#ESPECIALLY what any cishet has to say about the song

[hoeranghae]

x

[mackmp3]

I’d love to hear you talk about PJ Harvey and queerness, if you’re so inclined!

OH MY GOD ANON I LOVE YOU reveal yourself so i can kiss you /joking and platonic (unless...)

this is gonna be really long so TL,DR, A Lot of PJ's work can be interpreted to be about a sapphic and/or gender non conforming experience.

OKAYYYYY SO

PJ Harvey, despite having never actually said she isn't straight, has written some Very Queer music, both in subtext and fully in the lyrics.

a few examples -

Dress could be interpreted to be about feeling the pressure to be a stereotypically girly girl and trying to navigate social situations where it's expected you have a boyfriend -

'Must be a way that I can dress to please him It's hard to walk in the dress, it's not easy [...]

Filthy tight, the dress is filthy I'm falling flat, and my arms are empty Clear the way, better get it out of this room A falling woman in dancing costume'

but failing to do so because it's just not you. feeling uncomfortable in a dress, trying and failing to have normal interactions with guys - which of course cishet girls can feel as well, but hits particularly hard as a queer, gender non conforming, girl adjacent person

O Stella, while the symbolism makes it about a religious idol, could be interpreted to be about idolising an older girl. Oh My Lover is about being totally fine with a partner's hypothetical polyamory.

Man-Size is a big one, before i even knew the term gender envy i was Deeply Aware that that was what man-size is about (in my opinion, at least) - wanting to things that guys do but not being able to cos you're a girl.

'Good Lord I'm big I'm heading on Man-sized got my leather boots on Got my girl and she's a wow [...]

I'm man-sized no need to shout Let it all, let it all hang out / out out out'

fantasising about a reclaiming of power while presenting in a more masculine way - WITH A GIRLFRIEND I MIGHT ADD - before going back to feeling as though that is unattainable -

'Silence my lady head Get girl out of my head Douse hair with gasoline Set it light and set it free'

like, 'get girl out of my head' is a pretty queer thing to say, yknow?

and 50ft Queenie -

'Hey I'm one big queen No one can stop me [...]

Hey I'm the king of the world You ought to hear my song Ah come on measure me I'm twenty inches long'

which is at the same time using male terms - even though the song is called Queenie, and that word is used a lot, she specifically calls herself King of the world, and proceeds to make fun of the perceived importance of a particular male organ, while at the same time saying she's better than them

more songs with gender and lesbian undertones - Yuri G, Catherine, to a degree A Woman A Man Walked By / The Crows Knows Where the Children Go (that one's quite explicit, word of warning if yu haven't heard that one before) - and songs that are covers of songs written by men without any pronoun changing - Shake Your Hips and I Can't Get No Satisfaction are two notable examples of that.

and then there are her songs that are just sapphic without being specifically gendery - My Beautiful Leah, Claudine the Inflatable One - i first thought that Down By the Water was about sneaking out to meet a sapphic lover under the bridge in the dead of night, a doomed romance, but there are lots of better and far more likely interpretations than that.

Polly herself has also said a lot of things that just kinda read queer. Like Patti Smith before her, she has said that she writes her songs from a place 'beyond gender', and just writes them as stories, sometimes from a male perspective. But of course, to a queer audience, you can hear her singing and *know* she's singing from a male perspective, but also can't help but to hear it as queer as well.

bit of a quote to go with that -

You've said that you don't like to think in terms of gender when it comes to music. Why do you think the gender issue, especially the concept of you being a feminist, is constantly mentioned with your work?

'I can only presume that, especially in the early days and early those labels tend to stick, but I know that I really played with gender in my lyrics, and I might sing in the shape of a man or I might sing in the shape of a woman. Or I might be dressing women in a loving way as a man or as a woman, or sometimes as neither. Sometimes more as just an essence, a feeling or an atmosphere. And I think that feels quite natural to me, but I think for some people it's not natural, and that's where the gender issue seems to become quite important.'

she was also adamant that she didn't want to be seen as part of riot grrrl, but rather as part of grunge - grunge was a very very aggressively male genre, and i don't think she thought riot grrrl had the right idea about how to go about empowerment - she took herself more seriously than that i think. she didn't want to be called a feminist, because she didn't want to be called a 'female artist', but rather just an Artist.

her gender presentation, moving from fairly neutral in 1992 (big black leather jacket, black boots etc, to the hyper-feminity of the To Bring You My Love era, 1995, also comes into play - she was showing femininity to be a performance, while also using it to her advantage, she didn't actually dress like that normally, no one wears that much eyeshadow, it was closer to a drag show than an actual outfits, a lot of the stuff she wore on stage. which is another one of those things that makes sense to a cishet girl, but gains more complexity as a queer person.

there's probably a lot more i can say on this, but that's everything off the top of my head! i cannot tell you how excited i was to get this ask, PJ Harvey is so much of how i've explored my own gender and sexuality, i could talk about this for a very long time!

[inhumanliquid]

Rant about those demons I don't shut up about because so many of you probably don't know what I'm talking about, and this is the only topic keeping me alive right now. (Massive spoilers, if you care.)

Obey Me! is a game/anime/manga franchise that began as just one mobile dating sim made by a developing company that made nothing else of value prior. It's based loosely on a bit of everything, most notably (from the simple fact of the characters' names) the Bible.

The first game carries the sub-title One Master to Rule Them All (OMTRTA). The second game carries the sub-title Nightbringer (NB) and is responsible for all those character songs I like so much. The anime is a train wreck available on sites like Crunchyroll with premium, or sites like Bilibili for free with a VPN (I use Hide Me VPN because it's free and I'm broke). The manga is available digitally on Manga Hub, but I'm too lacking of money to be able to read it past chapter one.

The series is full of death and pseudo-incest (the brothers are distantly "related" to the main character and regularly flirt with each other - granted, neither the boys nor their sister are biologically related to any of the others). It also obviously has some religious theming and other topics some people may be uncomfortable with. Also, the MC is a sheep (plushie?). And Luke.

And now the brothers (only characters that matter). (Long.)

Lucifer is the first-born. He's the Avatar of Pride. He's often described as cruel and sadistic, completely reasonably, but he cares about his brothers more than he's willing to admit. His color is blue, and his symbolic animals are the peacock and the bat. He's also the devs' favorite, so he's the only one still getting anything resembling an actual birthday event (fuck you, Solmare).

Mammon is the second-born, the Avatar of Greed, and a fucking masochist. He's the most troublesome of the seven, but also Lucifer's favorite. He's a broke gambling addict with a heart of gold, though he'd never admit the second part. He acts full of himself, but he's actually really insecure. His color is yellow, and his symbolic animals are the crow and the cat.

Leviathan is the third-born, the Avatar of Envy, and also a total masochist (though not as much as his brother). He's depressed and socially anxious, and he's commonly headcanoned as being autistic and trans. He stays in his room when possible, even being granted online classes. He's really into video games, anime, and one specific novel series that happens to have been based on his family. He's had multiple pets named Henry (after the protagonist of said novel series), the most recent being a goldfish. His color is orange, and his symbolic animal is the snake.

