#lgbt representation matters

[gender-hellbender]

My dad has come a long way from scoffing at a lesbian couple in The Walking Dead, to getting emotional over a gay couple in The Last Of Us. Hopefully the same change will happen regarding his feelings about transgender people 🤞

[batcavescolony]

This is kinda revolutionary? Just a few years ago destiel was queerbaiting fans to superhell but now? NOW? A show saw the fans HC a character as queer with valid evidence and instead went "you know what? You're right. We didn't originally plan this for them but we see you". Then four episodes into the season, canonized his queerness. Not the last second, Not the last Episode. the BEGINNING of the season, with time to expand AND we know we're getting another season after this. Just look how far we've come.

[that-bisexual]

We need better queer representation in shows movies and books

We need queer POC

We need people who don't want to label their gender or sexuality

We need trans people who's transition goals aren't to look cis

We need queer people with diverse religions

We need queer people who use pronouns that don't "match" their gender

We need aromantic and asexual characters

We need disabled queer people

We need queer people who use multiple labels for themselves

We need queer people who's entire personality isn't being queer

We need queer people who aren't just there because of romance

We need real and diverse queer people in the media

[whoops-im-obsessed]

You can say that representation and diversity doesn't matter or that its 'cringe' or argue about how it is or isn't good enough, but tell that to my 50 year old mother. Who binge watched heartstopper (of her own accord) and is now on her 3rd re-watch. Tell that to my mother who has since sat me down and had serious conversations asking me about my experiences and apologising for how she reacted when I came out. Tell that to my mother who once said she would never understand trans people and that she was 'just too old for that' and couldn't accept them, and has now realised what that attitude does to kids. Who has made facebook posts about how beautiful the story is abd how she wishes it came out when she was a kid and told all of her friends to watch it for the sake of their own children. Who is now researching ways to promote inclusion and education surrounding gender identity in the primary school she works at.

You can say it doesn't matter and that people can never change. But you'll be wrong.

[elsie-dee]

Can I just take a moment to give a big shoutout to Neil, Pterry and the team for REPRESENTATION!

It’s so natural in the show that we almost take it for granted. But in this world, we see characters of every race, every gender, every sex, every sexuality, every ability as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. Women have agency. Sex workers are treated with respect. Hooligans use Grindr. Middle-aged+ people are sexy. No-one ever jeers or laughs or demeans someone for what they ARE, just how they’re behaving.

And with a couple of exceptions, these characters aren’t the Hollywood ideal of beauty, but they ARE all beautiful in their own unique ways. Even demons and zombies with rotting faces and mouths full of flies. Everyone just shines from inside out.

[funktrolls]

Floyd ( and Veneer ) are canonically Gay coded/ please stop shipping Floyd with women

Alright since I keep seeing Floyd being shipped with women, a post like this needs to be made.

So we don't need to go over how lgbt representation is important and that if you erase that representation, it's wrong right?

These aren't headcanons btw, these are deliberate choices by the character designers and writers to give out these hints of the characters' identities. ( and keep in mind the movie isn't even out yet we have THIS much hints , so probably even more will surface as time goes on )

First, let's focus on Floyd. His voice actor is Troye Sivan. Well known gay musician.

Now, if it were just this one clue, then I would understand dismissing it. But the character designers blatantly give Floyd a design detail that is a reference to his voice actor's homosexuality as well as a hint to the character himself's orientation.

His one earring on his right ear. A clear detail, one he wears both as a teenager, and as an adult.

Now, wearing one earring on the right ear is an obvious reference to how some gay men in real life would wear it as a signal/symbol for their homosexuality

And to back this up even more that these are blatant choices to code these characters as gay, Veneer is the exact same scenario. Gay coded, has a gay voice actor ( Andrew Rennells ) and that's referenced with his earring

The LATAM dub even went as far as ALSO hiring a gay voice actor for Veneer as well. Making it clear as day that the character is gay.

And now for some FaQ

-"But it's not 100% confirmed!"

Stop dismissing gay coding especially if you aren't gay yourself. Sometimes Creators aren't gonna slap you in the face with information so they do ( obvious ) hints such as this.

-"Respect other people's headcanons!"

There's a huge difference between headcanons and erasing a character's canonical identity that was made for representation. How about YOU respect canon lgbt characters?

-"DreamWorks doesn't make gay characters!1!"

