#homophobia CW

[skulandcrossbones]

[foone]

So an important thing about all those times some conservative paper is writing about how "SOME MOVIE/SHOW IS ANTI-CHRISTIAN LGBT PROPAGANDA!" and then it turns out the thing has, like, one scene where it's implied one character is trans or a high school guy mentions his offscreen boyfriend... This isn't an overreaction, exactly, though it often gets called that.

Because it's never as "bad" as you'd expect from all that. The new peanuts film doesn't star "Chelsea Brown", a transfemme lesbian who uses neopronouns and is in a polycule with three (possibly weed-smoking) girlfriends. As amusing as that'd be... It's always just one lesbian who had a chaste kiss with her wife at a birthday party.

Instead the correct takeaway is that they are telling on themselves exactly how much LGBT content they think is too much:

Any.

The amount of LGBT representation they think is correct is none. It doesn't matter how respectable it is, if they're married, if it's just the most sexless thing you've ever seen, if it's just hinted at and not stated outright or shown... It's too much.

And that's important because it's not exactly what they are saying. They are saying "this has gone too far, this is too much", which might cause people in the middle to agree with them. Someone might go "maybe there is a bunch of naked gay men in the new episode of The Candy Bunch Kids, that doesn't seem appropriate for my 4 year old".

But that's never the case (with the possible exception of the original unpatched SimCopter). It's how they're arguing, yes, but they're arguing it based on the most basic of representation.

And that's an important thing to remember when it comes to things like the "kink at pride" debate. Even if they're saying "this has gone too far, this is too much", there's no amount that you can restrict yourself to that'll make them happy.

You can't win this game; They're lying about the rules. So be yourself proudly and loudly. They'll complain just as much, don't listen to them.

[felassan]

David Gaider on Dorian, under a cut for length:

"Now this is a fun one. It's no big secret I have a lot of feelings about Dorian, not least of which because he was my first (and only) gay male companion. There's a lot more to him than that, of course (as there should be), and it was quite a trip. So let's go! Now, DAI is a story all its own, but I'm sticking to the characters. In this case, back at the beginning, the writers were going to try something new: we were going to let the artists take a more active role in the companion creation process. Why? Because not doing so had caused a lot of problems. See, here's the thing: writers and artists speak two different languages. When talking about characters, we talk about their story. Who they are. What they want. We'd write up these briefs, huge and full of information... but it was never the information the artists needed. They wanted visual cues. I don't mean describing their appearance. Sure, we'd usually provide that, especially if there was a story case to be made, but often the artists vetoed us on appearance stuff anyhow so meh. No, I mean they looked for visual language while we tended to only talk about who the characters *were*. What would happen is they'd hone in on something visual in our write-up not intended to be a focus. The first write-up for Anders in DA2, for instance, mentioned he was "haggard" after his journey... and the first concept we got was this pale, shriveled man. "What... is this?" "YOU SAID HAGGARD!" 😅"

"That was the other trick: sometimes when we DID try to be more descriptive, we had to be extra cautious because the words could be interpreted very differently. You encounter this recording VO, too. A VO note says "hysterical" and you *meant* "really upset" but the actor read "scream like a banshee" Thus this caused problems, like I said. The artists would struggle, sometimes conjuring details just to give the character *something* but which would change the character... and, to us, the character was created. Done. We were already invested, probably already writing them. Something had to give. So this time we wrote a bunch of character briefs - but short. One paragraph. We stuck to vibes and the *emotions* we wanted the concepts to evoke. And we didn't name them. They got titles like "Slick Con Man" or "Ice Queen", so we wouldn't get too attached. Then we handed these off to the artists. And it worked nicely. The ones that just weren't inspiring we'd discard, no problem. The others had juice... and the artists felt free to play and offer lots of variations because we weren't set on anything yet. A lot of times, what they produced ended up inspiring US. It was a neat back-and-forth."

"This is what led to Dorian, in fact. He came from a short write-up entitled "Rock Star Mage" and it really boiled down to "I'm cool and I know I'm cool, so take that you cretins". And just like that, the first sketches (by Casper Konefal, I think? I bet I'm wrong) were all amazing. Instant fire. Me: "He looks kind of like... Freddie Mercury?" Him: "Is that bad?" Me: "NO ARE YOU KIDDING THIS IS AMAZING" Plus there was a monkey. Sadly, we had to lose the monkey. There were iterations to come, but this was really where Dorian was born: Tevinter mage, noble, savant, and too cool for school."

"When did he become gay? Not right away. Like I said elsewhere, we didn't talk romance and sexuality until after the concepts were more in place. But as we were brainstorming about why this hot shot mage left Tevinter, the idea DID come up that maybe it was because he was gay. Not directly, however. Homophobia isn't really a thing in Thedas, after all, so at first blush I didn't think that could work. "Rich kid gets kicked out of the house for being gay" wasn't a trope I wanted to explore. But, then again, magister families in Tevinter are *obsessed* with the appearance of perfection, so...? Any deviation from the "norm" is considered scandal-worthy. It said weakness. It said you couldn't control your house. Now... THAT had real promise. The writing pit discussed it a lot. So I think it's fair to say that the gay fairy was already circling Dorian even before we got to the romance talk. I think it's also fair to say that the rest of the team realized I low-key wanted to write him, because when everyone started calling dibs, who was left standing for me? (I pick last, remember.) I gleefully snatched him up and got to work... ...about six months later. I was very busy at the time. 😅 That late start meant I had to design and write VERY quickly. And I did. Somehow, though, this one... it came easily. "Catty gay man" isn't digging very deep, no surprise to anyone who knows me, and it had an extra layer of being so fun because Dorian was confident. He sparred verbally. I loved it."