Satan is the fourth-born and the Avatar of Wrath. He's a bookworm with anger issues and a cat obsession who's also often viewed as autistic. He's less averse to social interaction than Levi, having several friends that he actually talks to. His room is messy and full of books of every topic (especially cats). He doesn't know how to wear a jacket properly despite being the smart one, but that's fine. He hates lucifer, feeling like people only view him as a clone of the eldest and, tries to be as different from him as possible because of this. He was born from Lucifer's wrath during the fall, causing him to feel like an outcast among his brothers. He hates being overlooked, so he wants to be so smart that people can't ignore him. His color is green, and his symbolic animals are the unicorn and the wolf.

Asmodeus is the fifth-born and the Avatar of Lust. He's the resident mess of queercoding, but we love him anyway (none of the brothers are cishet regardless, so it doesn't matter). He's the source of most of the sexual and pseudo-incestuous shit (basically saying he wants to fuck Lucifer on multiple occasions, for one) due to the simple fact of his sin. He acts like he's better than thou, but he secretly hates himself and can't stand the idea of not being pretty because he feels like people won't like him if he doesn't look good. He's loud and horny and annoying, and I love him. He's often headcanoned as being genderfluid, pansexual, and polyamorous and I love that for him. His color is pink, and his symbolic animals are the scorpion and the rabbit.

Beelzebub is the sixth-born and the Avatar of Gluttony. Him and Belphegor are technically twins (were willed into existence at the same time). He's a buff-ass teddybear with the purest heart of any man ever and he's so fucking precious and I love him and I wanna hug him, is that too much to ask. He's the least problematic of all of them, granted he also acts really fucking gay with his kinda-twin. He works out about as much as he eats because of course he does, how else could he look like that. He's often headcanoned as being trans or having an eating disorder or both (for obvious reasons). His color is red, and his symbolic animal is the fly.

Belphegor is the seventh-born (for purposes of numbers) and the Avatar of Sloth. He's the obligatory yandere character (even though they all are), though that was going to be Levi originally. He fucking kills you in lesson 16, while his brothers only try or threaten to. He hates Lucifer (was locked in the attic by him and is great at holding grudges), humans (blames them for the death of his sister 5,000+ years ago), and Lord Diavolo (friends with Luci and likes humans). He's also commonly headcanoned as trans, and those of us with chronic fatigue are very liable to project onto him with violence. He likes sushi (ew) and loves you and his twin more than anything. He's manipulative and cunning and way too adorable, and he lies to your face to get you to make pacts with his brothers. His color is purple, and his symbolic animals are the cow and the bear.

[cassiopeianscribe]

(I am kind of uneasy about posting it because of possible implications but whatever)

The whole thing about yuri (and absolutely every other lesbian media) discourse is that it boils down to "are saphics allowed to have the same kinds of stories that straight people do?" and most people are trying their hardest to say "no, they don't".

Starting with people who are saying that anything with sex in it is fetishization (while in straight media it is definitely plot important), then that anything without sex fetishizes innocence (as if a lot of straight stories are not like this, especially ones that are about teenagers).

Now, new plague! Are blunt (aka literally the same thing as any romance you can buy in your local store) stories somehow inferior? Are media that are more about metaphors (so pretty much half of the romance songs) bad? You will hate what comes next even more!

And regardless, saying that "stories with undeniable portrayal of romantic relationships are for cishets, we queers only need some vague symbolism and uncertain relationships that may be read as romantic" is not as cool and novel as you probably think.

Generally, I so fucking hate the idea that every story about queer people (as well as women and probably every minority tbh) has to have absolutely unique plot, revolutionary story structure, prose that would make Joyce shoot himself, and so much more to even be considered meaningfully different from cishet one, or otherwise it shouldn't be told at all. As if giving people ways to express themselves and relate to others, thing that they didn't have before, is not "subversive" enough.

[patronsaint-prometheus]

hii 5, 18, and 23 for the oc verse asks

THANK YOU .. IM SO HYPED ABOUT THESE QUESTIONS.

5.) pick a theme song for the tv adaptation.

This is so difficult for me specifically. I can make any song be about the character(s) you must understand. But I’ll shoot for the song that I associate with the story as a whole which is this lovely local comedy band's signature haha. https://open.spotify.com/track/1bFgF9PAtl61J6gUd91Vbq?si=IgHi12bDT66J3svrXpISqg

Music is really important to the story. Especially since my dream for it is to be a short 10ep animated webseries so ideally It WILL include music. But this song is one of the main(e haha) pillars of it. It’s the goofy lighthearted starting ground that everything stands on before dipping into serious concepts or horror moments.

The environment of the story uses a lot of country/rock music that encapsulates the majority of people the cast interacts with day to day. Eliot is the ���true” main character of the series and when he’s faced with this mix of country and rock he doesn’t really stray too far from it outside of having a more niche and nostalgic connection to oldies country than most. So if anything he takes the environment he’s born and raised in and runs with it.

Mikey is quite involved in the grunge movement with things like nirvana. He could kill a small army with his rhythm game skills(Keep in mind that includes DDR and Guitarhero almost exclusively at the time ahdhfh). He dresses in a style that would make dpop sellers today drool. BUT despite how deep he goes into it he’s not truly considered weird. Many guys in his generation are currently doing the same thing and because the older generation had just been the ones to popularize classic 70s rock. A teen boy shutting himself in a room and obsessing over another guy with a guitar is just tame enough that it gets taken at surface level and no one really listens to anything he has to say about his own music taste because of it. He’s just seen as a person in a crowed despite trying to make his own way.

Hannah (who is Mikey’s older sister I feel I should mention) nearly completely abandons her connection to the music of the environment. She’s very visibly scene lmao. She’s internet savvy and likes weird alt music and doesn’t hide it in the way she dresses. Wide open to be ostracized. But as time goes on you start to notice that even she has her connections. Specifically connections to any song about a rural woman getting drunk and/or violent.

18.) what aspect of the story would get you #canceled on twitter?

Oh definitely for sure the rural lifestyle parts of it. My characters handle guns in a fictional setting and unfortunately the real life version of that setting is already heavily demonized. This part definitely does worry me quite a bit. Because I’m not trying to make all that much commentary on gun laws believe it or not I do think they should be stricter. It’s just an important part of the plot and setting because it’s genuinely how people here grow up especially ESPECIALLY back then. I hope to god the majority of ppl who engage with THFH have the takeaway of rural settings not equating to cishet white biggest and not equating to uneducated or sloppy people. There’s people of color, lgbt people, people spanning religions, and people spanning languages and cultures all throughout these woods. Representation is insanely important and I take it seriously in this project. But I’m also not going to woobify and baby my characters in order to appeal to a close minded audience. They’re going to be a lot closer to real people then they will be a diversity point wet blanket. I hope to portray each culture I incorporate accurately. And if I fail to do so I hope it sparks people correcting me and having conversations about it.

23.) describe how everyones character gets butchered once in the public eye?

