#but it's criminal that is been 15 years without another queer character

[ice-to-orange-blossoms]

I think it may say something about gamer culture that one of the oldest first person shooter franchises¹ only has two canonically queer characters², and both of them are from the same short story released in 2009³, where they are both killed.

¹: Halo

²: Felicia Sanderson and Allison Stark

³: Dirt

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

"your top 15 favourite tv shows can say a lot about your personality!"

Thank you so much for the tag @morkofday 🥰

How could I rank my top shows? They all mean so much to me and are all from different times in my life and from different genres... I can't compare Gilmore Girls to Moonlight Chicken! So without a rating here we go!

Gilmore Girls

The show I watch to feel cozy and comfy! Most of the times I do a rewatch of my favorite episodes in autumn/winter and just enjoy Stars Hollow and all the quirky characters. And I am a huge fan of Lorelei... not her love life, but she is a strong and independet woman and I love that.

Moonlight Chicken

What can I say? I love EarthMix and GeminiFourth! And the story was more of a family drama and something different than the usual GmmTV stuff. The story of letting go of the past and starting a new future, which is scary with all its obstacles, really captured me and I still think of it from time to time.

Pushing Daisies

I love this bitter-sweet story of the unlucky pie baker and the love of his life never been able to touch each other but love each other nevertheless. The criminal cases were interesting and I enjoyed the colorful scenery, but nothing could top my love for Lee Pace. This man...

Unknown

My new favorite show. I loved it from beginning to end. And I don't want to let go of them. The hurt is still too fresh to talk about them 😭 Their story was so well written and the actors were so good in portraying the characters and their inner monologues and thoughts and I love it so much!

Love for Love's Sake

The one show I will never be able to get over. The feelings I felt after it ended were not normal! I was heartbroken! This series means so much to me and Myungha will be forever one of my favorite characters ever! The story is unique and beautiful and so deep! Damn, that is such a good show!

It's okay to not be okay

This show that broke me on so many levels. The amount of tears I shed! It was really a journey and I loved the characters and their growth.

Queer as Folk

I was obsessed with this show and him, Brian Kinney! The topics they showed were, and still are, so important and relevant. It is not just some gay men fucking, but different stories about the community and their problems, fears, breakthroughs and their every day life. And Debbie will be forever this iconic mother figure for all of them and for us too.

The Untamed

I don't know how many shows broke me, but this one... this one hurt so good! It is such a masterpiece of a series. What is good and what is evil and aren't there multiple ways to get to the same goal? There is so much love in this series and so much pain. At its peak I cried for 15 minutes straight... One of my all time favorites, but I couldn't rewatch it yet. The pain is still too real. I convinced my best friend to watch it and now she is mad at me and can't go on with it, because the same scene broke her too and now she is afraid of more pain to come. I understand her so well!

A Breeze of love

Most of the times there is this one show a year that blows me away and I can't get a grip in life afterwards. This year is somehow different as there are already two shows that had this effect on me, but for 2023 it was this here. It is such a simple story and there was nothing special about their story, but I adored it to the max and I rewatched it multiple times. I can't really tell why I love it so much, I just do.

Eureka

This is one of the shows that can easily play in the background when I am doing other things, because I know it by heart. The amount of times I rewatched that is not normal and even though I don't really like the last season that much, the first three are hilarious and just so good!

Friends

And another one I know by heart and could rewatch all the time. This show feels safe and there are so many memories connected here. I watched it after a bad breakup to give me some comfort or when I had a huge fight with my best friend, those friends were there for me. And even now I watch a few episodes when I feel down, because they can lift me up so easily.

Once Again

Aaaand we have another one that broke me! Hurray! Guess I love cozy and comforting shows and those which totally destroy me. Great for me! This one had me sobbing during the whole last two episodes. I have my problems with time travelling, and I don't say it was a good execution here, but I just don't care, because the story is unique and special and I love it.

Be My Favorite

The one that broke me and healed me withing hours. The beginning might be a little bit cringy, but it easily became one of my favorite shows out there. It feels so good to see the character growth and all the love that comes within. I still think about them very fondly.

A Tale Of Thousand Stars

This back hug alone made it one of my favorite shows of all times. But for real, this started my EarthMix-love and I am still not over them. The story is beautiful and the scenery is stunning and the pining is perfect and I have so many emotions about them and this show!

Star Trek - The Next Generation

Since I can remember I am a little trekkie, but only TNG. I love the cast and their adventures. I had a huge crush on Wesley when I was a kid. I watched his episodes so many times, it would be embarrassing, but that was what little Josi's heart wanted... Favorite character is by far Q. All of his episodes are hilarious and brilliant!

It was really difficult to break it down to only 15, because I love TV shows and there are some that I wish I could have put up here, but the rules are the rules.

I am as always lost who did this and who did not, so feel free to ignore me, if you don't want to or already did it! I am tagging @wen-kexing-apologist @pose4photoml @twig-tea and @troubled-mind

[birdylion]

🐌🐫📺 for the ask game!

8. Hobbies 🐌 So many! Or at least, I would have so many if the week had more days and the days more hours and if I had more energy to do them all. So I'm sticking with the ones I'm currently doing:

spending time with my dog, obviously

Star Wars pen and paper tabletop RPG with my friends. We've been playing together in mostly the same constellation for 8 years now. We're meeting up once a week on a fixed day in the evening after work

book reading groups. Book clubs? I don't know what counts as a book club. I have 2 of them, one in English and one in German, both online. The reader reads a chapter or two aloud, and then we talk about it.

writing. At the moment mostly in the form of RPG. I'm in the admin team of a small but comfy RPG forum that exists since 2014. I have ~10 characters, most of them with really interesting story lines which unfold in collaboration with other people's character('s story line)s. It's the most consistent writing habit I ever had, and I made good friends there.

music. At the moment, me playing music mostly means grabbing one of my recorders (the woodwind instrument, not the electrical device) when I feel like it and playing what ever I feel like playing. Or I play around on the guitar, or I hit some notes on the keyboard. Sometimes, but rarely, I take the cello out of its box. I miss making music with others, and my friend's wind ensemble is looking for people to join, so I'm going to do that and I'm going to learn to play saxophone for that.

sport. I play Quidditch Quadball. Came for the mixed gender trans inclusive team ball sport, stayed for the complex game mechanics and the contact sport. I also like to lift weights in the gym, it's the closest I ever get to meditation and it helps unwind my brain. I'm lucky enough to live <5 minutes from the forest, and I love to go for hikes.

working with textile. Not that I do it very often, but I like it. Mostly sewing, occasionally I try my hand at embroidery, and I knot carpets (or do pillow cases with the technique) when I can get my hands on a woolen set with a beautiful motive. Sadly, it's not very popular at the moment so good templates are hard to come by, and they're often with acrylic fiber, which I don't like. The project next in line is a winter skirt I promised to make for my mother. My long term plan is to make home decor for every season of the year.

17. The ideal temperature 🐫 0-15 °C

18. TV show you’d recommend to everyone 📺 That's a hard question! I wouldn't recommend any TV show to everyone. Taste and viewing habits vary. Something that is a deeply satisfying narrative for one person will be unbearable for another.