"There was more to it, however. The conflict between Dorian and his father... ugh, how do I say this? Let's be clear: Dorian's story is not MY story, but it's also not far off. I wrote the entire confrontation scene in one go. After I was done, I probably cried harder than I ever have in my life. 🫠 I was unsure whether it was any good, however. I just didn't feel objective. I passed it over to Cori May - my friend but also Dorian's editor - and asked her to please tell me and be honest. She read it. She walked into my office after, tears streaming down her face, and just nodded. "It's good." Here's the thing. Not everyone is going to agree with this, but: I don't think a writer NEEDS to be a minority in order to write a minority. Sometimes those characters should simply exist, and we want them to. But if that character's story is ABOUT their experience as a minority? That's different. Dorian's story didn't need to revolve around his sexuality - and, honestly, it only did so as a tangent to his family issue, but they're so bound together it's probably irrelevant to split them - but my writing him meant it could be. It allowed me to SAY something. That felt good. It felt right. Ramon Tikaram came on board after a lengthy casting process (so many British Indian accents, oh god). I sat in on a few recording sessions... the confrontation scene, though? Ramon: *says line* Me: (curled up on a nearby sofa in fetal position) *shaky thumbs up* Caroline: "Yep. Great work, Ramon!""

"Dorian's sexuality isn't all he's about, but that's certainly how some viewed it. When the character was announced in 2014, his being gay was mentioned as the last of a number of points, and the instant response from some gamers was to act as if we'd called a press conference just to say THAT. 🙄 It was annoying. Still is. Overall, however, the reaction to Dorian was very positive. The number of straight men who said they romanced him still pleases me. The number of fans who privately contacted me who'd been through conversion therapy, some who said Dorian helped them survive? Well. Gosh. 😭 I did write him for Trespasser - though I hear that a late scope cut meant every conversation had been chopped by 1/3rd or more, and that meant a lot of nuance lost. Which is sad, if true, because it sounds like the result of that left some Dorian romancers a bit cold. Such is how game dev rolls. 😔 If you need more proof of how it was hard for me to let go of him, a short story I wrote after Trespasser came out where Dorian has a bit of closure with his dead father: medium.com/@davidgaider... So yeah. He'll always be my boi. And I'll always be thankful Bio gave me this opportunity. ❤️"

[source thread]

User: "I'm not going to lie, it's hard to take my mind off Dorian almost having a monkey." David Gaider: "If by “almost” you mean there was a picture of a monkey that the concept artist put there as a whim, and which would almost certainly have taken more cinematics and modeling time to put in than we could ever afford… then yes. 😉" [source]

[lizardsfromspace]

SCOTUS will rule on anti-LGBT discrimination laws tomorrow on the basis of a case where a web designer was asked to make a site for a gay wedding. Anyway the man who supposedly asked is straight, already married, and never talked to her, and it appears the entire incident was fake. They made up a gay couple to sue and it went all the way to the Supreme Court, the legitimate institution we must all respect

[thefruitypebblescastleoftorment]

Someday I'll make a burner account, go on the CoS reddit and do nothing but make posts about how everyone in Barovia is queer. I'll get downvoted and yelled at but the mods won't ban me and they'll never be able to get rid of me, even after my campaign is over I'll be there, telling everyone Victor is trans and Ireena is ace and Van Richten would never think of himself as anything other than cishet but he sometimes uses his Hat of Disguise to dress as an old woman and there's something he finds so lovely about being soft and feminine when he does. And they'll all have to deal with it, and so will their children, and their children's children, unto the seventh generation.

[loveinhawkins]

keep thinking about the bone-chilling possibilities of a gay Eddie reading with Jason Carver’s religious fanaticism. Like, we already have the implicit stuff with the satanic panic and Eddie being the head of a “cult” that “warps minds”; Chrissy and Jason symbolising the all American heterosexual ideal, and Chrissy is then, in Jason’s eyes, defiled and destroyed in Eddie’s home.

like for a lot of s4 i was almost convinced we were building up to a final (possibly fatal) Jason and Eddie confrontation scene, especially considering the near miss Eddie has with Jason right before Patrick’s death.

i’m imagining Jason charging into the scene, beyond all reason, starts spouting bible quotes as if that will stop Eddie’s “murders.” and picturing that with the potential of Eddie being Vecna’s fourth victim? like the awful timing of Eddie being under Vecna’s curse while Jason is chanting scripture and Jason believing that he’s bringing about Eddie’s “divine retribution”? Nauseating.