EASY. SPEED ROUND. Eliot gets whitewashed Mikey gets turned into an uwu twink and Hannah’s character growth is completely ignored because she’s a woman even though the other two have made similar levels of mistakes !!!! I’ve been in many fandoms can’t you tell AHDHFGF. No but fr I also kinda answered this in the previous question. If you go into THFH with your mind set that rural automatically means biggoted white cishet uneducated republican christians then you won’t get anything out of my plot whatsoever. Each of the classic fandom character-ruiners I listed represents a part of that. Eliot and Mikey would lose the traits that make them undesirable to a wider audience (Eliot being black and Mikey being a gay guy who ISNT used as a sex symbol) and Hannah's undesirable trait (her connection to womanhood) would be too blatant to ignore and therefore she would be torn apart as some kind of secret villain if you read between the lines.

[aroaceconfessions]

I want to say I remember seeing an ask on here where someone asked if it would be weird or out of place for a gay man to want to have a qpr with women, or something like that. It resonated with me because it made me think about what I'm currently going through with a friend.

I'm a (possibly) panromantic gray-ace transguy and she's a lesbian. We've build up our friendship pretty strongly over the last year, with us being queer and having solidarity contributing to a good part of it I would say. We've given each other cutesy pet names and are generally seen doing stuff together constantly, and while I can't speak for her, I know that when we're together, I feel like I'm on top of the world and at peace. She tells me how I've made her blush when I compliment her poetically and we swap music that could seen a certain way if taken at face value. I mean, maybe lyrics really say everything we want to say but don't know how to; even though it's hard to not look for subtext, like getting sent that one really popular song Leith Ross put out this year that's become an ace anthem of sorts.

I never expect to develop squishy feels for her and there's a part of me that, like the OP, wouldn't mind being in a qpr with her if she asked me or made the first move. I'm terrified of bringing it up to her, even though we have great communication skills when it comes to things like setting and addressing boundaries (and so far, we've had zero situations where lines were crossed). I'm afraid of losing her as a friend and I don't want to come off as that creepy, predatory dude who has ulterior motives when it comes to befriending women; especially queer women if they're cishet. The last thing I want to do is ever make her question or doubt if our friendship and her safety around me was real and not. I think that would be more damaging and hurtful than anything else.

I know it's probably for the best to work on letting it go, even if the worst thing that could realistically come out of it is her being upfront that while she has love for me, she'd rather us just be friends and not have a qpr of any kind; especially since she has a crush of her own going on. But, again, it's sometimes hard to not think about how nice it would be to just have a deeper, emotional closeness with her with no strings attached; even if things work out between her and her crush.

Has anyone else been in a situation like this?

[chaoticrobotics]

what do all of the animatronics do on june, aka pride month?

Any special things with pride they do for people?

Idk if you get what I mean but, yeah-

Freddy: Oh there's a big parade every June that happens outside the Pizzaplex! During the parade, and on weekends, there are special sales that go on! We also do change out holograms from the standard purple-y color to a more rainbow color!

I will also wear some cute rainbow ties I have, and Chica will tie a pansexual colored ribbon around the base of my hat! I will also change the red to my face paint to match those colors as well! We get a lot of people complaining, but thankfully when it does come to Pride Month, the company actually backs us up in our decision to celebrate!

________________

Chica: Oh I LOVE Pride Month! All the colors and flags and people wearing all kinds of cute outfits is just amazing! I like to change my leg warmers to different colors of flags that like multiple genders! Such as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual and others like that!

Sun and I also make these cute little ribbons that I will give out to kids, teens, and adults for free! We have all kinds of flag colors and every year we end up adding more and more! It's so much fun! Especially when a first time being out person ends up finding their flag! Oh they look so so so happy!!!

________________

Roxy: I will dye streaks into my hair with the colors of the lesbian flag and then the green part I do a rainbow gradient! We also change the checkered flag that waves to the rainbow flag when someone's on the last lap.

Honestly, I think we should keep that change all year round, but we already get so many complaints already during that time. It's so annoying, but we get to tell them to shut up thanks to the company's no tolerance rule for homophobes and transphobes!

________________

Monty: I usually dye my hair a rainbow color and add tons of pride stickers to my bass, we also offer special rainbow golf balls for the month that people can use to play with. We lose SOOO many by the end of the month hahaha!

I also hang up a bunch of other flags all over Monty Golf! Mainly on the big Monty heads or cutouts. I like making them look like capes or neck scarves! It's pretty cool! Maybe I should wear a neck scarf? I bet I could rock it!

Oh! Yeah. I also TRY to be nicer to Freddy, you know, show kids to be kind and what-not during the month. Some of them could see I wasn't good friends with him and one time a kid accused me of being homophobic to Freddy, like kid. I'm queer. I hate Freddy for different reasons, not because of his orientation.

________________

DJMM: I believe the staff change the lights from their normal colors to rainbow ones. At least that is what I am told, I'll have to make sure next time with the others to see if the staff was lying or not.

But I personally will play more LGBTQIA+ inclusive songs. Especially those made by individuals who are out and proud, but there are plenty of songs made by cishet individuals that plenty of the LGBTQIA+ identify with. I do take plenty of suggestions during that time and play as much as inclusive songs as I can!

________________

Sun: Oh we decorated the whole Daycare with lots of rainbows and smiley faces and will even change out neck and waist ruffles to be rainbow colored!

Moon: "Usually I would read books that show off queer families, especially transgender ones. Though now Sun has to read the stories since I'm not allowed out near the kids anymore..."

Sun: You shouldn't say queer, not everyone likes that word.

Moon: "For the last time Sun, queer is not a slur. It's fine if some people don't want to use that word for themselves, but plenty of people use it as an identity. Gay and dyke, and many other words, were also use as slurs, but now they have been reclaimed and people who identify as those labels can and should be proud to call them that. We shouldn't police how people talk about themselves."

Sun: Right, sorry. I just see it so much online...

Moon: "The discourse in the queer community is so bad... We try our best to let kids figure themselves out and not be sucked in to the bad side of the community."

Sun: Yup! We do our best to give them the proper resources and make sure they know they are not alone, not broken, and don't need to be fixed!

________________

Mapbot: Rainbow maps!

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Not to be rude, or like to super off-topic, but this will go off-topic. Sorry Mod.

I honestly feel like many of the people speaking in favour of Russian people are people who have no idea about anything going on in Slavic countries. Especially not Ukraine, and it shows. It's honestly a privilege that many of you never figured out the shitshow going on in the East. Sure there are Russians who are anti-war and Anti-Putin. But you know what? Many people from Eastern Europe could sing you a song about how aggressive Russian is towards other countries, especially other Slavic countries they view as inferior or as traitors. They even believe they won WW2 on their own without help of any other forces. Russian claiming Ukraine is full of Nazi's, while Russia is FULL of Nazis! Russia is filled with people who kill LGBT people. Putin is a know pedophile, who has no problem letting pedophiles run free openly. Russian people KNOW this, and many don't care. No I'm not lying, this is true, and even stated by people who left Russia, and those who've been fleeing the country long before now. Many Russians are literally so nationalist, they believe that they have a right to invade Ukraine, and there's even more who celebrate the deaths of Ukrainians. Invading the Ukraine was/IS literally an attempt at the Genocide of the Ukrainian people, especially since many Russians believe the propaganda that Ukraine BELONGS to Russia. I literally saw people from Europe, and the West say that in tweets, posts and what have you! Putin is megalomaniac who has huge amount of support from many of the Russian people.

