “What Had Happened Was” During Her Will and Jada Swamp Trip Story and Now I’m In Love

+ If the world doesn’t explode between now and then, Wonder Woman 2 will debut December 13th, 2019.

+ Close-Knit Breaks Ground as a Mainstream LGBTQ Japanese Film

+ ‘Disobedience’ First Look: Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz rekindle a lesbian romance:

The story follows a rabbi’s daughter (Weisz) who returns to her Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon, London following the death of her estranged father. While there, she rekindles a romance with a former friend (McAdams), who just so happens to be married to her cousin. Alessandro Nivola also stars.


Music

Lesbian Rapper Young M.A Nominated for ‘Best New Artist’ at MTV VMAs 2017

+ MTV makes its Video Music Awards completely gender-neutral

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3159 articles for us.

76 Comments

  1. Thank you Heather! My very favorite way to find out about queer characters is right here through the Very Important Community work that you do for us all.

  2. “I have zero faith that Once Upon a Time will do justice to its latest attempt to include an LGBT character.”

    Same, Riese. Same. Unless, of course, the gay character turns out to be Regina, in which case I will forgive them for everything (I’m kind of joking, kind of not…)

    • Ooops, did I completely imagine Heather’s name on this article when I posted my comment 2 hours ago? If so, I’m sorry!

      • heather thought it was her week, so she created a wordpress draft so on monday she dropped a bunch of links to trailers from Comic Con in it for future reference, then she realized it wasn’t her week, so I took over the post and then forgot to change the author back to me before publishing!

    • I’m happy to do it for as long as the AS Team asks me to do it!

      (Also, Allison you are going to love this tidbit from the same press conference as the aforementioned renewal announcement: They have cast Darla’s parents!! And we will be meeting them before season 2 is finished!)

      • Amazing!

        I wonder if you’ve seen a roundup anywhere of all the info from that panel?

  3. There was an encounter that went around one of my social media feeds (twitter? maybe?) this week where a fan recognized one OUAT creator in a restaurant and went up to say that LGBT fans had deserved better from them, then left (i.e. no prolonged, uncomfortable conversation). Huzzah!

    I relay that because I have no faith, either. I mean, maybe because they acknowledge that you can’t just do one episode and we’ll go away with that figurative pat on the head…but I’m not going to hold my breath (and also haven’t watched it forever. so.)

  4. I feel so conflicted about “Atomic Blonde.” I’m glad it features a tough queer woman, but I’m so sick of seeing such characters through the male gaze. The white male film critic in the linked review is just drooling over her and how the camera “loves her” and saying sh*t like “the girls” are action stars now and UGH. The much-discussed gay tryst in the movie features two slim feminine white women writhing around in fishnets and it just feels like lesbian porn for straight men. AND YET … I *want* more movies and stories about characters like this! So I want to support the film. But I want these stories told *by queer women.* Through *our* lens.

    • I should clarify, I want these stories told by queer people in general. Did not mean to exclude genderqueer folks and others.

    • Totally agreed. While I’ve been excited for the movie (because Charlize plays badass well), the advertising for it has been exceptionally tiresome. “Female James Bond”, which I can’t really figure out the code for, since there have been other female spy characters. And the sex scene.

      I’m sure I’ll enjoy it overall (as I like movies of its ilk), but I am very weary of the male gaze for these things. So tired. Wonder Woman finished ruining me. I just want more films like it that aren’t all grossly male-gazey. I want. I want. :)

      • Have you seen “Haywire”? It’s my favorite action movie with a female lead. Gina Carano is a former MMA fighter in real life and has some amazing fight sequences. There’s no queer element, but she’s not overtly sexualized — she’s just presented as a tough character who (rather violently) pursues justice.

    • I agree, even seeing it compared to Blue is the Warmest Colour in the link made me wary.