Tl;dr please respect the fact that Floyd is canonically gay and stop trying to ship the ONE canon gay member of brozone with women. Thank you.

[messy-di-voce]

I FREAKING LOVE SHOWS WITH QUEER PEOPLE IN THEM!!!!

All these shows (and more) span across every single age range and genre so people can continue find themselves wherever they look!

WE ARE HERE AND WE AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE!!!

[fruityroth]

Just something on why representation matters: even the smallest bit of seemingly the most miniscule part of someone's identity being shown will make someone out there happy. It can be the most minor thing in the world to you, but someone, somewhere, will be absolutely ecstatic to see a part of themselves in one of their favorite characters.

Example: I seriously love left-handed characters. As a lefty, this is super cool to me. Seeing someone who uses their left hand in media will always make me smile, and it makes me feel more connected to the characters. Some examples: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Sephiroth, and, of course, Link. Like, this is why I loved The Legend of Zelda so much as a kid. Link has historically been left-handed since the very first game. Seeing Link pick up the Master Sword in his left hand, being called the Left-Handed Hero, and generally just be awesome while also being a lefty, makes me giddy to this day. It's just such a positive representation of left-handedness, and that probably doesn't matter to *anyone* that didn't grow up as a southpaw, but it makes me happy.

That's also why it's a shame that he's no longer left-handed. Not only do I feel less connected to the character who was, for the longest time, my absolute favorite hero (a pot-smashing, grass-cutting role model, one could say), but it also feels like they cut out a core part of his identity with that small change.

I especially felt disconnected after reading about why they made the change. Apparently, according to an interview, they switched for wii motion controls, since people hold the wii remote in their right hand regardless of "hand preference" (those were the exact words used). I, uh...I don't! I have, and always will, hold a wiimote in my left hand. Learning that *this* was the reason for them cutting out such an enormous part of the identity of my childhood role model, the Paragon of what lefties could be, seriously pissed me off. And again, this probably doesn't matter in the least to anyone who isn't a lefty.

In short: diversity, inclusion, and representation don't have to be massive. It doesn't have to take up the core of a character's story arc. Even something as simple as the character's *dominant hand* can make people feel seen.

This is also why I don't like it when people say not to have representation for representation's sake. "Oh, it's just tokenism if you say that a character's gay and do nothing about it!" No. No, it's not. It increases diversity, it makes people feel closer to your characters and story, it gives positive representation of usually marginalized people (including lefties until recently, believe it or not!), and it adds an extra layer of depth to this collection of traits that you're passing off as a person.

Even if there's an argument to be made that a character is just the "token gay," or the "token PoC," or whatever, it also shows that people from those communities are capable of living normal lives in society, rather than conforming to whatever stereotypes apply to them. I would much rather a writer add an identity to a character and then not mention it much than they try to make a story arc around it that comes off as anything-phobic.

Again, in short: representation matters. Never say it doesn't.

[risesthenight]

i personally don’t like shipping characters outside of their canon queer identities but can we talk about the double standard of it

you ship a gay man with a woman and people will riot

you ship an aroace with someone and everyone goes “erm actually it’s a spectrum 🤓☝️ so this is okay”

LIKE 😭😭 just say u don’t give a shit about queer identities that expand outside of romance and sex

[whereserpentswalk]

I'm begging you, please never refer to a live human being as "representation". They're a fucking person it is not their responsibility to be an ambassador for every identity they have.

[brainwormcity]

We beat fucking Destiel. Like I've shipped Destiel for years but a fucking canon ship finally fucking beating it out... I could fucking cry. Queerbaiting is dead. 😭🩷🙌

[touchoffleece]

a new version of the "I know what you are" dog meme just dropped thanks to Trick or Treat Scooby Doo!

slight spoilers for the movie:

I love how many gags we see of the gang knowing Velma has a crush and are constantly looking at her gay panic.

[monsterhigh-world]

the ghoul wraith alliance

I think this is the first time I seen a kids show to have one their main characters said queer and is so amazing

I love how this show does representations and diversity so much

[loklove48]

Throwing this on here cuz I’m Super fkn busy and I missed Korrasami day. This was a WIP from a while ago. I am still slowly working on requests. So if you haven’t seen yours I promise I haven’t forgotten about it.

[bravestarfish]

BLACK LGBTQ+ LIVES MATTER!!