#lgbt hot takes

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness - 1x07

[initforthelolzz]

No one does queer representation quite like One Piece.

Allow me to explain in great detail.

I’m going to talk about the queer rep in Impel Down, and you’d best buckle up cause it’s rant time.

Impel Down is one of my favorite arcs because I love the story line, it’s downright hilarious, and Luffy’s struggle to rescue Ace is incredibly compelling.

But there is another reason why I love Impel Down so much, and that’s the queer rep that utterly knocked me off my feet.

Now, I’ve come to accept that queer representation in anime (not touching on any other media in this rant) is generally nonexistent or extremely rare… if you’re watching anything other than a BL.

On the rare occasion that we do find some LGBT rep it is usually extremely subtle, and shown exclusively in convoluted subtext and minuscule details that are easily overlooked. While this representation is so incredibly meaningful to everyone who’s able to pick it out, the subtly makes it all the more easy for homophobes to argue that it was never in the first place.

Keeping all this in mind, I finally picked up One Piece several months ago after refusing to watch it for a long-assed time (It was too long and I thought the art style was weird. Dear god have I eaten my words.) I’d heard on social media that One Piece was big on trans representation, but I wasn’t prepared at ALL for what I’d find in that department.

I had NOT expected to find One Piece’s treasure trove of LGBT characters in Impel Down of all pleases, and the shock factor made it so much better.

The arc had already been chaotic as fucking hell by the time Luffy reunited with Bon Clay, and their reunion made me tear up. Like dude!

I hadn’t been particularly attached to Bon Clay before but THIS ^ was it. This scene right here, he wormed his way into my heart istfg.

Can we appreciate this scene please?! The sparkles in the background?? The leg lifting?! The REUNION HUG?!?! I love this so dearly not just because it’s fucking ADORABLE but because of what it *says.*

Bon Clay is an outwardly queer character, and Luffy absolutely adores him. Those two are best friends and we treat queer people with respect and they are good people. We can be friends with them and allies with them and they aren’t something to shy away from just because they’re different.

Be fucking for real. The representation is so positive, and it never ceases to blow me away.

If you thought that this representation was enough YOU WERE WRONG because this BARELY SCRATCHED THE SURFACE.

Iva. Emperio Ivankov. The Queen of the Queers. He is a gender fluid ICON and a literal drag queen. His special attack is a wink that blows shit up. His Devil Fruit ability is quite literally hormone therapy.

Do I need to say more?

THATS RIGHT, I FUCKING DONT

Now, this is One Piece we’re talking about, so naturally characters are going to be wildly exaggerated but ARE YOU KIDDING

IVA’S ABILITY IS HORMONE THERAPY. HE CHANGES PEOPLE’S GENDER AS AN ATTACK. HIS POWER WORKS THROUGH SYRINGE NEEDLES THAT POP OUT FROM UNDER HIS ACRYLIC NAILS.

I love Iva so fucking much words cannot describe 😭

Oda didn’t just say “look, I made a queer character” he really said “fuck it, nuclear option it is.” It is literally impossible to ignore the fact that Iva is LGBT, and One Piece’s queer rep is SO IN YOUR FACE, especially in Impel Down. It’s impossible to ignore, which is the stark opposite from the usual business with “implied” queer characters in anime.

Implied? HAH.

There is a kingdom of gay people living INSIDE THE WALLS of the biggest prison in the world. They are led by a gender fluid drag queen and run a strip club bar in the middle of a fucking prison, where they drag new gays through the cracks in the walls to join them.

Dude.

I love One Piece so much.

All joking aside, the introduction of Iva and his kingdom of gays drove me to tears. Like deadass. The representation literally drove me to tears, I was sobbing.

Why? Because it was so positive.

Do you know how meaningful that is?

It made me fucking cry, man.

Iva’s speech introducing his gay kingdom, like goddamn. I can’t even remember exactly what he said because I was crying the whole time.

“We’re here and we’re queer.” That’s a quote from fucking One Piece, dude. I can’t, I can’t.

It wasn’t just the introduction of Iva’s kingdom or the LITERAL LESBIAN COUPLE SITTING AT THE BAR, it was the way the sense of community was presented.

We’re called the LGBTQ Community and I don’t know if Oda’s a member or not but HOT damn if he doesn’t know what it means to be a part of it.

I’m talking about the Luffy situation. He fought the Warden and got his ass handed to him. He was poisoned to all hell and about to die at 17 but Bon picked him up and carried him to Iva’s Kingdom. He’s wanted to meet Iva his whole life but by the time he did he was more worried about Luffy’s condition than anything else.

And then we find out that Luffy had insisted that Bon get medical treatment before he did. What a guy. When Iva got Luffy, he said that it was a lost cause to try and overcome the poison. But he was willing to give it a try anyway.

Let’s discuss.

Iva injected Luffy with hormones to help him beat the poison. Luffy underwent hormone therapy. (I will cling to this tidbit of information forever, YOU CANT TAKE IT FROM ME.) When Bon woke up, he demanded to see Luffy.