So I'll just list the ones for which I have the DVDs:

Leverage. A group of 5 criminals do crime to stop worse people doing worse crime, and to help people to whom worse crime was being done. At times violent, which is why I can't recommend it to everyone.

Black Sails. A profoundly queer pirate story with deep commentary on narrative, theme, storytelling, etc. Very explicitly violent, and in the first season there's a ... let's call it 'getting away from rape'-story line, which unfortunately puts a lot of focus on the rape. It doesn't happen in the later seasons. So. Not for everyone.

Schitt's Creek. A feel-good comedy in which a dysfunctional family comes together and learns to be a functional family, and everyone of them grows. Very wholesome. It's a world without homophobia, which is refreshing. Sometimes the characters are in awkward and embarrassing situations and that can be hard to stand, so, again, not for everyone.

And the one for which I would want DVD sets:

The Expanse. Epic science fiction story set a couple hundred years in the future, in the solar system. Very interesting world building and one of the best conlangs I have ever seen. Again warning for violence, and body horror. Among others.

[mediaeval-muse]

Book Review

Confessions of the Fox. By Jordy Rosenberg. New York: One World, 2018.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Genre: historical fiction, queer fiction

Part of a Series? No

Summary: Set in the eighteenth century London underworld, this bawdy, genre-bending novel reimagines the life of thief and jailbreaker Jack Sheppard to tell a profound story about gender, love, and liberation.

Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript—a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’s adventures. Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’s tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined—and only a miracle will save them all.

***Full review under the cut.***

Content Warnings: sexual content (as in sex acts, not the mere presence of lgbt+ people), blood, graphic depiction of top surgery, violence, racism, gender dysphoria

Overview: I didn’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book, but something about it just hit all the right angles for me. I adore historical fiction that not only aims to imitate the aesthetics of the period, but also focuses on underrepresented identities, such as queer, non-white, and working or poverty class people; thus, it was inevitable that I would find Confessions of the Fox would be so engrossing. I do understand that this book might not be for everyone, as Rosenberg plays with a lot of academic ideas that usually fall in the realm of theory, but personally, I loved that this book wasn’t just about trans identity. While gender and identity and queerness were at the heart of this book, Confessions was also about archives and policing and commodities and so much more - things that were related and engaged the more academic part of my brain, but somewhat complicated for casual reading. Nevertheless, it was ambitious and smartly-constructed, so I’m giving it a high rating, even if I have quibbles here and there.

Writing: As a former academic and lover of history, I very much enjoyed Rosenberg’s approach to genre, form, and writing. It would have been easy to simply write a story using modern aesthetic tastes, but Rosenberg goes out of his way to imitate the prose style of the 18th century. I loved the richness of the vocabulary and the complexity of the sentences, as well as the juxtaposition of the sacred and profane. It was refreshing to read such beautiful prose that the author clearly put a lot of love into, and if you want to be so immersed in a story that you feel like you’re reading a historical document, I think Rosenberg does a wonderful job.

I also really loved the way Rosenberg wrote about trans identity in the 18th century. There are passages, for example, where Jack’s attention wanders while being dead-named, where Jack expresses feelings of confusion or freedom when talking about his physical body, where he talks about the process of coming into being when he heard Bess use his name, etc. I thought these passages were the most beautifully written and impactful, and they stayed with me the most after I finished the book.

These 18th century “confessions” are accompanied by a number of footnotes, written by a character named Dr. Voth in the present day. In these passages, Rosenberg shifts his tone and style, thereby differentiating between past and present without having to constantly remind the reader that Jack and Bess’s story is told through something of a frame. I think the choice to have footnotes instead of chapters where Voth’s POV takes center stage was a good one - it more effectively created parallels between the 18th century story and Voth’s personal story, and reminded the reader that history (especially trans history) evolves as a result of a kind of archival work, collected in pieces by many different people. In that sense, form matched function, which I am always delighted to see in my novels.

That being said, I can’t say I enjoyed Voth’s voice all that much. This criticism is probably a personal preference rather than anything Rosenberg did wrong - I just think Voth’s voice felt a little too conversational, like he was talking to someone instead of writing.

Plot: Most of Rosenberg’s novel follows Jack Sheppard and Bess Khan as they discover Jack’s identity, evade arrest, and disrupt a horrifying commodity trade (so to speak). In my opinion, the plot points surrounding Jack’s personal journey were incredibly well-constructed; I felt that the evolution of Jack’s gender identity, the romance between Jack and Bess, and their evolution as criminals were all very compelling and touched on a number of engrossing themes, from gender to poverty to anti-capitalism. Granted, there were some areas where I think the pacing dragged, but part of me thinks this was due to the 18th century style and genre conventions, more than anything Rosenberg was doing wrong.

In Voth’s footnotes, we also get something of a personal story which includes Voth being coerced into working for an exploitative publishing company at the direction of his university administrator. As we go through the footnotes, Voth recounts conversations he had with these figures while also disclosing details about his failed relationships - with one ex in particular. While I did like the parallels that exist between the manuscript and Voth’s own life, there were some things that challenged my suspension of disbelief. For example, I would never expect an academic to record personal anecdotes and intimate confessions in footnotes for an academic project. Maybe that happens in academic circles outside mine, and I understand it needs to happen for plot reasons (just reading references to critical theory or secondary sources would be boring for most people), so this criticism is coming from a place of being too close to the setting surrounding the text, in a way.

I also think that there were some passages where sexual activity would be mentioned where it was not needed. I do understand, on some level, that sex and sexuality is an important topic in trans studies (and queer studies as a whole), and I don’t want to appear too prudish. However, I think random references to a character masturbating, even if they were making a point, were a bit egregious. I was especially put off by the story of a 15 year old masturbating (in the present-day footnotes), and though I understand the story was illustrating an academic concept and books should acknowledge that (many) teens do have sex drives, it was also a bit much for me, personally.

Characters: Jack, our primary protagonist, is interesting and complex not just because he struggles with his identity as a trans man, but also because he struggles with acting in ways that are not out of self-interest. Though he is a thief and thus acts in self-interest in understandable ways, he eventually uncovers an operation which involves the production of a drug-like substance (or something - that’s the best I can describe it). Bess demands that he destroy all samples so that the substance can’t be reproduced by others, but Jack wants to confiscate the samples for himself to make a huge profit. I liked that this conflict existed, not only because it showed Jack as having other challenges in his life other than his gender identity, but it also spurred character growth and emotional turmoil.

Bess Khan, a prostitute and Jack’s lover, was written in a way that respected sex work and provided commentary on race and policing. I really liked that she had a strong set of principles and desires that were larger than herself, and I liked that she was confident and forceful where Jack could be meek and unsure.

Other rogues were equally loveable and admirable. Jenny, another prostitute, was a nice example of women forming networks of support within the criminal underworld while also showing how white women (even prostitutes) are treated differently than non-white women. Aurie, a black queer man, was also a supportive friend to Jack who is frequently instrumental in his survival. There is also a wide variety of named and unnamed rogues who were non-white and/or queer in some way, providing a rich array of characters that dispels the assumption that 18th century England was homogenously white and straight.