Fucking Hell, I've spoken to other Slavic people from different countries mention how Putin must feel threatened by the fact that Slavic countries are doing better on their own, with freedom, while Putin is desperate to bring back some weird form of the USSR. And you all sit there in your cushy little rooms, and write about how tragic this must be for the poor Russian artists... Ok? What about the Ukrainian artists who're being killed, bombed, and murdered? I think what makes many confessions so... tone-deaf, is how they only focus on how bad Russian artists may have it right now. How many confessions in the past two months were completely focused on Ukrainian artists?

A majority were about how bad Russians must have it, and not even specifying the people being detained, nope, just generally talking about poor artists who can't sell their things now. Not a word about being Anti-Putin. And I get that this is the BJD hobby, and you're talking about BJD things. But in this case, the war and Russia are too deeply linked and the way it all comes across is incredibly ignorant and privileged. Yes, regardless of who you are, you have the PRIVILEGE not having to know about what's going on in Eastern Europe.

Before you ask, I do know Russians who're anti-War, and who're openly against it, especially those who do not live in Russia and can do so freely, and who understand the level of Pro-Putin/Pro-Russia propaganda that exists in Russia, and I do believe those who do want to flee deserve to be able to leave safely. But this isn't how this shit should work. The people actually being killed for their ethnicity should be on your mind first and foremost. The people who have to watch their homes get bombed, their families killed, their children murdered, their corpses desecrated, the civilians who want to live in peace and freedom. Imagine doing this to any other group who's being attacked, and suffering under violence for who they are. "Oh those poor cishets are being attacked, I hope they're ok." Meanwhile LGBTQIA+ people are being beaten in the streets, and killed. Yeah maybe the "cishets" are experiencing violence towards themselves as well, and maybe SOME are allies, but they are not the actual victims of the crime being committed. The Russians who decided on their own to stand against Putin, did it out of free choice, but they're not the actual victims of the War, it's the Ukrainians. Hell, how do you even know if the "poor artists" you mention aren't Pro-Putin?

You keep on blabbing, but all I end up seeing is people who would rather pretend things aren't as bad as they are. But they fucking are. So for the love of God, if your only comment is gonna be "UwU poor Russian artists" Please just shut up. People are dying. People who'll never have a chance to see another day. Artists don't matter, INNOCENT HUMAN LIVES DO. If you wanna make a comment about the current situation, just say that instead "I'm sad about the INNOCENT HUMAN LIVES lost."

~Anonymous

[bridgyrose]

I was showering and listening to RWBY songs, and the line "Can't find myself when I'm constantly forced to conform" hit me like "Fuck, Weiss definitely wrote this before coming out as trans". Can you write something about that? Maybe with her and Team RWBY? (Since Ruby definitely was a fan of Weiss' songs in v1Ch1)

(You mean canon, right? But seriously, nothing about Weiss says cishet, especially with the songs)

Weiss sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror, feeling her chin to make sure she didnt have any stubble from shaving. She paused for a moment, her hand slowly lowering a bit to cover her adam's apple. No matter how hard she tried, she always felt like she wasnt presenting herself right. She could imagine what her father would say now, not like she had to imagine hard. He made sure she exactly how he felt. Especially after a few of the songs she sang. 

A knock on the bathroom door snapped her back to reality. “Yes?” She quickly started finishing getting dressed as she answered.

Yang’s voice could be heard from the other side. “You finished getting ready yet? You’ve been in there for almost an hour.” 

“Y-yeah, I’m almost ready.” Weiss looked herself over after getting her skirt and blouse on, flattening out the skirt and making sure no unsightly bulges could be seen. Her eyes lingered on her chest as quickly adjusted her padded bra, trying to make sure that everything looked natural. A small smile formed from her lips as she looked at herself in the mirror, grabbing her makeup and making her way to the desk. 

Yang rushed past her as the door opened so she could take a shower. “About time you finish up. What takes you so long to get dressed?” 

“It takes time to look this good.” 

Yang rolled her eyes and shut the door.

Weiss sat down for a moment, looking at the makeup in her hands before adjusting the mirror on her desk. She was still nervous to come out to her team, not quite sure how they’d accept her. She knew she didnt have much to fear since Ruby was open about herself being nonbinary, but her own situation was different. Ruby hadnt been in the public eye for years and coming to Beacon just to present as she pleased would be easier. But for Weiss, she shuddered at the thought of people finding out. Her father and mother didnt exactly approve of her, Winter hadnt spoken to her for the last couple years after coming out… even Whitley seemed to give her weird looks anytime she wore a dress or skirt around the house. But here at Beacon, she could finally be herself and hide who she used to be. And it’s not like she changed her name much, just adding an extra “s” at the end to make it look more feminine. She could play that off easily enough by saying it was just rumors the Schnee heir was a boy. 

Ruby finished adjusting her binder, looking over her reflection smiling. “Ready for our big day today?” 

Weiss paused for a moment as she was brought out of her thoughts. “Big day?” 

“Today is our first training mission! Which… I totally signed us up for early and not at the last minute.” 

Blake rolled her eyes a bit. “In other words, you forgot until yesterday, didnt you?” 

Ruby sighed as she finished getting her shirt and cloak on. “...yes…” 

Weiss shook her head as she listened to her partner. “And then you wonder why I call you a dolt.” 

“Its not my fault… well… not entirely… I got a bit sidetracked.” 

“Dont what?” 

Ruby blushed a bit as she started stammering. “O-oh, well… know… just listening to music.” She quickly rushed to her bed and hid the albums under her pillow. 

“Ruby, we all know your obsession with that song!” Yang yelled from the shower. 

“Its not an obsession… it just… speaks to me.” 

Weiss looked at her curiously. “Which song?” 

“Path to Isolation.” 

Weiss hesitated as she heard the name of the song she used to sing all those years ago. “O-oh? That one?” 

Ruby nodded, finishing packing her bags. “I swear the song was written for me. You can just hear the frustration in the way he sings it, knowing he has to conform to how the world wants him to be and being powerless to find himself. The worries and the fears he had… its… all the same things I went through.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Although, I’m sure I’m just digging a bit deeper into the meaning of the song than what was intended to be a cry of someone who is unable to find themself.” 

Weiss wiped away a tear from her eye while trying to finish her makeup. This was the first time that she’d heard just how much a song that was personal to her meant to someone else, someone who had the same fears she did. “I… I think you’re getting exactly what that song is about.” 

Ruby hoisted her bag over her shoulder and smiled. “Yang, I’ll try to get you some breakfast!” 

Weiss finished her makeup and grabbed her own bag. “I’ll come with so we can save her a spot too.” 

“Alright.” 

Weiss smiled a bit as she started walking with Ruby to the cafeteria, feeling a little more relaxed. Tonight, she thought to herself. Tonight I’ll tell them the truth.