Iva warned him about what he would find, but brought Bon to Luffy at his request. When Bon found Luffy, he found his friend chained up and screaming in excruciating pain. We didn’t see Luffy in full at all during this time, but when Bon looked through the door he was horrified.

He got defensive. He started yelling at Iva, saying that the person inside that room was not the Luffy he knew.

Iva was firm, and told Bon that Luffy was going through a tough challenge, and he would be different afterwards, but he was still the same Luffy.

Do you see it? Can you read between the lines? This exchange made me sob all over again. Why? I urge you to think about it, to see the underlying message here.

Bon broke down into tears, realizing that Luffy was fighting for his life. He apologized and took back his harsh words.

Then he spent hours outside Luffy’s cell, screaming till his throat was raw and cheering him on. He couldn’t do anything to help Luffy, Luffy was fighting this battle on his own. But he could be there for him.

I ask you again, do you see it?

As the hours passed, others in Iva’s kingdom trickled out to see what Bon was doing. They told him to stop screaming, that it was useless. They mocked him, told him he was being a fool.

Then Iva stood up for him, and told them to see Bon for what he was doing. He couldn’t help Luffy, but he could cheer him on. He could be there for him.

Within moments, the entire kingdom was outside Luffy’s cell. Cheering him on. Encouraging him. Supporting him. They didn’t know who he was but they saw him fighting and immediately backed him up.

It isn’t just representation, merely the presence of a queer character or even an entire kingdom of gays that makes it meaningful. It’s how those characters are shown, how they behave.

Oda could have thrown in a queer character here and there and left it at that, but he went out of his way to show the incredible support system that this community provided. They jumped to Luffy’s aid. They were so supportive and cheered him on until he beat the poison. They fought alongside him… and you know what else?

When Luffy woke up, he accepted them in a heartbeat. He didn’t question anything, just saw a bunch of people and thought “huh. New friends!”

Oda’s representation is exaggerated as much as it is painstakingly accurate in nature and positive to a tee. Obviously it isn’t perfect. Iva and the squad were still mocked, called “freaks” and “weirdos.”

But it’s about Luffy. How Luffy behaves. How Luffy reacts. Even in the face of how the rest of society views Iva and his kingdom, Luffy sees them as friends and allies and doesn’t give a singular shit if they’re gay or not.

Luffy accepts everyone, and he doesn’t draw the line at queer people. The aroace king himself. You heard it here, Luffy is the ultimate ally.

Of course I’m not even scraping the surface on this topic and Oda’s representation is in no way perfect, but Impel Down remains the greatest example of queer rep that I’ve seen this far.

You gotta give credit where credit is due ✨

[tiredtourettic]

Hot take:

I, as a person part of the LGBTQ+ community, don't feel safe in it.

I'm a (genderfluid) trans man, amongst other things. But in the community I get ostracized, because I'm a man. Yes, a lot of (cis) men have privilege. But I'm not a cis man. My community's oppression is being swiped under the rug because we're men, people are claiming we have privilege because of our gender. But being men doesn't take away our oppression.

It hurts me seeing other queer people, especially other trans people, claiming we don't face oppression unique to us. You're supposed to get it, you face the same kind of thing, and then you turn around and say we're exaggerating. That we have privilege over trans women and nonbinary folk. You're siding with the transphobes here.

We, as trans people, are supposed to stick together and fight for all of our rights. We're supposed to support each other.

Transmascs are no less oppressed just because we're men. This is not the oppression Olympics.

Let me repeat:

This is not the oppression Olympics.

[bloodpopsoda]

When women engage with mlm / nwlnw, it’s fetish.

but when men engage with wlw / nmlnm, lesbians aren’t being inclusive enough.

What is this double standard ?

[grumpytrans]

happy pride month to all of my he/they queers specifically i love you 🌈❤️

[lunityviruz]

Okay this is literally my issue with white queers and their use of slurs. I’ve been looking for ways to explain it (it definitely has something to do with race💀) but it just makes me so uncomfortable as a black queer person seeing people throw around slurs all willy-nilly like and getting very aggressive and defensive to people who feel uncomfortable by it. Like why do you even want to reclaim these words and how is using it in a derogatory reclaiming it? I really feel like a lot of y’all have superiority complexes when it comes to this, even with the word queer y’all get upset over people being uncomfortable by it, like it’s not just a reclaimed slur, like it’s not being used in a derogatory manner in 2023 by cishets.

BEFORE YOU GET HOT IN THE HEAD AND HUFF AND PUFF IN MY NOTES, NO NO ONE IS SAYING YOU CAN’T SAY THESE SLURS, I’m saying use your critical thinking skills!

[classical-bluess]

Where are my aroace Aizawa truthers at 👊

[beetle---bones]

I like men

[rubsjuice]

Nobody batted an eye when rose did this for greg but now that the baby daddy committed war crimes its all "this is so not #feminist rebecca"

[jinglebellrockstars]

i think its fucked up that people in fandom literally prefer subtext and bait instead of canon gay characters/stories, to the point where they actually ignore canon gay characters in favor of making het/other characters gay

[miyawaves]

i dunno. hot take fun fact: body hair is unisex that shit will grow on you whether you like it or not i dunno

you could be as. like fucking hairy as you want man that stuff is natural so like life is too short to be insecure about something that's just implanted in your body (same goes for gender dysphoria/body dysmorphia. live your life. enjoy it)

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness - 1x07

[respectfuldiscourse]

There really shouldn't be new lables for sexualities. I think we should just have hetero, homo, bi and ace. All of these other lables like pan, omni, abro are all bi but with different experiences.