Our main antagonist, Jonathan Wild, is a bit less interesting in that he’s mainly just corrupt. I personally didn’t care for the chapters from his perspective, though I do understand that he functions as an important, symbolic figure that embodies all the things Jack and Bess work against (capitalism, police corruption, etc.).

Voth, our modern day commentator, has his moments, but sometimes, I would waffle back and forth between finding him engaging and finding him pretentious. I understand that he is supposed to be flawed, and I sympathize with a lot of his plights - mainly the pressure from his university and the anxiety he suffers from. But also, I found his voice to be somewhat combative, and if the point was to make a complicated, likeable-sometimes-unlikeable-other-times character, then I think Rosenberg succeeded.

TL;DR: Confessions of the Fox is a beautiful debut novel that engages with trans identity and history, though it does so in a way that may be a bit too academic for some readers. But while it definitely demands much of your attention, Rosenberg ultimately delivers a rich, engrossing story that reaches beyond the historical and textual boundaries of the page and invites the reader to see themselves as part of a vast network that is constantly “making” and “becoming” itself.

[curioussubjects]

Journey into the Basement: Loving Yourself and Your Lamp

One of the many reasons to love Supernatural is that even when we get silly fun-filled episodes we always come out of them with some pretty interesting realizations. “Hero’s Journey” wasn’t any different, but the realization wasn’t so much novel as a confirmation of what season 15 (and Dabb’s run as a whole) has been quite loud about: Dean’s increasing embrace of the self. 

I know we’re all hype about the destiel implications of some of the work done in 15x10, and I will absolutely delve into that goodness, but I wanted to talk about the larger impact on Dean’s character beyond romance first. I want to talk about the demise of performing!Dean. 

Despite the risk of preaching to the choir, I want to emphasize that performing!Dean is not Dean living a lie, exactly. What he has actually been doing all these years is neglecting parts of himself he has seen as less valuable, while uplifting the parts that are more acceptable. All of this occurs, too, in an environment of self-effacement: Dean puts himself last. Performing!Dean is a coping mechanism for “social acceptance” as much as it is one for Dean’s continuous disregard of his own needs and wants beyond the trivial. That is, the stuff that would bring fulfillment to the parts of himself he keeps stashed away. Because, sure, part of Dean’s front face is pie, beer, and classic cars....but, my god, Dean gets a lot of joy out of that. They’re just as part of who Dean is as cooking, cowboys, Dr. Sexy, and horror movies. I guess what I’m trying to get at here before jumping into “HJ” is that both parts of Dean (the one he shows and the one he hides) are equally important. The struggle is for Dean to learn to care for all parts of himself regardless of what derision he may or may not get in return. 

Which leads us to Garth. You know what Garth is? Unabashedly himself. He doesn’t care if it’s weird to hug people or say shit like “Garthed.” He embraced being a werewolf! You know what Garth is? He is the embodiment of what self-love and acceptance can do. Garth is living his best life at all times. Unrepentantly. And damn anyone who dares to stop him. And what did that get him? Everything. The whole goddamn kit and caboodle. He has the dentist job he gave up to be a hunter, he’s an ethical angst-free werewolf, he still does the hunter job and save people, he has a home, a family. He’s happy -- you know, the thing we’ve been hearing was impossible these past 15 years. Garth is really here looking at all that bitter die bloody hunter fatalism and saying rip y’all but I’m different.  What Garth is is a beacon of something else. Something other than pain and suffering without end. 

Y’all wanna know what else Garth is in our fairy tale “Hero’s Journey?” Dean’s tooth fairy godmother and guide. Sure, there are no glass slippers, and pumpkin carriages, but Garth gives Dean the path to happily ever after just the same. It involves a scary journey into the depths and there’s pain and fear and dancing. Garth’s appearance in Dean’s dream serves the purpose of encouragement. Go ahead, Dean, you can dance, too. Don’t be scared, I’ll show you how. When Garth disappears, Dean is confident enough to keep on dancing. And Dean comes alive. He’s scared and shy at first, but eventually he’s his charming adorable self. And he’s on top of the world. Not only that, he’s tap-dancing on top of the world. Carefree, honest, and so so happy. What Garth offered Dean through this particular journey was the promise that Dean can, in fact, lead a fulfilling life if only he would honor who he is. Frees himself from the fear of discomfort, of judgement, and, perhaps most importantly, the fear of vulnerability. 

Dean understands what Garth is telling him. Take the shift from “aand we’re done” to “you smell good, too.” Did Dean sound awkward when he said it? Yes, but it was a gesture, a signal that he could change. Could take a turn for the better. Could embrace even the parts of him that he finds dismissable. Also, take the conversation they have earlier in the episode about Garth’s life being good and Dean watching Garth and Bess dancing at the end saying he always thought he could dance if he tried. IF HE TRIED PEOPLE. Dean knows what he needs and wants to be happy. It was in him all along, he just needed a push. He just needed to be shown the way, and to be open enough to accept what Garth offered and modeled. Incidentally, part of the plot utility of hero!Garth is drawing more similarities wrt him being a model Dean (and Sam) can follow. 

Before moving on to another look at the dream scene, it’s worth noting that while the basement is usually a space for the subversive, the shameful, and the criminal, Garth has completely transformed the space. In true Garth fashion, he shone a light into that basement and turned into a space that is just as integral to his life as everything else his home contains. In fact, since his dentistry practice happens there, it’s not unlikely that the basement is open to a lot of people. 

Alright, then the dream scene is a love yourself routine at large. It encompasses all of Dean’s character and pretty clearly posits that for Dean to be happy he has to accept all parts of himself. @occamshipper and others have touched on the choice of “Let’s Misbehave” as the song Dean’s dancing to, i.e., as another notch in the Dean is queer checklist. I’d also add, though, that the song is an apt choice not only for Dean’s queerness but the entire issue of self-acceptance. “Let’s Misbehave” is essentially a song about behaving outside of norms, and that misbehavior leading to one’s happiness. Yet, while the song operates in being able to misbehave when select people are watching, and not the world, the imagery of the scene defies that restriction. Dean won’t wait for the world to slumber, he’ll tap dance on top of it. Indeed, Garth’s invitation for Dean to misbehave takes a critical view of misbehavior, such as it is, being something to hide. It’s not. The song is clear on our take away, too: “ If you'd be just so sweet / and only meet / Your fate, dear...” Unlike what Chuck means by fate, the show, through Garth, seems to be telling us that fate is the end result of self-knowledge and truth. To misbehave and go against order is the path to self-fulfillment, and misbehavior here requires the discomfort of vulnerability. It’s no wonder either that the scene happens in the bunker. The bunker is a glorified basement, but it’s also a home. Why, then, treat the bunker as something to hide? (here’s some resonance with legacy, with letting others into your life). 