[kitkatopinions]

honestly in my personal opinion, the weirdness around crwby's handling of queer characters comes back to their core sentiment of "queer people have to earn their rep," which was said by monty iirc. which is just an incredibly outdated & homophobic opinion anyways because like you pointed out in your ask, the heteronormative relationships didn't have to earn their existence. characters are assumed cishet by default, they're seen as the Standard & therefore don't have to earn their place.

queer characters & queer romances go against that heteronormative standard & have to be "earned" in the eyes of mostly cishet creators. kiersi is queer but well, she's not a point in the right direction for mkek considering her writing of nonbinary & asexual people.

it's even more disappointing to see this parroted by queer people in the fndm, that mkek are right, that we have to wait when ... why? cishets didn't have to wait for three separate heteronormative relationships in tandem.

Hey, sorry this has taken me so long to answer. My blood has been boiling over 'queer people have to earn their rep.' What a homophobic sentiment... and honestly, that really makes me think that Bumbleby was not planned from the beginning. Which of course isn't to say that MK was wrong to go with BB, but it's certainly annoying that people involved in the project are claiming it's been planned when the creator of the show was of the belief that 'queer rep has to be earned.'

Like... How? Someone please tell me how LGBTQ+ people can earn representation in media when I can't think of very many pieces of media (especially popular media) that doesn't display at least one opposite-sex relationship. I just looked through the collection of movies myself and my sisters have on our shelves, and outside of a couple of movies I don't know, every movie on our shelf but two depict opposite sex relationships (the two that don't btw are Bolt and Kung Fu Panda 1, which both include single parents, but no depiction of romantic relationships at all iirc.) I defy anyone to list one cartoon Disney movie that doesn't include a straight ship (even if it's just married parents.) How are queer people supposed to earn their fucking representation? Why are queer people thrown scraps and then told to shut up and stop complaining?

There's explicit bias in company's even like RT, who depict same-sex people, but always do it in comfortable ways or always in only small ways or always in hints. It's still homophobia, especially when it's very clear that their lack of inclusion isn't about the media just not being about any sort of romance (like Bolt or Kung Fu Panda 1 could say,) because they have relationships featured, just never LGBTQ+ relationships. RT has no problems forcing a love triangle between Jaune, Weiss, and Neptune despite none of that being believable or developed. RT has no problem introducing Sun with romantic theming for him and Blake, having them go on an explicit date, having Pyrrha in love with Jaune for who knows what reason and kissing him right before a tense fight scene to further the plot and freaking dying. RT has no problem with having 'boyfriend meets girlfriend's over protective and unnecessarily rude dad' esque jokes shoehorned into volumes 4 and 5 when it comes to Sun and Blake, or having Nora and Ren kiss in the middle of a high-stakes political rally right before a bunch of murders happen. RT has no problems making Ironwood flirt with Glynda in his first introduction, making Qrow talk about "the size of the waitress's skirt length" in like, his third scene, making Roman flirt with Cinder, making even characters like Penny and Ruby who have story plots that have nothing to do with romance or relationships talk about 'cute boys' at least once. Straight people get rep at every single turn, and yet gay people have to earn even an acknowledgement, even a passing comment.

What it is to me, really, is 'queer people have to prove we can get a profit out of their rep.' That's all I'm hearing. 'We're not ever going to do this because it's the right thing to do, we'll only do it if the pros of the money we can squeeze out of you outweigh the marketing risk of alienating homophobes who will turn off our show.' 'We'll only depict what we know is still comfortable to the casually homophobic viewers who are fine with a dash of gay here and there to appease people without 'forcing it down their throats,' or who are comfortable with seeing gay girls since that's been fetishized for straight men, but wouldn't be comfortable seeing gay men because they consider it a threat to their masculinity.' That's what I'm hearing.

It makes it even more annoying when I see fans talking about 'we should be grateful for the beautiful rep RT has given us.' NO THANKS. I'm not going to be grateful for the fact that MKEK are trying to queerbait me and other LGBTQ+ people into shutting up about the 'bmblb' song and Clover's death by trying to make us buy their fucking jackets and convincing us that Blake and Yang are already confirmed. I'm so sorry to get so heated over this. XD I'd thought I was calm, but this 'earn your rep' thing has gotten me so steamed. When have straight people ever been asked for the same? There are content creators fighting tooth and nail to be able to depict same sex relationships in their shows on bigger networks, and it really seems so very brazen of MKEK to still be holding back on confirming Blake and Yang and trying to convince us they're still champions of the LGBTQ+ community and our friends, and are selling pride merch with our favorite *non-confirmed* girls on it.

Adding onto that, the only rep we've officially gotten is girls. Ilia, Saffron and Terra, and May. And then heavily hinted Blake and Yang. The closest we've gotten for representation for men is Clover (a wink, a couple lingering looks, tweets suggesting he and Qrow will be together, only for him to be murdered,) and this picture.

This freaking nothing picture of two nameless guys with a heart shaped plant in the background of one shot in Mistral. Like, don't get me wrong, I'd like to know more about this unfashionable couple, and I'd like to know if one of them has a semblance that lets them control plants or if the heart-plant is decorative and was a gift from Sandy Hair over there... But my point is, no one should have to latch onto two rando background nameless punks and their fucking plant to be able to see themselves in media. This isn't representation for men in the LGBTQ+ community. It's honestly just tiring. I don't think I'm asking for too much to say that if companies are going to advertise 'pride,' that they commit to actually representing queer people and not just through the lens of what's comfortable to their homophobic or heteronormative audience members. May was a step in the right direction and I know that there are a lot of trans people who felt really validated seeing her in action and as a more important character during this last arc, and that the way that MKEK handled the in-universe confirmation of her being trans was respectful and well done. That's great. But it's 2021, if they're going to post 'pride merch' and claim to be for us and that they're trying to be inclusive, they need to stop queerbaiting Blake and Yang, and they also need to step out of the comfort zone of only portraying women on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Male LGBTQ+ and non-binary and genderfluid people ought to be able to get representation too.

[mackmp3]

Dress could be interpreted to be about feeling the pressure to be a stereotypically girly girl and trying to navigate social situations where it's expected you have a boyfriend

sorry but this is not "Gender nonconforming behaviour" this is female behaviour. literally 100% of female children experience this, because this is a cornerstone of misogyny - enforcing male-invented social stereotypes of how a girl should behave (aka "femininity"). please read some feminist theory instead of saying basic female experiences are queer gender experiences! this is why we have a million white afab they/thems who think not liking pink and having a personality means they aren't really a girl and that the evil cis dykes are oppressing them by saying gender is a rightwing social construct that no one actually has.

warning for transphobia towards non binary people, please keep scrolling and don't read the ask if this will upset you

nice to know i found a terf! please kindly unfollow me now if you haven't already thanks :)

i'm pretty sure i say at least twice in that post that what PJ is singing about is totally normal experience for cishet girls, and that there are lots of cishet readings of her music that make sense, just that i personally find them interesting to view through a queer lens.

