#this works for both bi and gay readings of Simon btw

[shrekgogurt]

my favorite thing about Simon Snow is that he thinks he’s in love with women but it’s because he just genuinely loves women

[canon-lgbt-characters]

Need new books to read this year. Any current recommendations?

Before I start I really recommend @pridebooks for book recs with lgbtq+ characters! I’m in the server for the blog and the mod is cool and knows about lots of books with lots of different types representation

Anyway here’s my little list from what I’m interested in that’s coming out early 2020, note that I think all of these are going to be YA because I don’t really read adult and also I haven’t read any of these because they are not out yet!

Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez is a debut fantasy coming out on January 7th and doesn’t have lgbt+ characters from my quick searches but is an own voices Latinx book heavily inspired by Bolivia and I think it’s worth checking out. The main character Ximena fakes being the last royal and marries the evil Atoc to spy on him and is a story about how nothing is in black in white especially with politics

Adam Silvera (author of They Both Die at the End, More Happy Than Not, and co-author of What If It’s Us?) is releasing Infinity Son on January 14th! It’s a fantasy book about two brothers, Emil and Brighton, going on an adventure with magic war stuff involved. From what I can find one of the brothers is gay, there’s two bi characters, and there’s going to be a super cool f/f couple!

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper is a contemporary romance releasing February 4th and it’s about Cal, a 17 year old boy who has to move because of his father’s new job working for NASA and he meets another boy who’s also had to move because of his parents NASA job and it sounds like it’s gonna be a really cute romance!

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli (author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and co-author of What If It’s Us?)and Aisha Saeed is a contemporary also coming out February 4th and is about Jamie, a Jewish boy, and Maya, a Muslim girl, becoming friends as they go door to door doing political canvassing! (No lgbt+ characters from what I can tell btw)

All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace is a fantasy also coming out February 4th and I don’t know about lgbt+ or characters of color because I saw the word mermaid and basically stopped reading the summary so I could dig into it when I can get my hands on it. I’m a humble lesbian, I see the word mermaid related to a dark fantasy and my brain ceases to function

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales is releasing March 3rd and is a contemporary romance about a Ollie who had a summer romance with Will only to have Will ghost him, Ollie ends up having to move to Wills school where despite the fact Will is closested and Ollie decides he’s not interested the two keep running into each other

We Are Totally Normal by Rahul Kanakia is a contemporary releasing March 23rd and is about Nandan, a boy going into his junior year, who hooks up with his best friend Dave and struggles with his sexuality and what it means for himself and his life

For sequels, a much shorter list:

One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus coming out January 7th and I looooved One of Us is Lying so

I’m also really hyped for the new Miss Peregrine’s book The Conference of Birds by Ransom Riggs coming out January 14th because it’s one of my favorite series

There’s probably a lot I’m not thinking of but these are the ones google reminded me of so!

[pr-ay-the-gay-away]

Damn, a lesbian? I've always thought she was bi with a leaning towards women bc of the way she interacts with them and her obvious crushes on them too, lol. If she really is gay, then most likely Matthew isn't her real bf, right? Thats so wild, lol. Could you elaborate on why you think thats a plausible thing? She always says she crushes on 'people' so i'm assuming she also means guys.. (I'm a camilizer since 2016 and just now i'm really thinking about this stuff along with Camren.. Thankyou 💕)

“If she really is gay, then most likely Matthew isn’t her real bf, right?”

You can remove the “most likely” part. A gay woman, by definition, would not have a boyfriend.

Matthew is most definitely not Camila’s real boyfriend

“She always says she crushes on ‘people’ so i’m assuming she also means guys.”

“People”, “they”, “someone” etc are all gender unspecific neutral terms. You might want to do some introspection and self-reflection to understand why your mind automatically assumes that her choice of gender neutral terms means that she must also be attracted to guys.

“Thats so wild […] Could you elaborate on why you think thats a plausible thing?”