Finally, I want to talk about that lamp. First, though, let’s take a quick moment to remember how a significant portion of the deancas drama has been about absence (you left/you didn’t stop me, the glaring negative space left behind by Cas after “The Rupture”). Fittingly, Cas is not in this episode, which is quickly ~~lampshaded by Sam as well as being characterized as another aspect of their bad day. So Dean has no Cas to dance with, but unlike previous episodes, he has more than just a gap. Say, an empty. He has this lit up lap. This almost right but not quite placeholder. And Dean is charming to that lamp, y’all. It’s not the whole of his character arc, but damn, that lamp is important. It’s a key feature. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s move ahead to the end of the episode: Gath and Bess are dancing in their home. They’re happy. Outside, Dean and Sam look on, with that longing in their eye. Dean’s take is that he’d be good at dancing if he tried. So Garth dances with his wife, so Dean dances with a lamp. Dean, of the wanting to experience certain feelings, people, in a way he never has before. Dean who just last episode was very afraid of losing Cas, who was sobbing because of it. The same Dean we saw lose it after burying Cas in the Ma’lak box -- and grief arcs, and Colette, etc etc and so it goes and goes. Last episode we also saw a little version of endgame: Dean, Cas, Sam, and Eileen. And lest we discount it as Chuck nonsense, it’s important to remember Sam was happy with that vision. When Sam thinks happy, he thinks that (the Same Sam whose dream last season was him, Dean, Cas, Jack, and Mary eating pizza and laughing). Long story short, it’s always Dean and Cas. No matter what. So Cas, the lamp. And yeah, all of this destiel deliciousness is heavily draped in romance (even in dancing lamp form) between connections of Saileen and Garth/Bess. It’s SO SO LOUD. 

Dean would be a great dancer, if he tried. Just like Garth is. 

ps.: remember that car convo Sam started with Dean about setting down with someone who understands the life. Yeah. [dies in garth/bess]

[simonjadis]

No one’s experiences are universal, and there are a multitude of ways of telling queer stories , , ,

Personally, during high school, I experienced little to no homophobia (except from my dad). I “subtly” hooked up with a guy in the middle of an afterschool club when I was 15. I wore a dress with my Halloween costume my senior year. These were in 2003 and 2004 respectively (I’m 1000 years old), when noted war criminal George W Bush was making opposition to my rights as a human being a central platform of his reelection campaign (the rest was just name-dropping 9/11 every other word in his speeches to imply that opposition to him was unpatriotic). There were same-sex couples at school dances. One of our swim team’s top athletes was gay (he incidentally was killed a few years ago after heroically pushing people out of the way of a vehicle of armed people fleeing a shooting that they had committed).

(X)

But I went to a high school that was queer-friendly as well as racially and religiously diverce. My experience was neither universal nor typical of the time. Only when I went to college and met people who had experienced horrible bullying. I’ve met peole who had been kicked out of their homes or attacked by classmates or targeted for ridicule by teachers. In some cases, they experienced anti-queer bullying even without coming out, or even without being conscious that they were queer (denial is a hell of thing, and I’ve been there).

Their experiences are not universal, either. ALL of those experiences were real. It would therefore be realistic to give a fictional character any of those experiences.

But ...

I think that, first of all, there’s a difference between having, say, a bi main character and telling bi stories. Is your story about someone awakening and freeing an ancient lich to face a new threat that the current world cannot stop, and also that someone is bi and might have one or more datemates of any gender? great!

that’s not the same as telling, say, someone’s personal journey that is inherently about their bisexuality as they navigate life as a queer person in our world with the unique struggles and pitfalls that they might face

what I mean is that I, a white person, have many characters of color, but I would never try to tell the story of what it means to be a person of color. I simply do not feel that it is my place to write narratives about the transatlantic slave trade or jim crow or even more positive stories of what it means to be black. but telling a story about a black vampire or a latine with who lives in a floating crystal mountain or anything else is inclusion, rather than speaking over someone who could tell those stories more authentically

(also there’s a general pattern in hollywood of “black movies” so often being about slavery or jim crow, which is extremely limiting and while it’s out of my lane to lay out exactly why that sucks, plenty of actors and storytellers of color have already explained it; I wanted to list that example as something that I wouldn’t cover but I don’t want to conflate unique racial challenges with unique challenges of sexuality and gender, but I will remind everyone that a person can face both and so much more and still be a deeply realistic character)

there are also worldbuilding questions -- is there transphobia in a fantasy setting dominated by centaurs? is there homophobia on a space station in 2243? are there ace exclusionists in an undersea kingdom? I hope not, but maybe your story needs those. that’s a deeply personal choice on the part of any writer, and readers will have opinions in both directions

let’s say that you’re writing a story in an Earth-like setting and you want to include a realistic dose of homophobia. maybe even at a dramatic moment

think about how it might serve the story, or characterization. but also think about how your readers are going to feel

one suggestion is to remember that not all stories featuring homophobia have unhappy endings, as one bigoted bozo learned a couple of years ago

not everyone who is a target for bigotry has to come out of the situation worse for wear. seeing stories of marginalized people surviving and thriving can be so good.

I also want to note that sometimes a vicious (or especially over-the-top) bigoted attack in books can feel cheap or even deliberately emotional manipulative. there’s a difference between a queer 14-year-old writing fanfic about a character with whom they identify facing their struggles and being comforted by a romantic interest and an adult writing the exact same scenario . . . if that makes sense

as exhausting as it can be for marginalized communities to see their oppressors seemingly “follow” them into any piece of representation in media that they receive, sometimes that can lead to really powerful, cathartic moments, like this moment when a gay actor’s character tells a nazi exactly what he thinks of him

it’s true and he should say it

But again, whether your character, in our world or another, faces oppression for being queer has to make sense within the setting. it can be very realistic for a person in a homophobic world to avoid direct bigoted bullying entirely if they’re in the right environment within that world

I don’t normally say this, but ... Age-Appropriate Wolf did that well, with multiple adults at the school and among parents being queer-friendly

that show did most things wrong and got worse over time but I do give them points for making a high school without pervasive homophobia because it’s what they want to see in the world

It’s always up to the storyteller, and the audience will have opinions no matter what.

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

Summer Film Preview: 27 of the Most Anticipated Movies of the Season!

Among ET's 90 top picks for summer are our 27 most anticipated films of the season.

Every summer, there is no shortage of new films to blow audiences away at theaters -- and blow away records at the box office. This summer, things are looking especially massive. Blockbuster season kicks off in a huge way with the highly anticipated back-to-back releases of Deadpool 2and Solo: A Star Wars Story, ushering in an onslaught of franchise films with new installments of Jurassic World, Marvel's Ant-Man, Mission: Impossible and The Purge.

Not everything is a sequel, though. Of the originals is the eagerly awaited adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians, marking the first time a major studio has produced an all-Asian-led film since The Joy Luck Club; Spike Lee's latest, BlacKkKlansman; and -- because it wouldn't be summer without one -- a shark attack flick, The Meg, starring Jason Statham.

But no matter what you’re looking forward to, there's plenty to choose from among these 27 sure-to-be hit films.

Deadpool 2 (Out Now)

The Deadpool sequel is bigger, louder and packed with more violence and superpeople, dick jokes and fourth wall-breaking meta-ness than the original X-Men-adjacent movie. And while that all sounds like a recipe for a bloated case of sequelitis, Ryan Reynolds and co. not only pull it off, but top the first.