      • That movie grossed me out. Creepy male director with his camera permanently zoomed in on the two main characters’ business. Also, why all the slapping in the sex scenes? ::confused::

  5. Oh, and re: supergirl. Sigh. You worded it perfectly: walking in on your friends talking smack about you.

    That said, it wasn’t the worst thing ever. You could see they were just not thinking, and then compounded the issue by not just straightforward apologizing. It’s really interesting to watch things like this play out. I think some of the cast were blind-sided (which is what privilege allows).

    I’m pleased that Jeremy Jordan stuck around publicly in social media and listened and that his second apology was so much better than the first. You can see him doing the work, and you really can’t ask for much more than that.

    Katie McGrath was a champ. You could really see how having had the experience on another show helped her (or possibly just being better educated on the social stuff in general), and while I’ve been entirely “meh” on Lena Luthor as a character, the actress seems like a really good egg. Odette (cast as Reign), as well.

    I’m not sure if everyone else on the cast is just hoping it will blow over and they don’t have to publicly engage, if they’re too wary after initial engagement by some didn’t go over well, or if that one publicist saying you can’t be homophobic if you were on Glee is the last we’ll hear about it. Great internet meme. Laughably sad justification.

    That, and the “dark” direction they seem to be trying to take Supergirl (based on the trailer) makes me worried for its future.
    Is it too much to ask to just not be made fun of in public? Oh, and that Supergirl herself be a shining beacon of hope among angsty superhero shows focused on manpain?

    • So far, Jeremy Jordan is the only other person on the cast who seems willing to engage with fans on this issue and learn something from it so I will give him his due. Mehchad Brooks and Dave Harewood posted comments on social media that were frankly even worse than Jeremy’s first apology and left it at that. I doubt we will hear anything from the likes of Chris Wood because well as my grandmother would say, “bless his heart”. Or Melissa Benoist beyond what her rep supposedly sent to that blogger that IMO did nothing to make her look good. It did provide the fandom with some hilarious memes all weekend though.

      • Hilarious memes are the least the internet could do after all the crap it churns out on the regular. ;)

    • I am not a supercorp shipper but I am so angry about the Supergirl SDCC and lack of meaningful apology from anyone bar Jeremy and also about people then attaching the supercorp fandom and LGBT people in general.

      I can just about accept that they were too stupid at the time to realise how hurtful they were being, but to then criticise people for calling them out of it is a very rude and ignorantly privileged position.

      I am sick of people telling us we should just keep quite about things that hurt us and I am sick of the implication that we should only be allowed to ship canon pairings.

      I started watched Supergirl because of Danvers and I trusted the show and the cast to respect me and I feel betrayed. Their behaviour was like the popular people at school making fun of the less popular kids.

      I am also sick of people being offensive and then claiming we should recognise them as allies.

      I will try hard never to ignore another minority group if they say behaviour that I am a part of is harmful.

  6. Hey so also! I was at SDCC and attended the panel for the sequel to Life is Strange (disappointedly not titled Life is Stranger). I asked a question of the devs as part of the panel basically wanting to know if they have plans to deepen the lesbian content in this new game, given the strong queer response to the first one. The devs answered that they felt there was always queer content in the first one, and we’ll definitely see more in the sequel. So kind of a non-answer, but other comments they made suggested that in playing as Chloe in the new game, a romantic relationship with Rachel will be more text than subtext this time around.

  7. I mean, it’s not like I’m NOT going to watch Rachel Weisz in a lesbian film, but like I said on twitter it’s getting kind of tiresome that so many “lesbian” films center around infidelity and breaking up relationships. This story is SO OLD guys. You can make a compelling movie that isn’t about closeted people! And I worry too because it feeds into the homophobe’s narrative about queer women being predatory and stealing your wife, yada yada.

  8. Also, kind of unrelated, but I just read Jaina Lee Ortiz from Rosewood is going to star in Shonda’s firefighter spinoff. I’m so excited for this news and I really hope she plays a queer firefighter :)

    • I also saw this news and am VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT!!

