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QUILTBAG Thread of Flagrant Homoeroticism

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So, Doctor Who didn't really address anything.

 

Anyone watched Transparent? It's an Amazon drama series starring Jeffrey Tambor as a transgender woman coming out to her son and daughters, created by Jill Soloway. I'm a couple of eps in. Tambor's storyline is interesting so far (especially in the support group scenes) but the rest of it it is all pretty Frances Ha.

 

Sorry to be "that guy", but it was never going to. That is so far beyond the scope of what Doctor Who's production staff are trying to do/willing to do. The fact that it is just accepted without mention that

of course the Master could be a woman now and have it not affect her identity aside from in obvious ways and she could be just as much of a threat

is as close as you're going to get. Some people (like the numpties at Nintendo that thought having gay relationships was "social commentary") probably already think that's going too far, and it should have either been a new character or been shown as totally fucked up by the change or something.

 

There is a silver lining here, though. Have you seen the progression of Jack Harkness through Doctor Who and Torchwood? He started off as being completely pansexual because the idea was that in the far future humanity has shed limited sexuality entirely, but it rapidly devolved during the handing over between several writers into Jack just being Space Gay. He's totally gay, because he's from space, ok? THANKS RUSSELL T. DAVIES. It may have been better for this particular aspect of this particular character to not have been too highlighted, if only because the series does not have a good history of doing well with such things in the long run...

 

As for Transparent, I've watched the whole season and you seem like you have a solid handle on it already. Jeffrey Tambor's storyline is interesting. The rest of it is not.

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Well, I figured since Moffat seems to like vacillating wildly between pantomime for the under-fours and Big Important Drama that he might have taken a swing at it. But yeah, t's probably for the best considering New Who's level of nuance so far has amounted to introducing gay couples who only ever talk about how gay they are and, if they're lesbians, how they enjoy doing the naughty.

 

Shame about Transparent.

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52 Tuesdays is a pretty interesting film. It's about the strained relationship between a women who's transitioning and her teenage daughter, who agree to dedicate every Tuesday a year to each other. It's about change and being in very dark places, and what's beyond that, so even though things don't go as well as you'd hope there's still a sweetness to it.

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The Finnish parliament voted in favour of gay marriage today. I was actually surprised, we could have easily remained the only Nordic country without equal marriage rights.

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What's next? People marrying animals?!

(Most likely an actual argument by the opposition.)

 

I'm surprised and happy about the result. Unfortunately, it is not yet completely certain that the change in the marriage law will actually be implemented (or so I gathered from the radio).

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So for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, a transgender teenager committed suicide today, an already sadly common occurrence. What makes it particularly awful is the -in all likelihood equally common- horrible way her parents have been making efforts to erase her experience and identity as well as minimize the fact that their actions are what drove her to suicide in the first place. Compare the mother's status update...

 

FFCyf0k.jpg

...to the actual suicide note.

 

pyZrjRX.jpg

 

 

 

 

This sort of shit is infuriating to me.

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Dammit.  You know, being a parent is fucking hard.  What's not hard, or shouldn't be, is loving your kid.  They'll do things you don't understand, things you don't agree with, things that challenge you.  But that doesn't change how you love and support them. 

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The second to last paragraph of that really bummed me out. I know that sounds stupid and obvious, but up until that point it was clearly an intelligent and insightful kid talking about her problems, and even though I knew the ending I could almost believe that it would be different - somehow the end of the note was going to be "and so I finally got away from my parents and I'm starting to transition, and I'm scared but I'm happy that I'm finally doing what feels right."

 

And then it just takes a left turn off a cliff. All the insight is smothered in depression, and there's no hope in the words. She's just decided it's never going to get better without any reasoning, and I get it. I know how depression does that to you, how it short circuits your logic, but literally reading it from one paragraph to the next - clear eyed description of others sliding into murky, flawed analysis of herself... fuck.

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My hope is that there's more parents around now that might have some more insight into these things. Maybe. That's so optimistic of me. I wish becoming a parent required you to love your kid no matter what, but sadly, we know that's not true.