Sadly, it’s really not that wild at all. It’s a Hollywood epidemic.

There’s a lot of self-education and background reading required in order to learn and understand more about the inner workings of the entertainment industry and the Hollywood Public Relations (PR) machine. In order to better understand how media messages (think of everything related to Camila’s public image, including news articles, interviews, promotional footage, and anything posted on any of her social media acounts) are created and the intentions behind those messages, you should seek to develop your own media literacy. Here’s a YouTube CrashCourse on media literacy. Meanwhile, this Simon Cowell quote really drives home how digital mediums impact and are impacted by PR and marketing.

The Hollywood PR machine: homophobia and forcing stars into the closet

Here are only a couple examples of stars opening up about how they were forced into the closet by their management.

Garrett Clayton opens up about his experiences of homophobia in Hollywood

Colton Haynes Knows Staying in the Closet Wasn’t a Good Look

Paparazzi and the art of staging “candid” photos

A Paparazzo Explains How Staged Celebrity Photos Really Work

Here is another take on paparazzi, but specifically around staging couples photos to not look like staged photos (lols)

Backgrid are a professional photo agency that are called by their clients to come take staged “candid” photos of them. This is how Backgrid operates.

Now here are some breadcumbs to Backgrid’s early involvement at the start of Camila’s fake PR romance with Matthew

And here is someone’s breakdown of Camila’s paparazzi stats over the past year, illustrating the extent of Backgrid’s professional involvement with her PR team.

Here is a writeup around the underlying motivations for staging fake celebrity romances and the fake “candid” photos that are used to sell them.

Camila and the PR narratives

When it comes to analyzing PR as it has affected Camila both in the past (as a member of Fifth Harmony) as well as in the present, two really great blogs to go through are @emisonme​ and @decoding1432​

Both have written some very good analyses on the PR stunts, PR narratives, and the underlying mechanisms of how fandoms are manipulated by PR.

I posted an answer to someone specifically asking about the manufactured PR narrative around Camila’s departure from Fifth Harmony, where I cited some specific posts written by @emisonme​ and @decoding1432

(This isn’t even all of the tea, btw)

Now at the end of all of this, if you still think “I dunno, I still think Matthew might be her real boyfriend” that’s entirely your own prerogative to think that. Your mind is your own after all.

Just know that this is who you think Camila is actually involved with:

a scam artist 

an opportunistic emotional manipulator

a sexist pig 

And it’s entirely up to you, the individual, to decide whether you want to believe in and subscribe to this fake celebrity PR romance narrative ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[flintsjohn]

LGBT+ BOOKS REC - part 1: Fiction

Alright so this is my very first book rec masterpost and I tried to fit all the information I can remember. I’ve started reading books with lgbt+ themes mainly in the last year and have found many of the titles in other recs so I’m sure that a lot of the books here are not new to anyone, but I’d like to share anyway! In bold are my personal favourites, and the authors with the * are (as far as I know) actually lgbt. If you’d like a peek of what’s on my tbr list here’s my goodreads! If you have more titles to share or recommend I’d love to hear about them! 

Aciman, A. – Call Me by Your Name (adult, m/m, contemporary)

bi mains

cw: underage relationship, cheating

Albertalli, B. / *Silvera, A. – What If It’s Us (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay mains

meet cute but a kinda bittersweet ending (bc Adam Silvera tbh)

Albertalli, B. – Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda (ya, m/m, contemporary)

gay main, gay/black/jewish love interest, poc

simon is the definition of disaster gay and i love him

cw: homophobia, outing, blackmail

Albertalli, B. – Leah on the Offbeat (ya, f/f, contemporary) 

bi main, bi and black love interest

is part of the svtha ‘verse so the characters are the same!!