Even the lgbt community can't really tell what's the difference between bi and pan because everyone has their own definition of what bi and pan are. Some say bi is when you only love two genders while pan is when you love all genders. Others say bi is when you love every gender and pan is when you're genderblind. Some say there aren't any differences between bi and pan. Honestly I can go on how there are so many definitions of bi and pan. And I'm just wondering, why? Why the need to create more labels for new sexualities when they are just going to be bi 2.0?

thank you for your submission

[lifenconcepts]

Honestly, hot take but.. many queer or lgbtq people went from “demolish all gender norms” and against boy / girl to creating more and more different terms and labels for genders and although I get that people want to express themselves, many questionnaires and people’s identities still revolve around gender. Like, honestly. I have never taken anyone’s gender into account and always look past that, since why would it ever be relevant unless I wanna go to bed with someone, and you’re telling me that the same people who say girl / boy things are harmful are also quite on the same side yet on a different spectrum as they claim that people must have a term for a gender? Creating biological and spiritual genders to describe themselves? It all seems like the same thing for me.

plus many of the flags just existing to sell products. Buy buy buy consume.. why make it an entire aspect worthy of so much attention and money? It all seems just so dumb to me. All the while, I’ll gladly respect and use people’s neopronouns or xenogenders even if the whole concept I don’t get. Like, if you use it, sure! That’s great! Glad you like that. There just is way too much of a proportion of people who think it’s necessary to push onto other people.

[that-one-kiddo-in-the-back]

since I made a few people mad about my spicy take here are some more I have about the LGBTQ

It's okay to not want to date someone who is Trans. It's not okay if the only reason why is just because they're trans and you can't get mad when they're passing and they don't want to date cis people

I trust drag queens with children more than I trust the police with children.

Pedos "Maps" are not and will never be apart of the LGBTQ. they belong in prison.

having a gay best friend doesn't mean you can say the f-slur

LGBTQ clubs are for the LGBTQ only. I don't care if they have better shit, I'm not sorry cis het women but that means you too.

You can't be racist and gay at the same time, pick a struggle.

Super straights are not valid, you're transphobic with a breeding kink

Gay white cis men and bi white cis women are the weak links in the community.

Trans people don't have to look any kind of way to be trans. Trans men are still men if they look feminine and trans women are still women if they look masculine.

[j4zz4lop3]

You know what? I have more unpopular lgbt opinions. I am going to get "pressed" and this is going to be long. Because I'm a dramatic person, deal with it

The fact that you identify as something doesn't mean you understand what it is.

Source: I used to identify as heterosexual.

I keep seeing people define bi, pan, omni, and poly as this

Bi - attraction to men and women

Pan - attraction to all genders with no preference

Omni - attraction to all genders with a preference

Poly - attraction to multiple but not all genders

Now, here's the thing. Pansexual and omnisexual in these definitions are completely sensible and understandable definitions. Poly and bi are, however not.

You know why?

Because the gender spectrum doesn't look like this

It doesn't even look like this, which I have seen before

No, it look s like this, and guess what

This is all nonbinary

Moreover, gender expression ≠gender and sex ≠ gender, and nonbinary people don't have to be androgynous to be nonbinary, just like men can be feminine and women can be masculine

To make an example, I will use Demi Lovato

Now, Demi is nonbinary, uses she/they pronouns, and is, let's not kid ourselves, attractive

A lesbian could look at Demi and say, "Well, I'm a woman who likes women, and I find this nonbinary feminine person attractive." Does that make her no longer a lesbian? No, because she's attracted to someone that she sees as a woman, it does mean that homosexuality includes nonbinary people, and is nmlnm, not wlw, that's pretty commonly accepted. Now, if this could happen to masculine enbys (I'm not making an example again you get it) and a bisexual is attracted to both men and women, why would they not be attracted to nonbinary people? Because by all means, if you are into both masculinity and femininity, you should be a) also attracted to the mix of the 2, androgyny, as it is both of those mixed, or if you're not, at least be attracted to femininity and masculinity separately, because nonbinary people can be either.

The definition of bisexual given above is implying all nonbinary people are androgynous and everyone who doesn't not pass as androgynous is a man or a woman.

This is why nonbinary people are included in all orientations

And if so, it's not a far strech to say that the definition of polysexuality doesn't make sense because if you can't get rid of all nonbinary people from any sexuality, you are left with this

Attracted to all but men - lesbian/ straight

Attracted to all but women- gay/straight

Attracted all but nonbinary people - transphobic and doesn't see nonbinary people as nonbinary unless they're androgynous

So how do i feel these should be defined?

Bi - attraction to all genders with or without preference

Poly - not a thing. Like generally, we don't need it.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk and all my fellow enbys: Remember, you don't own anyone androgyny, happy pride guys <333