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I lost a friend this year, partially because of a "gender is really complicated" conversation that made him visibly uncomfortable. His entire stance seemed to boil down to uncertainty and discomfort coupled with "but that'll fuck up sports". It's weird to occasionally find these people in my circles of friends and realise they're probably the reactionary assholes of tomorrow.

 

I really hope that if one thing comes from Leelah's death it's greater awareness of trans issues. It's easy to not look past my own anger at religious parents mashing their kids into various molds, but trans issues are so much wider and more pervasive than such clear cut antagonism. The microcosm Leelah had to live through isn't just a thing specific to fundy religious families; those attitudes exist in much more widespread places among people who consider themselves tolerant, liberal, progressive even. Trans and poor people seem to be the last groups left whom it's socially acceptable to punch down at or erase, and one day that'll look exactly like all the casual racism and homophobia of the 80's does now.

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I'm working in college admissions right now (the person who admitted you to forge might have been an underpaid temp, fyi), and some of the recommendations I'm reading are really, really infuriating. This morning, there was a letter of recommendation where the counselor at an expensive boarding school gushed that this applicant was just inhumanly kind because his brother, 5 years older than him, is gay. That's it. Because someone 5 years older than him is gay, this kid is really brave and strong and it's so good of him to have dealt with the hardship of having a gay older sibling in moneyed circles in New York.

On its own, that would just make me roll my eyes, but the applicant's statement on a hardship he faced in life is entirely about his gay older sibling. 750 words about how his brother was generally well accepted by everyone around him, but it was really hard that he was gay.

I obviously can't go into specific details, but it's pretty terrible. These kinds of statements and letters aren't all that rare, and it's going to give me an aneurysm. Is it wrong of me to get so frustrated by this or am I being unreasonable by underestimating how difficult it can be to have a gay sibling/friend/uncle/neighbor?

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Ah yes, the difficulties of having a gay relative versus actually being the gay relative yourself. (You're not being unreasonable.)

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I have a sarcastic response to Gormongous' post, but I won't say it because if read without the sarcasm, well.

 

Let's just go with: I can see the twisted "logic" behind not wanting a second trans woman on an all-female team...

But yeah that came up in IRC earlier today, and then again. It's pretty repulsive.

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I'm actually looking to talk to someone about this but cursory research looks like it has to do with how LGBT people are treated in the Phillippines. I am pretty uninformed on the subject though. The unfair advantage seems to relate to trans women being perceived as men, or beliefs towards bakla (which is considered a 3rd gender, I believe.) Either way, it's gross for a publisher themselves to demand that for a tournament. 

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I wonder what that actually means. They say it's a lawsuit filed against him, so is this just a money thing, or will he actually be thrown in jail?

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It looks like the case is just under the Alien Tort Claims Act, so money. Like all incredibly exciting law, that looks like it's just been a lot of bickering about jurisdiction until now.

 

I think it's kind of beautiful that a group that abbreviates to SMUG is trying to sue such a smug asshole.

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Reportedly Riot isn't thrilled with these rules.

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So what is Brownback's motivation for that? To just be a jerk? Angry republicans are always whining about how government wastes so much money on services, but they always want to put the precious tax dollars into wasting everyone's time by getting all of these unnecessary discriminatory laws imposed (or anti discrimination laws repealed).

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So what is Brownback's motivation for that? To just be a jerk? 

 

His stated motivation is the same motivation most American right wing reactionaries in political office use when they want to pretend they're not actually racist/homophobic: act like it's really all about a process issue, and that the discrimination is just an unavoidable side effect.

 

“This Executive Order ensures that state employees enjoy the same civil rights as all Kansans without creating additional ‘protected classes’ as the previous order did,” Brownback said in a short statement that did not specifically refer to sexual orientation or gender identity. “Any such expansion of ‘protected classes’ should be done by the legislature and not through unilateral action.

 

The actual reason is just to be a jerk though, yes.

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