      And one of my first thoughts was: I hope she can help fill the ongoing Callie Torres shaped hole in my heart :)

      • As long as it’s the Callie before she started making bad life choices. I really didn’t like the direction her story went in the end :(

        I’m still pissed about Rosewood’s cancellation, but if it means Jaina as a firefighter YES PLEASE!

  9. I’d honestly prefer Queer characters just show up without an announcement. I mean, beforehand. I am happy to get the scoop on Autostraddle. ^_^

  10. That SpoilerTV Roundtable was an interesting read – I went into it with one opinion and left with another.

    I would contend that announcing an LGBTQ character/story isn’t “baiting,” per se, because I associate baiting with a tease that doesn’t lead to any kind of substantial payoff. If a show says there’s going to be an LGBTQ character and there is indeed an LGBTQ character, then technically the show delivered. But also, making an ~*announcement*~ has a certain implicit magnitude. If the story line is minor/surface-level or the character doesn’t get much screen time/development, it seems disingenuous to give the LGBTQ element so much advanced publicity. I also think context is key in terms of the history that the specific show and showrunner(s) have with the LGBTQ community. If they have a negative reputation, it seems more likely that an LGBTQ-related announcement is an attempt to placate fans or put a Band-Aid over previous issues.

    Ultimately, I appreciate getting a heads up about a prospective LGBTQ element in a show. If it’s a show I’m already watching, I’ll be more inclined to stick with it and see how everything goes down; if it’s a show I’m not watching, I’ll be more inclined to check it out. And while I definitely see the problem with defining a character by a label, it can also be SO powerful and affirming to see an unambiguously LGBTQ character owning their identity onscreen.

  11. OUAT is not about to suck me in and do me dirty again. Nope. I enjoy my sanity. I might read the recap though of what is sure to be a very special episode where we never see that character ever again. Just like the last time.

  12. First of all Riverdale is melodramatic trash and making every single character queer wouldn’t change that. They couldn’t even respect that jughead is canon aromatic asexual, and the only (cis white dude) gay character on the show is *literally* described as the straight girls best friend, so I’m not gonna trust them with Topaz’s storyline.

    That being said I like finding out before hand that chars are LGBTQ+. I agree that announcing it at comic con is weird but finding out via autostraddle/ twitter is always fun.

  13. I have never watched OUAT but every time they talk about anything LGBTQ-related it is so cringeworthy I just want to hurl them in a volcano. That statement is the closest you can get to adding ‘no homo’ to an announcement of a gay character.

    ‘We’ll have someone gay on the show but don’t worry the story won’t be gay it’s not gonna be gay, gay is just a distant background set piece, there will not be any gay behavior or mentioning of gay stuff no one will even say gay. Don’t worry we will keep it super bland, everyone will state their eternal love no one will act out said love. Also: Love is love! Congratulations to us on hitting another square on the Diversity Bingo and also for being such good people.’

  14. Did anyone else catch the announcement Sara’s bisexuality is going to be “reestablished” in Legends of Tomorrow, whatever that’s supposed to mean? Like, she’s canonically bisexual, how do you “reestablish” that?

    • That statement seemed to come out of a question about how they were criticized last season for Sara remarking that she preferred girls and if that meant Sara was now gay. So I took “reestablishing her bisexuality” to mean that the new love interest is likely a guy. I have no real interest in yet another m/f pairing on tv as their are hundreds to choose from already.

      • It’s tough too because if this is a season long relationship it will reinforce the bigoted idea that for bisexual women, other women are for flings (or die tragically) but men are for relationships. I’m glad she banged a lot of women last season but why couldn’t her recurring love interest be one? They have so many her romances but they want kudos for a new one.

        • This is why I’ve never given the CW too much credit for Sara Lance because I knew they had no intention of having her in any sort of meaningful relationship unless it was with a man. They have also never had any problem with playing up the “Promiscuous Bisexual” trope with her by having her bed various women throughout history before taking off on her next adventure. She is a character whose sexuality is written straight out of the late 90s/early 00s. And the only time I see media people discussing her relationships is when they talk about how “good she would be” with Rip or Cold. They are still mourning the departure of the latter.