Directed by: David Leitch | Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams

Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25)

Forget everything you think you know about the legendary smuggler and prepare for the unexpected. That's the best advice we can give you about Star Wars' latest anthology installment, which, sure, features the Kessel Run and Han Solo and Chewbacca's origin story, then blasts off for so much more.

Directed by: Ron Howard | Written by: Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Emilia Clarke

American Animals (June 1)

The Orchard / MoviePass Ventures

According to the minds behind American Animals, while most movies are based on a true story, this one is a true story, about four college students who plan "one of the most audacious art heists in U.S. history." It also marks the first appearance on this list by the true star of the summer movie season: Ann Dowd.

Directed by: Bart Layton | Written by: Bart Layton Starring: Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd

Hereditary (June 8)

A24

Following its screening at Sundance earlier this year, Hereditary was hailed as the scariest horror movie in years -- if not of all time. As for what actually transpires in the film, well, that is best left vague. Brace yourself for hypnotically unnerving tongue pops and flashbacks to Toni Collette's iconic turn in The Sixth Sense.

Directed by: Ari Aster | Written by: Ari Aster Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd

Ocean's 8 (June 8)

This year's Met Gala might as well have been early promo for Ocean's 8, which centers on another heist-happy Ocean, Debbie, who assembles a team of women to help rob a fictional Met Gala. (If you do some simple math, it seems Anne Hathaway's mark is one of the eight, too.) Unfortunately, Rihanna will likely not be dressed as a sexy pope.

Directed by: Gary Ross | Written by: Gary Ross and Olivia Milch Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (June 8)

Focus Features

If you were a child in the '60s -- or '70s, '80s, '90s, the aughts, really, if you were a child ever -- then Won't You Be My Neighbor? will be a nostalgic return to your younger years, a look at the long-running and formative TV series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the man behind it, the late Fred Rogers.

Directed by: Morgan Neville

Hearts Beat Loud (June 8)

Gunpowder & Sky

This gem of an indie is for anyone who has ever wished Nick Offerman could be your best friend, your dad or both: Kiersey Clemons plays Offerman's daughter and reluctant bandmate as they navigate fame and family in Hearts Beat Louder. Sprinkle in a queer romance and an earworm-y soundtrack, and what more could you ask for?

Directed by: Brett Haley | Written by: Brett Haley and Marc Basch Starring: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Ted Danson, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, Blythe Danner

Hotel Artemis (June 8)

Global Road Entertainment

Read this logline: "Set in riot-torn, near-future Los Angeles, Hotel Artemis is a high-octane action-thriller starring Jodie Foster as The Nurse, who runs a secret, members-only hospital for criminals." Now re-read that sentence over and over and over until you go insane and this becomes your most anticipated movie of the year.

Directed by: Drew Pearce | Written by: Drew Pearce Starring: Jodie Foster, Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Zachary Quinto, Sterling K. Brown, Jeff Goldblum

Incredibles 2 (June 15)

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It has been well over a decade since the original Incredibles arrived in theaters and, even now, under the looming threat of superhero saturation, that first film remains one of the best superhero movies period. Finally, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack are back, with Frozone and, of course, Edna.

Directed by: Brad Bird | Written by: Brad Bird Starring: Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Catherine Keener, Sophia Bush

Tag (June 15)

Warner Bros. Pictures

This is a movie about tag -- as in, the game in which you tag someone and they are then "it." Specifically, Tag is about a group of childhood buddies who have been playing tag one month out of the year, every year, for 30 years. If you are wondering, Where do they come up with this?!, it was a Wall Street Journal article.

Directed by: Jeff Tomsic | Written by: Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen Starring: Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, Hannibal Buress, Isla Fisher, Leslie Bibb

Damsel (June 22)

Magnolia Pictures

If you hear that Robert Pattinson is starring in a Western, you probably have a notion of what that film is. Damsel is not the movie you're imagining, guaranteed -- unless, of course, you pictured a screwball comedy about a pioneer who voyages west with a drunkard and a miniature horse named Butterscotch.

Directed by: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner | Written by: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner Starring: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (June 22)

In the colossally successful Jurassic World, the dinosaurs destroyed the park, as dinosaurs are wont to do, and now Isla Nublar is threatening to destroy the dinosaurs. Thus, Claire and Owen are enlisted to help save the dinosaurs from a second extinction -- and that's only the beginning of this adventure.

Directed by: J.A. Bayona | Written by: Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, James Cromwell, Justice Smith

Under the Silver Lake (June 22)

A24

Something about those hot summer nights must make us itch for a mystery, because this is yet another noir-y flick arriving in cineplexes, albeit a very modern take on the genre. Andrew Garfield plays a stoner Angelino who begins sleuthing when his dream girl disappears in the middle of the night without a trace.

Directed by: David Robert Mitchell | Written by: David Robert Mitchell Starring: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Jimmi Simpson

The First Purge (July 4)

Universal Pictures

There's something almost comforting about knowing that every (sometimes every other) Independence Day brings a new installment in the ongoing Purge franchise. Who knew a nutty little murder flick could have so much steam? This one goes back to the beginning and the invention of a government-sponsored killing spree.

Directed by: Gerard McMurray | Written by: James DeMonaco Starring: Lex Scott Davis, Y'lan Noel, Luna Lauren Velez, Joivan Wade, Marisa Tomei

Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6)

Consider the Ant-Man sequel a respite for those still reeling over the ending of Infinity War, a plucky comedic romp about heroes who shrink, supersize and now fly, too, which probably won't leave you frantically wiping away tears as the theater lights come on. Also, Michelle Pfeiffer plays a superhero!

Directed by: Peyton Reed | Written by: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari and Paul Rudd Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hannah John-Kamen, Michael Peña

Sorry to Bother You (July 6)

Annapurna Pictures

There is original, and then there is Sorry to Bother You. If a stranger, more out-there film has ever been made, I haven't seen it. I've never seen anything like this, a satiric tale about a telemarketer who uses his "white voice" to get ahead that feels at once painstakingly plotted and completely free-associated.

Directed by: Boots Riley | Written by: Boots Riley Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer

Whitney (July 6)

Whitney is not the first documentary to turn the lens on Whitney Houston in the years since her 2012 death, but it is the first to be endorsed by her estate, featuring interviews with loved ones of Houston who had never spoken publicly before and bombshell revelations that made news ahead of Whitney's official release.

Directed by: Kevin Macdonald

Eighth Grade (July 13)

A24

You know how adults always say, "I'm so happy I didn't grow up when there was social media." Watch this Sundance drama, comedian Bo Burnham's directorial debut, and feel that tenfold, alternately a cringey and heartwarming look at what it means to be coming into your own -- yes, with YouTube and Twitter.

Directed by: Bo Burnham | Written by: Bo Burnham Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (July 20)

Is Meryl Streep's character still alive for the Mamma Mia! sequel? Supposedly. We do know that we will see a younger version of Donna (played by Lily James) as the ABBA singalong jumps back in time to show the Dynamos' origin story, while in the present, Donna's daughter is pregnant with a baby of her own.