*Alire Sáenz, B. – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay mains, both latinos

a sequel is in the works!!

cw: homophobia

*Baldwin, J. – Giovanni’s Room (adult, m/m)

gay main

cw: internalized homophobia, homophobia, misogyny

Bardugo, L. – Six of Crows duology (ya, fantasy) 

there’s a m/m relationship in the second book (gay and bi mains) and a gay side char (also basically everyone can be read as non-straight)

there’s also a LOT of diversity as in poc and disabled people so!! 

cw: ableism, violence, death

Barry, S. – Days Without End (adult, m/m, historical) 

alright so i,,, loved this book but also it was fucking hard to read because it’s basically written how irish people speak english?? so it’s not the easiest thing to read but it’s good!!!

cw: war, death, racism

*Danforth, E. – The Miseducation of Cameron Post (ya, f/f, contemporary) 

lesbian main, lgbt minor chars, poc 

cw: homophobia, conversion therapy, self-harm

*Forster, E. M. – Maurice (adult, m/m, historical)

this is an absolute classic and i love this gay ass book

Goslee, S.J. – Whatever (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

bi main and gay love interest 

cw: internalized homophobia, (brief) homophobia

Gregorio, I.W. – None of the Above (ya, f/m, contemporary) 

intersex main 

cw: homophobia, transphobia, depression

*Isherwood, C. – A Single Man (adult, m/m)

gay main

i found this a little hard to read bc i’m not usually one for highly introspective writing, but i’m still glad i read it!

Jenkins Reid, T. – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (adult, f/f and f/m, historical) 

bi latina main, lesbian love interest, gay minor char 

i started this book thinking it would be dumb and by the end i was crying my eyes out 

cw: homophobia, death, abusive relationship, cheating

*LaCour, N. – Everything Leads to You (ya, f/f, contemporary)

lesbian main

if i have to be honest i found this a little underwhelming considering all the praise i heard, but it’s still very cute!!

Lee, M. – The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (ya, m/m, historical) 

bi main, gay and biracial minor char 

this book is SO much fun honestly!!!

badass female character who’s the main in the sequel!!

cw: homopbhia, racism, child abuse, epilepsy

*Levithan, D. – Two Boys Kissing (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay and trans chars (it’s many different little stories that are somehow all connected)

*Levithan, D. – Boy Meets Boy (ya, m/m, contemporary)

gay main and minor chars, trans minor char

cw: homophobia, transphobia

Miller, M. – The Song of Achilles (adult, m/m, historical) 

listen i know yall know about this already but still,, probably one of my favourites ever.

cw: death

*Mitchell, S. (ed.) – All Out (ya, various, anthology) 

short stories, own-voices, various sexual/gender identities and genres

i loved every single one of these??? 

Nelson, J. – I’ll Give You the Sun (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay main (alternating pov)

this was so cute even though the character’s sexuality/relationship isn’t exactly central to the story!

*Ness, P. – Release (ya, m/m, contemporary/magical realism) 

gay main (adam is an icon and i love him)

this goes for every patrick ness book i ever read: i found it hard to follow the plot sometimes bc there are usually two different storylines going on at once and i can’t really connect them, but he has a way of writing characters that just sticks with me

cw: homophobia, sexual harassment

*Ness, P. – More Than This (ya, m/m, sci-fi) 

gay main 

cw: suicide, death, homophobia, outing

Ngan, N. - Girls of Paper and Fire (ya, f/f, fantasy)

lesbian main and love interest

the world is based on asian mythology/folklore!!

author’s working on the sequel!

cw: sex work, rape, slavery

Proulx, A. – Brokeback Mountain (adult, m/m, historical) 

short story

i saw the movie like a million times and i was still not ready for this 

cw: death, homophobia

*Renault, M. – The Last of the Wine (adult, m/m, historical) 

ancient greece setting!!! 

from what i gather this is not the gayest book you could possibly read by mary renault but it’s so good 

cw: death, violence, age difference

Rio, M. L. – If We Were Villains (adult, m/m, contemporary) 