          • I was so mad when they hinted at her and Cold having feeling. I have an odd soft spot for Legends considering how much I dislike all the white men except Rory, but they do het romances so poorly?

            Like…Rip and Miranda? Underdeveloped and she gets fridged for him. Carter and Kendra? Bland, underdeveloped, and I literally don’t know what they would ever talk about. Same for Kendra and Ray, but worse because she gives up tons of things that make her happy and becomes a shell of a person in their time together and he doesn’t notice. Amaya and that metal boy? She’s too good for him, and far too strong for her storyline to be reduced to him trying to rescue/protect her.

            I’m admittedly biased against all those men, but those relationships were all uniquely dumb.

            I’m not ready to see them weaken Sara Lance enough for a male character they create to be able to subdue her for a season or two.

        • No member of the Legends team can have any meaningful or lasting relationship with anyone who isn’t a member of the team because they are always hopping around from one time period to another.

  15. 1. I have so little, teeny, minuscule faith in OUAT at this point that it’s not even worth talking about….. the only acceptable alternative at this point is that the new queer character in the reboot is Regina Mills. And if that happens I will fall over from the shock.

    (If it’s Regina Mills I am going to have to pick myself up off of the ground and then mow down Heather to let me write about it… but since we all know they will never go there, I am not dedicating my energy to it before hand)

    2. This is an UNPOPULAR OPINION. I don’t need a thousand responses about how many people think how wrong I am about it. I know that a lot of SG fans won’t agree, but I am going to say it anyway:

    Short of Chyler, who is a gift of an ally, there is not one thing about the cast or production of Supergirl that has at all made me feel welcome as a queer viewer or as a person of color, particularly as a Latina. I am not surprised by what went down this weekend. And I only hope that when everything has died down, some of those queer fans of the show who spent a good chunk of last year silencing a lot of Latinx fans about our outrage over Floriana’s casting, will be able to gain some empathy. What happened was awful and I am sorry any of their fans had to go through it, but Supergirl was awful to a lot of us for a long time now.

    3. Seeing Girls Trip was the greatest decision of my last weekend. The end. I hope many of you all get to see it.

    • I haven’t watched Supergirl, but I’m disappointed to hear it drops the ball on Latinx representation. There are so many talented actors/actresses in our community! Give them work!

      Also I am very excited to see Girls Trip, I’ve heard only great things. :D

    • if the queer character was regina i would delete everything bad i’ve ever said about ouat. i wouldn’t even care if it was done poorly, or if she was just recognized as queer and then they never talked about it again. i would tune in every single day, even the days it didn’t air (just in case).

  16. I understand that the lesbian break up then getting back together trope is a thing, but I am still excited to see a movie centered around a religious(?) Jewish woman who is into other women, because most of these story generally involve a white Christian woman, like Elena Undone, Concussion(the lesbian film about a queer married woman turned sex worker, not the one with Will Smith).

    • Agreed. Let’s hope this movie is better than Elena Undone because Erin has suffered enough.

  17. Oh I almost forgot, but RIESE I SHARE YOUR EXCITEMENT ABOUT ANTHONY RAPP AND WILSON CRUZ BEING LOVERS ON SCREEN!!!

    I was really not going to watch the new Star Trek, even after all the exciting reveals about the new Captain and Lt. both being played by women of color, because I was against on principle having to pay for CBS All Access in order to watch.

    But this was the final straw, they win. My 90s broadway gay heart went aflame.

  18. GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS

    Okay but WHY! Tease us with all those flashes of Ellaria and Yara making out if that half-kiss was LITERALLY ALL THAT HAPPENS? They had us out here wondering if it was going to be a new relationship or a murder or just a random hookup and I would have gladly taken any of those things over a smashcut to Euron Greyjoy, latest misogynistic sadist of the week.