yes, i'm sure a lot of cishet girls also experience discomfort with having to wear a dress and find a boyfriend! i never said they didn't! but to an audience that is sapphic *and* is gender non conforming, the song is more likely to really resonate with them. which i say about two paragraphs down, if you'd have read the rest of the post -

'[...] but failing to do so because it's just not you. feeling uncomfortable in a dress, trying and failing to have normal interactions with guys - which of course cishet girls can feel as well, but hits particularly hard as a queer, gender non conforming, girl adjacent person'

i don't think i need to read feminist theory to post my *completely subjective media analysis* about pj harvey on the internet, these things are just theories after all! this is how *i personally* interpret some songs. in any case, whatever you have going on is clearly not as feminist as you might like to think, as feminism last time i checked was about trying to get equality and fairness for *all* genders, not annoying teenagers on tumblr for daring to think about gender on their own.

also 'the evil cis dykes are oppressing them by saying gender is a rightwing social construct that no one actually has.' i'm really sorry that you think that way but literally no one thinks this. i have never seen one single thing ever saying that someone thinks cis lesbians are oppressing them. they think terfs are harassing them. which now you are too! the world isn't seeing some major downfall in gender because there are now 'a million white afab they/thems', it's because on the last few years, some parts of the world at least have had a massive shift towards accepting non-binary people as a thing that exists, and more visibility, which had led to more people, especially young people, having more tools and language with which to understand their own gender. even just five years ago i probably wouldn't have been able to think of a non-binary character, now i could list you dozens. non-binary people were always there, there just weren't always conducive environments, or the words, for people to realise that that is what they were feeling. also by implication you're saying that liking pink and not having a personality are parts of being a girl? i don't think that what you meant to say but that *really* isn't feminist. in case it's not clear enough

NON BINARY PEOPLE ARE VALID YOUR GENDER OR LACK THEREOF IS REAL

TERFS GO AWAY

[akookminsupporter]

I came across a discussion that made me think today. I don't know if you know Måneskin. They're an italian rock band that recently won Eurovision and has kind of blown up (as they should). And I've noticed double standards in how the gp treats them as opposed to bts. Of course you can't really compare the two situations because they're completely different. There are so many factors that keep a lot of people from listening to bts' music, be it racism or all sorts of prejudice, which Måneskin don't really have. But I do want to touch on the reception when it comes to sexuality. The members of Måneskin are openly bisexual, they've kissed on stage too, but somehow that detail flies over most people's head (keyword most. There are still a-holes around) because they're manly, there's a girl in the group and the music is good (plus bi erasure, but still). They also wear heavy make up, but it's part of the rock attire. Meanwhile, we know absolutely nothing about bts' sexualities, but because of their image they are commonly assumed to be gay... And that makes their music bad too? On one side you have homophobes calling them girls and homosexual, and on the other side you have the outrage of "fans" whenever someone so much as jokes about them being anything other than cishets. You see the double standards here? This is a huge problem. I've always known that homophobia's everywhere, but why does it seem to jump out only in certain situations? Like our fandom is unnecessarily homophobic if you think about it, the hate is based on mere assumptions. When Lil Nas X's song and video came out, everyone flipped. But somehow, when the lead singer of a rock band kisses both the bassists on tv with the whole world watching, the hate doesn't even make noise. Am I making sense?

Yes it makes sense what you say anon, completely.

I do know who the band is, great presentation and honestly they deserved to win.

In my opinion those double standards you mentioned that definitely exist are due to several things:

Xenophobia

Racism

stereotypes

Misconception of BTS

Racism and Xenophobia in my opinion, are the root of the whole problem. Western countries have always thought that they are better than Eastern countries, especially Asian countries. Western countries, according to Western people, are better. An example I always like to give when I have this kind of discussion is Samsung vs Apple. I don't think I need to say any more.

There are some stereotypes established in the West about Asian artists, Korean in this case, which is wrong of course. For the West, everything that comes from Korea is cute, delicate, feminine and superficial. It is under the lens of those stereotypes that they see BTS.

BTS as well as Måneskin break the paradigms that Western society established as masculinity or how a man should look, but more importantly how he should behave and dress. In my opinion, Måneskin challenges those paradigms much more than BTS, but unlike BTS, they are accepted as rock rebels, who don't care about anything and who live up to the stereotype of those who play the music they play. Whereas with BTS there is no such concession or acceptance, they are too pretty and feminine according to many.

The issue of their sexuality is then somewhat similar. Måneskin is a rock band, I bet manave said: Ahh that's how rockers are, don't you remember... and proceed to mention various bands or singers who were also like that, it can be said that the way they dress and behave is "expected" so not many are... surprised.

BTS on the other hand is a boyband, or is considered as such. In general boybands are not respected or taken seriously by the industry, everyone thinks they are pretty boys with often empty songs, with no message behind them and a bunch of teenage fans behind them. From a rock band they don't think like that, do they? That's also one of the reasons why many people refrain from listening to any BTS song.

BTS dresses "pretty" but they have deep songs and they have rappers. We all know the criticism Joon and Yoongi received in the past for being idols and rappers, they don't fit the mould of what a rapper should look like, with BTS it's the same thing. Although with BTS there is also the problem that their music doesn't fit the stereotype of what a boyband sounds like. Many people find it hard to accept that an Asian "boyband" is so much better than many of the boybands the West has seen in recent times, which brings us back to the issue of xenophobia.

Another reason why many people refrain from listening to any BTS song is the language, if it's not in English at least, it's not worth it. And only if it's in English at least, it's good. It's one of the reasons why many Latin artists, for example, had to release songs in English to be taken seriously by the English market. I mean, BTS had to release dynamite and now butter for radio stations in general to play their music, for example. But we can all agree that those songs are really aimed at the palette of the Western market, not their general fans. We know what these seven men are capable of when it comes to their music. In my opinion, BTS had to lower their quality standards so that the industry in general and western people (I know BTS has millions of western fans, but I'm talking more generally here) would pay more attention to them. I digress.

BTS fandom is a small society and as in every society there is diversity. Of thought, religion, lifestyle etc. That's good and that's also bad. Homophobia is something present in this fandom unfortunately and it jumps out a lot more in some cases more than others. Joking that all members have a polyamorous relationship is fine but a shipper believing a ship is real is not. Members are seen in a certain way by many of their fans and any threat to that image is immediately rejected.

[sluttycalebcovington]

Dirty candi found family hc’s you say? Tell me more

(Please ❤️)

YES ABSOLUTELY I WILL TY 💜💜

Only Carrie and Kayla have canonical names, so I named the other three myself. Kassidy is the yellow one, Courtney is the blue one, Caitlyn is the orange one. I have a bunch of individual headcanons for them, but I'm gonna stick to general group headcanons here!!

- Whatever sort of caretaker instincts Trevor had with his boys during his Sunset Curve days definitely ran in the family and Carrie has them now. Parental friend vibes!!

Carrie: How do I make my friends eat and drink actually healthy stuff and not junk food and energy drinks that'll kill them one day?

Trevor: Honey, I wish I knew, I really do.

- They have sleepovers and movie nights all the time!! They have matching onesies that they wear too, and share snacks(It's a lot of candy, they are Dirty Candi after all), and most definitely have huge cuddle piles.