3 gay/bi mains 

think the secret history but gayer and with shakespeare

i’m honestly still crying over this and the last few pages in particular killed me

cw: death, mentions of suicide, violence

*Russo, M. – If I Were Your Girl (ya, f/m, contemporary) 

trans main and bi minor char 

cw: suicide attempt, depression, transphobia, misgendering, rape attempt/mention, bullying, outing

Sharpe, T. – Far From You (ya, f/f, contemporary) 

bi main (lesbian love interest, she’s already dead when the story begins but it goes back and forth with flashbacks) 

cw: death, depression

*Silvera, A. – They Both Die at the End (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay and bi mains 

this goes for every single adam silvera book: i love them but i absolutely hate them bc they tear me apart every time

cw: death (duh)

*Silvera, A. – More Happy Than Not (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay main

cw: amnesia, suicide/suicide attempt, internalized homophobia

*Silvera, A. – History is All You Left Me (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay main and minor chars 

cw: death, depression, adhd, cheating

Soria, D. – Beneath the Citadel (ya, m/m, fantasy) 

bi, gay, ace mains (most are also poc) 

holy shit this was so good and i kinda,,, didnt expect it bc i had initially only picked it up bc of the cover (which is stunning btw)

cw: death, panic attacks.

*Talley, R. – Lies We Tell Ourselves (ya, f/f, historical) 

lesbian mains 

this was not an easy read by any means but by the end i think it was really worth it!!

cw: racism, homophobia

*Waters, S. – Tipping the Velvet (adult, f/f, historical fiction) 

lesbian mains

cw: homophobia, prostitution

(i only read this one by sarah waters so far but all her books are gay so be sure to check the others as well lol)

[yrbutchgf]

I have to do an essay for my Media class and I have hit a writer’s block. If you would like you can answer any of these. How do you feel about the way LGBT people are portrayed in the media? How has the increase in representation (or lack of) affected you? How do you feel when you see people like yourself in the media? If you saw Love Simon, how do you feel that movie impacted you? Do you have any stories about when you saw it? Any other thoughts on LGBT representatio in any form of media?

I’d love to! This sounds like a really interesting paper btw, if you decide to put it online anywhere please link me to it! My answers got long, so they’re below the cut.

1. How do you feel about the way LGBT people are portrayed in the media? How has the increase in representation (or lack of) affected you? How do you feel when you see people like yourself in the media?    Honestly, I don’t see myself in media at all. Like, at all. I’ve seen some lesbians in media, but never any butches. Never any stories that really revolve around gender nonconformity in general either. At the same time, I do really love the direction modern media is taking with respect to portraying LGBT people in a general way. Love, Simon and Moonlight are both wonderful, and they show the way that LGBT media is diversifying. LGBT media is no longer all artsy movies with weird, trippy plots and questionable age gaps in relationships – now we get some feel-good romcoms that deal with coming out, some dramatic films about coming out and how an LGBT identity can intersect with a racial identity… obviously there’s very few of these movies that are very broadly known, but the fact that they’re starting to gain notoriety says a lot.     I don’t really love how a lot of TV shows are handling LGBT identities right now. Thinks like V/oltron and similar cartoon shows are clearly q*eer-baiting and it’s so insidious to see it happen in things like that because, like, it’s for little kids – god knows what amount of younger LGBT kids felt their hearts break when they found out about the one of two canon gay characters in the show’s fate. At the same time, though I don’t think it’s perfect, I do love how much representation Steven Universe has given us – the first children’s television show to show a lesbian wedding! Incredible.     San Junipero, from Black Mirror, is also very important to me. That’s the first thing of anything I’ve ever seen that focused on a romance between two women. Not only that, but both characters were complex, and it included romance of both a bisexual woman and a lesbian in love. I loved the nuance in the romance and the way they conflicted and contrasted over Kelly’s late husband, and the fact that all of this was happening in a sci-fi universe…everything about it just made my heart sing. Black Mirror is a gift, and it’s one of the few things I can think of that really showed a romance between two women realistically, respectfully and tenderly.      There’s also podcasts like The Adventure Zone, video games of everything from Stardew Valley to Fallout 4 (apparently there’s a lesbian couple in the game, I found this out a few days ago!), but those I think fall into a different category for me because they’ve a lot less cultural influence than movies and TV shows. In all forms of media we have a long way to go in displaying diverse LGBT experiences, ESPECIALLY with respect to gender nonconformity, lesbians and trans people in general, and with LGBT people of color too. But – there’s been a lot more in the past few years, and it does warm my heart.