Directed by: Ol Parker | Written by: Ol Parker Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Lily James, Colin Firth, Cher

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (July 27)

Paramount Pictures

After successfully completing five other supposedly impossible missions, whatever Ethan Hunt is tasked with in Fallout should be considered mission: pretty difficult but manageable. Still, Tom Cruise continues to up the ante in insane and preposterous ways, like jumping out of a plane at 25,000 feet, for one.

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie | Written by: Christopher McQuarrie Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett

Christopher Robin (Aug. 3)

If you enjoyed last year's period drama Goodbye Christopher Robin, about the real boy who inspired the creation of Winnie the Pooh, then you are sure to enjoy this, too, Disney's less historical, more fantastical tale about grown-up Christopher Robin and how Pooh and the rest of the Hundred Acre Wood gang help him rediscover his imagination.

Directed by: Marc Forster | Written by: Alex Ross Perry Starring: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Jim Cummings, Chris O'Dowd, Brad Garrett, Toby Jones

The Spy Who Dumped Me (Aug. 3)

I would pay money to watch Kate McKinnon read the phone book. Thankfully, she gets much more to do in this action-comedy, in which Mila Kunis plays the unwitting woman dumped by a spy. McKinnon plays her bestie, and the two quickly find themselves in over their heads trying to stop a terrorist group and save the world.

Directed by: Susanna Fogel | Written by: David Iserson and Susanna Fogel Starring: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Sam Heughan, Gillian Anderson, Justin Theroux

BlacKkKlansman (Aug. 10)

Focus Features

Spike Lee is back with his latest joint, the so-crazy-it-must-be-true saga of Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in Colorado Springs, and his undercover operation to infiltrate a local Ku Klux Klan chapter, which was so successful that he eventually became its head.

Directed by: Spike Lee | Written by: Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, Kevin Willmott Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Laura Harrier

The Meg (Aug. 10)

Warner Bros. Pictures

No summer is complete without a silly shark attack movie, and for the summer of 2018, The Meg fits that bill and then some. First of all, the shark in question is a megalodon, which basically just means a REALLY BIG F**KING SHARK, and hopefully Jason Statham will punch it at some point, right?

Directed by: Jon Turteltaub | Written by: Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber Starring: Jason Statham, Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson, Bingbing Li, Cliff Curtis, Masi Oka

Crazy Rich Asians (Aug. 17)

Based on the bestselling novel by Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians is about a Chinese American professor who travels to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family and discovers they are -- you guessed it -- crazy rich! Hijinks ensue. This is also the first Hollywood movie with a majority Asian cast in 25 years, i.e., crazy overdue.

Directed by: Jon M. Chu | Written by: Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Aug. 17)

Netflix

Here's one YA fans have been waiting for. Based on the bestselling novel by Jenny Han, the title refers to letters our heroine, Lara Jean Covey, writes to her past crushes, love letters they are never meant to see -- but do, after they're accidentally mailed out. You don't need to head to the cinema to swoon over this one; it's streaming on Netflix.

Directed by: Susan Johnson | Written by: Sofia Alvarez Starring: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish, Emilija Baranac, Israel Broussard, John Corbett

The Happytime Murders (Aug. 17)

Nothing says summertime like puppets snorting ecstasy and soliciting sex. The Happytime Murders -- no lie, from the same director as The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island -- is about police partners, one felt and one Melissa McCarthy, investigating who is shooting the stuffing out of puppets.

Directed by: Brian Henson | Written by: Todd Berger Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale

MORE SUMMER PREVIEW:

Summer TV Preview: 26 of the Best New and Returning Series to Watch!

Summer Music Preview: 17 Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear

Summer Theater Preview: 11 Must-See Broadway and Off-Broadway Shows

Summer Book Preview: 9 Beach Reads by Bill Clinton, Emily Giffin, Lauren Weisberger and More!

[2dizzle]

gay?

Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term was originally used to mean “carefree”, “happy”, or “bright and showy”.

The term’s use as a reference to homosexuality may date as early as the late 19th century, but its use gradually increased in the 20th century.[1] In modern English, gay has come to be used as an adjective, and as a noun, referring to the people, especially to gay males, and the practices and cultures associated with homosexuality. By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was recommended by major LGBT groups and style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex.[2][3]

At about the same time, a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. Among younger speakers, the word has a meaning ranging from derision (e.g., equivalent to rubbish or stupid) to a light-hearted mockery or ridicule (e.g., equivalent to weak, unmanly, or lame). In this use, the word rarely means “homosexual”, as it is often used, for example, to refer to an inanimate object or abstract concept of which one disapproves. The extent to which these usages still retain connotations of homosexuality has been debated and harshly criticized.[4][5]

The word gay arrived in English during the 12th century from Old French gai, most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanicsource.[1] In English, the word’s primary meaning was “joyful”, “carefree”, “bright and showy”, and the word was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. For example, the optimistic 1890s are still often referred to as the Gay Nineties. The title of the 1938 French ballet Gaîté Parisienne (“Parisian Gaiety”), which became the 1941 Warner Brothers movie, The Gay Parisian,[7] also illustrates this connotation. It was apparently not until the 20th century that the word began to be used to mean specifically “homosexual”, although it had earlier acquired sexual connotations.[1]

The derived abstract noun gaiety remains largely free of sexual connotations and has, in the past, been used in the names of places of entertainment; for example W.B. Yeats heard Oscar Wilde lecture at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.[8]

Sexualization

The word may have started to acquire associations of immorality as early as the 14th century, but had certainly acquired them by the 17th.[1] By the late 17th century it had acquired the specific meaning of “addicted to pleasures and dissipations”,[9] an extension of its primary meaning of “carefree” implying “uninhibited by moral constraints”. A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, and a gay house a brothel.[1] The use of gay to mean “homosexual” was often an extension of its application to prostitution: a gay boy was a young man or boy serving male clients.[10] Similarly, a gay cat was a young male apprenticed to an older hobo, commonly exchanging sex and other services for protection and tutelage.[1] The application to homosexuality was also an extension of the word’s sexualized connotation of “carefree and uninhibited”, which implied a willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores. Such usage, documented as early as the 1920s, was likely present before the 20th century,[1] although it was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as in the once-common phrase “gay Lothario”,[11] or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose first name is “Gay”. Similarly, Fred Gilbert and G. H. MacDermott’s music hall song of the 1880s, “Charlie Dilke Upset the Milk” – “Master Dilke upset the milk/When taking it home to Chelsea;/ The papers say that Charlie’s gay/Rather a wilful wag!” – referred to Sir Charles Dilke’s alleged heterosexual impropriety.[12] Giving testimony in court in 1889, the rentboy John Saul stated: “I occasionally do odd-jobs for different gay people.”[13] Well into the mid 20th century a middle-aged bachelor could be described as “gay”, indicating that he was unattached and therefore free, without any implication of homosexuality. This usage could apply to women too. The British comic strip Jane, first published in the 1930s, described the adventures of Jane Gay. Far from implying homosexuality, it referred to her free-wheeling lifestyle with plenty of boyfriends (while also punning on Lady Jane Grey).