- They mainly hang out at Carrie's house, as her dad usually doesn't mind a lot of noise, especially compared to everyone else's parents.

- They all contributed different things to Dirty Candi, and are all crazy talented!! They do have an entire song about how absolutely amazing they are after all lmao

- Sometimes, when one of them is in a bad mood, they'll hang out in Carrie's living room and play Wow on her TV at the highest volume and dance around on the couches and go crazy!! Or they'll have a cuddle pile, sometimes both :))

- Trevor has offered to help them with their band, but they mainly want to do a DIY band on their own. Ofc they won't mind him helping style their wigs every so often, or him being/getting a camera man for their YouTube videos.

- The other four LOVED doing some friendly bullying on Nick whenever he was hanging out with Carrie and they were there.

- Each of them has a different sort of favorite candy, and all of them have very strong opinions of candy! It was how they came up with their band name :P

- As per usual with JATP, nobody in this friend group is completely cishet.

- Sometimes Trevor will see them hanging out and an interaction between them will remind him of him and his boys and everytime he sees it happen, he makes a silent promise to himself to give Carrie the life with her friends that he never got to have with his. He will be the parent that he wished his friend group got to have, he will give Carrie the life he wished he got.

Trevor: Hey, baby, if any of your friends need a place to stay after running away from home either because their parents are homophobic, their parents argue way too much, or their parents don't want them being in a band... You tell them they're welcome and safe here, okay?

Carrie: That's... Oddly specific, but okay!

- Nobody is entirely sure of what happened between Carrie and Julie, last time they asked she got very defensive and dodged the question so they moved on and everyone's too scared to ask again.

- They all make matching kandi bracelets at their sleepovers!! When they're not performing, you can almost see at least one of them with at least one bracelet on.

[thedemigodfromravenclaw]

I'm not good at writing, especially if it's about my deepest feelings . So... it's gonna sound like more of a rant than a question but here we go :

I'm a cis woman who's turning 18 this month. I live in South Asia. In my country, no identity other than cishet is accepted or even talked about. I'm pretty sure that most of the people doesn't even know that identities beyond cishet exist and they wouldn't be able to understand in a million years how people can be non-binary or queer. It should be mentioned that my country is a pretty conservative country where majority of the population are Muslims.

So, as a girl, I get the usual "Marriage Talk" a lot. Whenever someone brings up this topic, I simply say that I'm never getting married . I've been saying that since I was 4. (Yes, people who I didn't even know existed a moment ago got really worried about my marriage cause I'm*not acting like a good girl* and nobody's gonna marry me if I kept acting like that. ) My fam is pretty chill about it though, every single time I said something like this they were like , "You're gonna definitely change your mind when you're older." Now that I'm older ( my family never thinks so ) , I have changed my mind.

Teenage girls usually LOVE to talk about boys. Naturally, in school, a considerable amount of gossip were about boys (mostly celebrities). I participated too. (Most of the time, I was just listening to them. I didn't feel comfortable talking about the specific topic with my classmates. They can be major bitches.) But I noticed how they sexualized them, fantasized about getting married to them, even having kids with them. It always seemed gross to me. How do you even think these stuffs about people you don't even know ? They were like , " I'll never be able to even speak with him. What's the problem if he's in my fantasies ?" A lot of them started dating. It was when we were around 12/13 y/o. (My country is a conservative place.Here, having a bf/gf is not acceptable at all. A lot of people finds the idea of even having a male friend disgusting.) I, on the other hand, didn't have this kind of fantasies. When I say that a guy is cute or handsome, I'm not having a crush on him. I'm simply admiring his good looks , the way I'd admire a painting. At present, most of my classmates are dying for a boyfriend. (Again, having a boyfriend here is NOTHING like having a boyfriend in the West.) I'm absolutely sick of seeing their posts about the pros and cons of being single, sad songs and.......I don't even know how to describe those.

Now, I'm sure that I'm a cishet female. But, I find the idea of having sex with strangers, barely-known person or even a person I just know- with whom I don't have any special mental bond repulsive. Also, when my classmates are desperately wanting a bf, I'm completely fine. A boyfriend kinda seems waste of time, money and energy to me. I'm young and I have lots of things to do now. Even though Twilight seems boring to me, I'm not unromantic. I kind of want to be with someone who really gets me ( in future). And I think I'll enjoy sex stuffs with the guy.(Ps. I like to love myself 😊) Like, I want a special person who'll love me for who I am and see through my false "I'm okay."

I'm wondering, do I fall anywhere in the Ace spectrum?

I have no one to talk to about it , and the internet has made me super confused. I just want to know myself better. ( And also to explain how I don't have crush on that super handsome guy to others )

Hope I used the hashtags right. I'm new on Tumblr.

💜💙💚💛🧡❤️🖤🤍

[hamarhemmo]

I'm continuing with my Pride Month posts. Anyways, in this post there's gonna be LGBTQ+ music. Some of them are in Finnish but you should be able to find translations to english in musixmatch.com

English

Glad To Be Gay by Tom Robinson Band: A very depressing song, it was made in the 70s only a while after Stonewall. A very beautiful song none the less.

I'll Make A Man Out Of You from Mulan: Not really about tra s guys but makes feel nice listening to it. As the song implies, dick is not necessary for being a man.

I Don't Dance from HSM 2: To understand this song's gayness fully, you have to know the movies, the director, the characters etc. but even without knowing any of that, the song is really gay (especially the music video.) If you want to understand the whole context, AreTheyGay has made a great video about it in YouTube.

Daughter by Ryan Cassata: Basically about a trans guy getting his dad to come terms with his sons gender. Made by a trans guy. Ryan refers to his past self as his dads daughter so if that is triggering to you, I don't recommend listening. Great song, great lyrics, love it a lot.

I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry: It's pretty good in my opinion but the fact that the singer wasn't really attracted to the girl and did it just out of curiosity, and is also cheating on her boyfriend, kinda bother me. It's great to experiment but cheating is not okay and I just don't like that part of the song. But I know that many people enjoy the song and I understand why.

Lemon Boy by Cavetown: Lemon Boy technically has nothing to do with being trans but it's made by a trans dude and a lot of trans guys love it.

Finnish (translations on Musixmatch)

Poika Nimeltä Päivi (A Boy Named Päivi) by Leevi And The Leavings: A very well written accurate song about being a trans guy. Surprising considering the fact that it was written by a cishet dude in the 80s Finland. It's a sad song if you interpret it in a way where Päivi killed himself as the album cover and first lines imply. Otherwise mostly pretty positive (he seems happy now where ever he is) and relatable song.

Sairas Ja Syntinen (Sick And Sinful) by Sir Elwoodin Hiljaiset Värit: The song talks a lot about Christianity and Gid's views on homosexuality. (He is fine with it, while many humans are not.) Some of the lines don't make that much sense in English but it's seriously a great song.

Yhdes Astellaan (We Walk Together) by Tundramatiks: Tells about minorities in general. It has many slurs in it (but like in a kind of positive way??) and tries some other not so good stuff but what can you really expect from a straight white dude? I really like it despite its flaws and I recommend at least giving it a go if you like foreign music (or are Finnish).