    I MEAN! My bar is low when it comes to this show and representation, but I was at least hoping for the random hookup. Like, if the hets can have trashy and gratuitous sex scenes, why can’t we?? Instead, AS USUAL, the queerness is played as a joke and the womens’ sexuality isn’t even about them – it’s about Theon feeling emasculated and useless.

    I PLAYED MYSELF.

    Anyway, looking on the bright side:

    1. Grey Worm/Missendei was by contrast a perfect sex scene, hard-earned and long-awaited, and far more tasteful and emotionally resonant than what GOT usually gives us.

    2. I thought Yara and Ellaria were the two dead bodies at the end at first, and I was feeling really sick about it until I learned, to my relief, that it was just the two most useless Sand Snakes. I AM SO CONDITIONED TO EXPECT THE WORST.

    3. “A foreign invasion is underway” is easily the best-worst pickup-line I’ve ever heard, I’m still over here laughing.

    • I agree about the representation in Game of Thrones..
      Grey Worm/Missendei I felt like that scene lasted forever. At one point I kind a wanted to fast forward
      As a foreigner, i would try to use ” A foreign invasion is underway” as a pick up line if I happened to be single.

    • I agree w/ everything you said re: GOT. Super disappointed with the way the Yara/Ellaria interactions were written.

    • SPOILERS ABOUND
      I have a low bar for Game of Thrones because virtually no one gets a healthy/sustainable romance at all, and after what happened to Oberyn, Renly, and Loras, I just expect queer characters to be killed off in cruel and unusual ways.

      What I find most disappointing about GOT is its treatment of the women from Dorne, who happen to be among the only women of colour on the show. They have been given the worst writing, most of which involves pathetic sexual innuendo that goes against the tone of everyone else’s dialogue.

      • Every Dorne scene always reminded me of Xena Warrior Princes but not in a good way

      • This is doubly frustrating because Dorne is easily the most badass and feminist of the seven kingdoms in the books.

        I do not expect Ellaria or her daughter to live past this next episode, and I think you’re right that it’ll be cruel and unusual. At least this week I’m prepared to be disappointed.

  19. I prefer gay characters get treated the same as straight characters and if you aren’t announcing beforehand that your characters are straight I don’t see the need to announce gay/bi characters.

    And that “bisexual” bachelor contestant is the worst. According to another article apparently seeing this guy shirtless turned her straight. I feel sorry for the poor girl she was dating when she saw this guy shirtless and had her gayness blown away.

    Unless, of course, it’s all an elaborate ruse to meet attractive women. We don’t actually watch the show…

  20. I am just happy Wynonna Earp exists. I have a lot respect for that cast and Emily Andras. They seem to understand what it means for the whole community to have a show that respects us both on and off screen.

    Supergirl cast was a big let down! The apologies were even worse! To have one of the actors telling fans to understand and calm down because they were having a long day when it all happened. Just ridiculous and so disrespectful.
    I am fan of Chyler and Floriana, both of them always seem to step up when it comes to the fans. I understand her wanting to do more acting than the 1min scenes they have been giving her.

    All the messages coming from the rest of the cast today after Trump announced the ban of trans people are hard to take as sincere given the previous behaviour and the refusal to acknowledge their dismissal of fans.

  21. Meanwhile on Cleverman, Alinta’s showing a possibly baby gay devotion to her non-human bff Latani, but maybe I just want some gay on this show because it’s doing so well with people of color (specifically Indigenous Australians) and getting better at women this season?

  22. Man, San Junipero was my BEST EVER experience of encountering gay characters without announcement. At first I was like, “Wow, they seem like they’re really into each other but I’m definitely reading into it” And then I was like, “YEEESSS, omg it’s gay!!!…But they won’t end up together. That’s okay, it was still a great episode” And then it seemed like Yorkie was going to be alone in San Junipero a the end–I’d already started talking myself into how this was a positive ending for her when…well…you know. Goddamn magical, to be honest.

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