A passage from Gertrude Stein’s Miss Furr & Miss Skeene (1922) is possibly the first traceable published use of the word to refer to a homosexual relationship. According to Linda Wagner-Martin (Favored Strangers: Gertrude Stein and her Family (1995)) the portrait “featured the sly repetition of the word gay, used with sexual intent for one of the first times in linguistic history,” and Edmund Wilson (1951, quoted by James Mellow in Charmed Circle (1974)) agreed.[14] For example:

They were … gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, … they were quite regularly gay.

The word continued to be used with the dominant meaning of “carefree”, as evidenced by the title of The Gay Divorcee (1934), a musical film about a heterosexual couple.

Bringing Up Baby (1938) was the first film to use the word gay in apparent reference to homosexuality. In a scene in which the Cary Grant character’s clothes have been sent to the cleaners, he is forced to wear a woman’s feather-trimmed robe. When another character asks about his robe, he responds, “Because I just went gay all of a sudden!” Since this was a mainstream film at a time when the use of the word to refer to cross-dressing (and, by extension, homosexuality) would still be unfamiliar to most film-goers, the line can also be interpreted to mean, “I just decided to do something frivolous.”[15]

In 1950, the earliest reference found to date for the word gay as a self-described name for homosexuals comes from Alfred A. Gross, executive secretary for the George W. Henry Foundation, who said in the June 1950 issue of SIR magazine: “I have yet to meet a happy homosexual. They have a way of describing themselves as gay but the term is a misnomer. Those who are habitues of the bars frequented by others of the kind, are about the saddest people I’ve ever seen.”[16]

Shift to specifically homosexual

By the mid-20th century, gay was well established in reference to hedonistic and uninhibited lifestyles[9] and its antonym straight, which had long had connotations of seriousness, respectability, and conventionality, had now acquired specific connotations of heterosexuality.[17] In the case of gay, other connotations of frivolousness and showiness in dress (“gay apparel”) led to association with camp and effeminacy. This association no doubt helped the gradual narrowing in scope of the term towards its current dominant meaning, which was at first confined to subcultures. Gay was the preferred term since other terms, such as queer, were felt to be derogatory.[18]Homosexual is perceived as excessively clinical,[19][20][21] since the sexual orientation now commonly referred to as “homosexuality” was at that time a mental illness diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

In mid-20th century Britain, where male homosexuality was illegal until the Sexual Offences Act 1967, to openly identify someone as homosexual was considered very offensive and an accusation of serious criminal activity. Additionally, none of the words describing any aspect of homosexuality were considered suitable for polite society. Consequently, a number of euphemisms were used to hint at suspected homosexuality. Examples include “sporty” girls and “artistic” boys,[22] all with the stress deliberately on the otherwise completely innocent adjective.

The sixties marked the transition in the predominant meaning of the word gay from that of “carefree” to the current “homosexual”.

In the British comedy-drama film Light Up the Sky! (1960), directed by Lewis Gilbert, about the antics of a British Army searchlight squad during World War II, there is a scene in the mess hut where the character played by Benny Hill proposes an after-dinner toast. He begins, “I’d like to propose…” at which point a fellow diner, played by Sidney Tafler, interjects “Who to?”, suggesting a proposal of marriage. The Benny Hill character responds, “Not to you for start, you ain’t my type”. He then adds in mock doubt, “Oh, I don’t know, you’re rather gay on the quiet.”

By 1963, a new sense of the word gay was known well enough to be used by Albert Ellis in his book The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Man-Hunting. Similarly, Hubert Selby, Jr. in his 1964 novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, could write that a character “took pride in being a homosexual by feeling intellectually and esthetically superior to those (especially women) who weren’t gay….”[23] Later examples of the original meaning of the word being used in popular culture include the theme song to the 1960–1966 animated TV series The Flintstones, whereby viewers are assured that they will “have a gay old time.” Similarly, the 1966 Herman’s Hermits song “No Milk Today”, which became a Top 10 hit in the UK and a Top 40 hit in the U.S., included the lyric “No milk today, it was not always so / The company was gay, we’d turn night into day.”[24] In June 1967, the headline of the review of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album in the British daily newspaper The Times stated, “The Beatles revive hopes of progress in pop music with their gay new LP”.[25] Yet in the same year, The Kinks recorded “David Watts”.[26] Ostensibly about schoolboy envy, the song also operated as an in-joke, as related in Jon Savage’s “The Kinks: The Official Biography”, because the song took its name from a homosexual promoter they’d encountered who’d had romantic designs on songwriter Ray Davies’ teenage brother; and the lines “he is so gay and fancy free” attest to the ambiguity of the word’s meaning at that time, with the second meaning evident only for those in the know.[27] As late as 1970, the first episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show has the demonstrably straight Mary Richards’ downstairs neighbor, Phyllis, breezily declaiming that Mary is, at age 30, still “young and gay.”

There is little doubt that the homosexual sense is a development of the word’s traditional meaning, as described above. It has nevertheless been claimed that gay stands for “Good As You”, but there is no evidence for this: it is a backronym created as popular etymology.[28]

Sexual orientation, identity, behaviour

The American Psychological Association defines sexual orientation as “an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes,” ranging “along a continuum, from exclusive attraction to the other sex to exclusive attraction to the same sex.”[29] Sexual orientation can also be “discussed in terms of three categories: heterosexual (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to members of the other sex), gay/lesbian (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to members of one’s own sex), and bisexual (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to both men and women).”[29]

According to Rosario, Schrimshaw, Hunter, Braun (2006), “the development of a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) sexual identity is a complex and often difficult process. Unlike members of other minority groups (e.g., ethnic and racial minorities), most LGB individuals are not raised in a community of similar others from whom they learn about their identity and who reinforce and support that identity. Rather, LGB individuals are often raised in communities that are either ignorant of or openly hostile toward homosexuality.”[30]

The British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell has argued that the term gay is merely a cultural expression which reflects the current status of homosexuality within a given society, and claiming that “Queer, gay, homosexual … in the long view, they are all just temporary identities. One day, we will not need them at all.”[31]

If a person engages in sexual activity with a partner of the same sex but does not self-identify as gay, terms such as ’closeted’, ‘discreet’, or ’bi-curious’ may apply. Conversely, a person may identify as gay without having had sex with a same-sex partner. Possible choices include identifying as gay socially while choosing to be celibate or while anticipating a first homosexual experience. Further, a bisexual person might also identify as “gay” but others may consider gay and bisexual to be mutually exclusive. There are some who are drawn to the same sex but neither engage in sexual activity nor identify as gay; these could have the term asexual applied, even though asexual generally can mean no attraction or involve heterosexual attraction but no sexual activity.

TerminologyMain article:

Terminology of homosexuality

Some reject the term homosexual as an identity-label because they find it too clinical-sounding;[20][21][32] they believe it is too focused on physical acts rather than romance or attraction, or too reminiscent of the era when homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Conversely, some reject term gay as an identity-label because they perceive the cultural connotations to be undesirable or because of the negative connotations of the slang usage of the word.