2. If you saw Love, Simon, how do you feel that movie impacted you? Do you have any stories about when you saw it?      A friend of mine, his name is Pat, is the only gay guy in the entire town that I know to be completely out of the closet. He and I started talking after we had a culinary class together, and we – me, him, and a bisexual friend of mine – decided to go see Love, Simon in theaters last year when it first came out. All three of us had read the book and loved it.      I remember feeling really touched by the coming out scene. I’d never had an experience like Simon’s because, thank God, my family and friends are all very open-minded, accepting (and many of them, LGBT) people – but I could still relate to it a lot. Coming out in a car was one of the big things for me. I’ve come out three times in a car. Something about it. Maybe the fact that you’ll escape the situation soon if it gets awkward anyway. But also, the order that he came out to people in, too, the fact that he started with a new friend and worked back to people he’d known for a long time…it was really well-written in that respect.      I remember Pat sobbing next to me for most of the movie, especially when Simon came out to his mother. Pat’s family wasn’t as accepting of him for a while when he first came out, and I think it just really hit home for him. (He also had a thing for the guy that played Simon, so. I mean, I kinda liked Blue more, but I get the appeal.)      At the end of the movie, people started clapping for such a long time…at several points during the movie people would turn around and show Pat that they were crying, too. I remember a lot of friends of mine being in that movie theater just by chance, all of us deciding to see it on opening night, none of us coordinating it, but we all just happened to be in that movie theater together, all in one row, experiencing it at the same time. It felt so communal in a way that my area rarely has happen. But even people who didn’t know each other started talking at the theater as we sat down. People saying they brought tissues, they brought tea, things like that. My area isn’t really the type of area just to strike up conversation. We don’t do that. Love, Simon made us do that.      Pat went and saw that movie I think four more times. He’s a doll, and I’m so happy to know him.

3. Any other thoughts on LGBT representation in any form of media?      One of the things that frustrates me a lot in conversations of LGBT representation, and especially with lesbian representation, is people often saying that butch lesbians are somehow “over-represented” in media. I’ve never experienced that. I’ve never experienced so many butches in media that I didn’t know what to do with them. I remember making a lot of my own representation; I wrote several stories before I knew I was butch with a masculine lesbian as the lead. But that was self projection. Somehow, even though nearly every piece of lesbian representation is skewed toward male consumption (overly sexualized kisses, voyeuristic poses, the tenderness bleached out and replaced with headiness) and nearly every lesbian in media is feminine – despite all this, and despite the fact that I have yet to find a single movie or TV show about a butch lesbian character – despite this, people always tell me that butches are over-represented. I don’t know where they’re looking. I would love to live in the world they live in, where people like me are commonplace. I think we need to push to get GNC and trans individuals shown more in media. We need to get leads, we need to get romances, we need to show that we can have stories that aren’t all avant garde as shit!      The other thing we need to do is diversify our acting pool. Moonlight is, I think, the only movie I can think of that focuses on black gay men, and solely black gay men. I actually don’t know of any others off the top of my head. That’s a problem! I definitely couldn’t name any movies about black trans people, certainly not about a black trans woman, or a black trans lesbian – it just isn’t a thing we make a lot of, which is really just the intersection in lesbo/homo/bi/transphobia and racism manifest in a visual form. But it’s a problem we need to deal with.

I rambled a lot. I hope this is coherent and makes sense and stuff? Let me know if you have anything you want clarity on or something or any follow-up questions. Good luck on your paper!