Oon Kuka Oon (I Am Who I Am) by Jari Sillanpää: I cannot support the singer for several reasons but his music just slaps. Oon Kuka Oon doesn't technically say it's about homosexuality but it is incredibly obvious. I really like the song but refuse to acknowledge the existance of the singer.

Literally every song by Antti Tuisku: Antti Tuisku is a very popular singer in Finland and has made music since 2003. His older songs are mostly love songs while newer ones are usually about partying. Many of his so gs mention LGBTQ+ and are inclusive. His song Kumipuku (Rubber Suit) includes non-binary people, in his song En Kommentoi (No Comment) he refuses to tell if he is gay or straight (which imo is a power move) and in Valittu Kansa's (Chosen People) music video, he is hanging out with people of more than one gender in hid mansion thingy (strongly giving the vibe that he fucks all of them). He also doesn't use any gendered words about the people he is singing about in general. Many of his songs are very sexual in nature so if you're uncomfortable with that, I don't recommned.

Sorry about talking so much about Finnish songs, I just love them a lot.

Comment or reblog if you have something to add.

[nerdygaymormon]

I’m sorry if this has been asked before, but- can I, as a gay person, go to heaven? I was reading in 1 Corinthians 6:9, which says “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,” and the footnote on ‘abusers of themselves’ states that this means homosexual behavior. It just makes me really sad and scared. Do I have to change to receive the blessing of god? Am I not a whole person worth of his kingdom? I just feel so lost and hurt.

Let’s first look at the scripture in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

All of the terms in Paul’s list, except for the first and last, appear to have been intentionally paired together: 

idolatry was often associated with adultery in the Old Testament 

makakoi and arsenokoitai

thieves and coveters both passionately want what belongs to others 

drunkenness often leads to reviling (slander)

There’s some question over the proper translation of some terms in verse 9. 

The Greek word makakoi means “soft, delicate.” 

Arsenokoitai is a compound noun, joining arsen (“male”) and koite (“bed,” inferring sex). Paul seems to have invented this word.

Since they are paired by Paul, the translators let arsenokoitai determine their word choice for makakoi. Other English translations of the Bible generally use words to indicate male prostitutes or young call boys for makakoi.

Modern scholars have interpreted makakoi and arsenokoitai generally as young (effeminate) male prostitutes and the men who bought their services. The scholars also interpret these words as the passive and active partners in same-sex activity (”bottom” and “top”). It wasn’t respectable for a male Roman citizen to take the women’s role in sex, so they were expected to be the “active” partner. Rather than homosexuality, the footnote could just as easily mention pederasty, pedophilia or prostitution as possible meaning of these words.

Following this list of vices, Paul discusses prostitution at some length (1 Cor 6:12-20), talking about “fornication” and “harlots." Paul has sex outside of marriage on his mind.

Paul is talking about a way of life in which we allow ourselves to be governed by worldly appetites rather than by the Spirit. He’s speaking against prostitutes or random hook-ups, where sex is being pursued for sex’s sake. Yet no one believes he is condemning sex between heterosexual married individuals. We likewise shouldn’t assume he’s forbidding relationships of commitment and love and trust between people of the same gender. That would be an inconsistent way of applying scriptures.

————————————————————

There’s some new Mormon folk doctrine being created about LGBTQ+ people because we don’t fit into the Plan of Salvation, or at least not the version of The Plan the church has. 

Because the church sees no gay people in The Plan, the church used to say that no one is gay, and leaders give all sorts of reasons that might make someone have these attractions (overbearing mother, absent father, lack of faith, masturbation, and so on). The church also taught that anyone who experiences these attractions can change and become straight. 

Several church leaders even taught that if gay people couldn’t change, that would frustrate God’s plan. Therefore God wouldn’t make it so people couldn’t change while also forbidding them from getting married. 

The church was wrong.

The church now says it doesn’t know why anyone experiences these attractions, but acknowledges people have same-sex attractions. In General Conference several times it’s been said we don’t expect these attractions to change. A few years ago the church ceased conversion therapies which tried to turn queer people straight. 

Yet the church hasn’t addressed the idea that God wouldn’t make people this way and forbid them from getting married. 

To get around this problem, some in the church are now saying that gay people will be changed to become straight after they die, and then they can get married and have all the blessings. 

That’s certainly inventive, but I don’t know any scriptures that would support this idea that someone undergoes a complete metamorphosis of who they are to someone else.

I have serious concerns about the Church saying to stay in church and remain alone and you’ll be blessed. If this is God’s will for us, why don’t we have resources to help us do this? We aren’t given ways to do this in a healthy way. In fact, this sort of path is usually accompanied by many negative impacts to our mental health and quality of life. 

Think about single cishet members of the church. They have leaders assigned to them to be aware of their concerns at the ward and stake level. There’s activities and groups arranged for them so they can meet and socialize and study the gospel together. Their ministering brothers & sisters are asked to be especially sensitive to them, to be available to give them blessings, to make sure they feel welcome to church activities. No such care is given to LGBTQIA members. 

————————————————————

The best advice I can give you is to trust yourself, listen to your feelings, pray and ask about your path in life, the next steps. 

If the Spirit says it’s okay to date, to pursue a relationship, then you know that this is approved by God, no matter what the church thinks about it. 

When I date a woman, try to hold her hand, it’s just, idk. It’s a chore. Yes, I can like her as a friend, but that’s it. I don’t feel any spark or deep connection. But if I’m on a date with a man, I feel a little giddy. Holding his hand is exciting, a kiss is electric. I feel things I don’t with women, I feel complete, whole, it feels so natural and right. All the love songs suddenly made sense. 

When I envision what an ideal life for me would be, I see me with a husband in a loving home, going to church, and doting on grandkids. Why do I feel such warm feelings when I picture this when the church says God wouldn’t want this for me? This may not become my reality, but there is a part of me that yearns for it.

————————————————————

Will a gay person go to heaven? I don’t know, I can’t answer that. I don’t know what a post-mortal life looks like. And frankly, no one else does either. If anyone claims they know, ask them what a typical day in heaven is like, what do people do? They can’t answer that.

What I will say is that God loves LGBTQIA+ people. God doesn’t respond to fervent prayers to “fix” us because being gay or trans isn’t “broken.” God intends for us to live our lives as queer people. God also wants us to have joy in our existence, and one way to do that is having a very close, intimate relationship with another person whom we love and who has our back. 

I also don’t think any of us are powerful enough to thwart God’s plan for us. The longer I live, the more I think we don’t have a blueprint to follow, but instead we co-create our path forward in life with God.

Some LGBTQIA+ people feel called to stay in the church, perhaps just for now or perhaps for all their life. Others come back to church after their spouse dies. Great. I’m not saying there’s one path for all gay or queer people. 

In a sense, we have the opportunity to use our agency, our ability to make choices, in a broader sense than other members of the church because they have so many rules and policies and advice given to them. They choose whether to follow the path the church gives to them, we have to imagine what possibilities are open to us.