Style guides, like the following from the Associated Press, call for gay over homosexual:

Gay: Used to describe men and women attracted to the same sex, though lesbian is the more common term for women. Preferred over homosexual except in clinical contexts or references to sexual activity.[33]

There are those who reject the gay label for reasons other than shame or negative connotations. Writer Alan Bennett[34] and fashion icon André Leon Talley[35] are like others in such as fashion and the arts, out and open gay men who yet reject being labeled gay, finding it too limiting, slotting them into label boxes.

Gay community vs. LGBT communityMain article:

LGBT community

Starting in the mid-1980s in the United States, a conscious effort was under way within what was then only called the gay community, to add the term lesbianto the name of all gay organizations that catered to both male and female homosexuals, and to use the terminology of gay and lesbian, or lesbian/gay when referring to that community. So, organizations like the National Gay Task Force became the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. For many ardent feminist lesbians, it was also important that the L come first, lest an L following a G become another symbol of male dominance over women,[36] although other women prefer the usage gay woman. In the 1990s, this was followed by another equally concerted push to include the terminology specifically pointing out the inclusion of bisexual, transgender, intersex, and other people, reflecting the intra-community debate as to whether these other sexual minorities were part of the same human rights movement. Most news organizations have formally adopted variations of this use, following the example and preference of the organizations, as reflected in their press releases and public communications.

[zipsiii]

I ask you to answer 1-100 go!

1. What's your middle name, and do you like it?

It's Inkeri. I don't really have any strong feelings about it

2. are you artistic?

nooo. the most artistic thing I can kinda do is makeup.

3. Have you had your first kiss?

yes

4. What is your life goal?

to be in a situation where I don't have to stress about money

5. Do you have any expieriences with a famous person?

I met Vic Fuentes when I was queuing for their gig in 2013. It was freezing cold so he couldn't take photos with us all but he took one group photo and posted it on his instagram. 

6. Do you play any sports?

nope

7. What's your worst fear?

idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

8. Who's your biggest inspiration?

is it wrong if I say Harry Styles

9. Do you have any cool talents?

well I can sit on the couch for two days straight without doing anything special, if that counts

10. are you a morning person?

hell no. I can wake up early if I have to but I prefer not to.

11. How do you feel about pet names?

they're okay I guess

12. Do you like to read?

I do though I've been in a reading slump for a while

13. Name a list of shows that have changed your life.

Queer as Folk, Supernatural, Skam, Charmed, Moomins... 

14. Do you care about your follower count?

not that much anymore

15. What's the best dream you've had?

the one where I had my life figured out

16. Have you ever kissed someone of your same gender?

yes

17. Do you have any pets?

nope

18. Are you religious?

no

19. Are you a people person?

definitely no

20. Are you considered popular?

no

21. What is one of your bad habits?

overthinking

22. What's something that makes you feel vulnerable

not knowing simple things 

23. What would you name your children?

idk some cool name

24. Who's your celebrity crush?

atm it's Cody Rhodes

25. What's your best subject?

//

26. Dogs or cats?

both, the more the merrier

27. most used social media besides tumblr?

twitter

28. best friends name

//

29. who does your main family consist of

Mom, dad, and a brother

30. Chocolate or sugar

both ofc

31. have you ever been on a date?

yes

32. Do you like rollercosters?

I don't have strong feelings

33. Can you swim?

yes

34. What would you do in the event of an apocolypse?

I'd like to say that I'd try to survive as long as possible but that might be a lie

35. Have you struggled with any kind of mental disorder

yes

36. Are your parents together?

yes

37. What's your favourite colour?

Purple

38. What country are you from/do you live in?

Finland

39. Favourite singer?

There's too many to list

40. Do you see yourself being famous some day?

nope

41. Do you like dresses?

omg yess!!

42. Favourite song right now?

Kingdom by Downstait and Dust Into Diamonds by Lovex

43. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?

depends who I'm talking about it with

44. How old were you when you first got your period?

9 I think

45. Have you ever shot a gun?

no

46. Have you ever done yoga?

yes and I love it

47. Are you a horror girl?

no

48. Are you good at giving advice?

hehe no

49. Tell us a story about your childhood.

can't be bothered

50. How are you doing today?

good

51. Were you a cute kid?

probs, idk

52. Can you dance?

no

53. Is there anything you do that you can't remember ever not doing?

tumblr

54. Have you ever dyed your hair?

yes, I don't have purple hair naturally

55. What colour are your eyes?

green

56. What's your favourite animal?

any animal

57. Have you ever made a huge fool of yourself?

too many times to count

58. Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

it's pretty good

59. Do you have good friends?

yes

60. Are you close with anyone of the lgbtq+ group?

well I'm pretty close with myself

61. What's your favourite class?

any class that ends before it's supposed to

62. List all the tv shows you are watching.

Criminal Minds, Supernatural, Code Black, Vikings, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Quantico, HTGAWM, Modern Family, Travelers 

63. Are you organized?

I try to be

64. What was the last movie you saw? Opinion?

Kingsman and I looove it

67. Which tv character do you relate to most?

idk

68. What are some things that stand between you and complete happiness?

anxiety and laziness

69. If you received enough money to never need to work again, what would you spend your time doing?

watching tv probably

70. What would you change about your life if you knew you would never die?

eternal life sounds horrible so I'd find a way to die 

71. What would you do differently if you knew that no one was judging you?

go running or go to the gym

72. If you could start over, what would you do differently?

probs many thing

73. Would you break the law to save a loved one?

yes

74. When was the last time you travelled somewhere new?

I don\t even remember cause it's been so long

75. When you think of your home, what immediately comes to mind?

safety

76. What have you done to pursue your dreams lately? How about today?

studying

77. What did you want to be when you were a kid?

I didn't really have a dream job as a kid but I think I wanted to be a teacher at some point

78. If you dropped everything to pursue your dreams, what would you be risking?

what dreams

79.When did you not speak up, when you know you really should have?

//

80. Describe the next five years of your life, and your plans, in a single sentence

Study and graduate.

81. What would happen if you never wasted another minute of your life, what would that look like?

productive

82. If you could live forever, how would you spend eternity?

As I already said, I'd try to find a way to die

83. How would you spend a billion dollars?

charity and kickstarters

84. If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future?

past

85. What motivates you to succeed?

the fear of failure

86. What dream that you’ve had has resonated with you the most?

idk I never remember my dreams that well

87. Would you rather live in the city or the woods? Why?

in the city

88. Do you believe in life after death

no

89. What teacher inspired you the most? How did they?

none

90. What’s your fondest childhood memory?

gardening with my parents

91. If you could have dinner with any one person, living or dead, who would they be and why?

Louis Tomlinson

92. What would you have to see to cry tears of joy?

a very good pro wrestling match

93. What is the hardest lesson you had to learn in life?

that life isn't fair

94. What do you think happens after we die?

hopefully we just die and nothing happens

95. What would you do if you would be invisible?

I'd find out all the Larry secrets

96. What's something you can't do no matter how hard you try?

run a marathon

97. Would you want to choose the sex and appearance of your offspring?

what kinda question is this

98. How did your first crush develop?

as if I remembered my first crush

99. Is there a feeling you are trying to ignore? What is it?

Yeah, the feeling that I'm just a huge disappointment to all

100. Do you live or do you just exist?

do I exist. Am I real. No one knows