[intermundia]

the thing that gets me about backlash to the latest episode of the acolyte is that conservatives usually LOVE the right of parents to homeschool their children and bring them up to hold their religious values away from liberal state overreach and brainwashing, except apparently when it's a queer woman of color doing it, in which case they are so distracted by the 'woke' optics that they don't even notice that ideologically they might actually agree with mother aniseya and would've absolutely treated her like their new favorite tragic renegade hero if she were a white male cult leader instead. their engagement with star wars is so superficial and filtered through their reflexive bigotry they don't even notice the story and themes.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

This may be the "best" image on the internet

[swoleas]

By the way, please be careful about applying the Gay Best Friend stereotype onto Dorian Pavus -- thought we left that behind years ago with Inquisition. No, he doesn't need to be exceptionally interested or involved in Solas and Lavellan's relationship just because he's Lavellan's friend -- at least not more than any other Inquisition companion. He's not flamboyantly gasping in gay shock and concern that Lavellan took that man back.

[matricejacobine]

@friendshapedhole

[lucyflawless]

Okay. I'm in the middle of my Xena rewatch, and I'm on A Family Affair, and can we talk about the scene where Xena meets Gabrielle's parents?

Xena: So, how's she been?

Gabs' dad: Without you? Just fine.

Xena: I meant, after everything she's been through.

Gabs' dad: You should know. Seducing her away from home with your heroics, filling her head with strange ideas. How's she been? Changed forever.

Like! This is the most obvious metaphor for a parent/family that can't accept their gay kid, and by extension, their gay kids' partner. And I think it's really well executed. It hits close to home, but it feels like the person writing it gets it. Y'know. Which, given that Liz Friedman co-wrote this, tracks. She knew what the fuck she was doing here and it's so well done.

Anyway, I needed to just simply gush lightly about it. I will literally never get over the fact that this show portrays both the joys and the hardships of a lesbian relationship better than more explicit shows today. I'll never get over it!

[foone]

As a fellow pope, I'd like to chastise Mr. Francis for using homophobic slurs in Italian.

If you do that, you should be doing it in Latin, not Italian!

The words you're looking for are "pathicus, pathici" (which basically means "bottom": literally it means "someone who gets buttfucked") or "cinaedus, cinaedi" (which means "cocksucker", more or less).

Anyway, come on. The Church has standardized on Latin for 17 centuries, don't go insulting homosexuals in mere Italian.

[kiyomitakada]

my favorite factoid about rem, i think, is that she tells misa "i'm not in love with you because i'm female" because where on earth did she learn heteronormativity from

There are male and female gods of death, but it is neither permitted, nor possible for them to have sexual relations with humans. The gods of death also cannot have sex with each other.

like! this doesn't say anything about how m/f relationships are the only ones allowed! none of them are allowed! why did she say that! what is going on here and why is it definitely "misa unconsciously taught rem homophobia"

[lizardsfromspace]

Wild how conservatives, in lieu of blaming capitalism for any problem ever, seemingly think all transportation disasters are down to Pete Buttigieg being gay. His gayness crumbles bridges and breaks apart planes in the sky. We used to have the biggest, sturdiest, tallest, grithiest infrastructure in the world, until our nation encountered one homosexual

[loveinhawkins]

Part 1

Dustin half-expects the phone to ring in the evening—that maybe Eddie will have said something to Steve about how he’s been a dick to him—but no such call ever comes.

So he pretends like he’s busy with homework, times heading to dinner carefully, so that his mom’s got her back to the stove when he limps over to his seat.

At night, he waits until he hears the click of her lamp going off, then manages to smuggle a bag of peas out of the freezer without being noticed. He wraps it up in a dish towel and places it on his ankle, under the bed covers.

He doesn’t sleep.

-

If the weather’s not bad, he usually rides his bike to school, but he pretends to oversleep and gets the bus instead.

The day drags, but it’s fine.

It’s fine until he decides to go to the bathroom during the tail end of last period—reasons that so long as the receptionist doesn’t catch him, he can head to the bus stop early afterwards.

He thinks he’s alone.

But then as he’s drying his hands, he hears a stall door open lightning fast, and he’s suddenly pinned up against the wall, so close that he can see Aaron’s nostrils flare.

“The thing is, Henderson,” he says, as if they’re just picking up from where they left off; he’s got that tone, Dustin thinks, that ‘good people of Hawkins’ tone. Hiding behind a mask of respectability. “Folks seem to think that the buck stopped with Munson, huh? But I know he would’ve passed his sick shit on.”

It takes a moment for the penny to drop.

“You think I’m leading Hellfire,” Dustin says. He almost laughs. A surge of adrenaline briefly overtakes the fear, and maybe he feels like he’s borrowed a little of Steve’s daring, a little of Eddie’s sharp tongue when he says, “Oh, you’re fucking stupid.”

It happens very quickly.

Cold metal pressed to his throat.

He freezes. Thinks of Sattler Quarry again, of a switchblade, a threat to cut his teeth out.

“They say he took Chrissy’s eyes first,” Aaron says. “Gouged them out.” He presses a little harder. “I could do the same to you.”

Dustin grits his teeth, tries to hold his breath. Feels the ridge of uneven grouting digging into his back.

The school bell shrieks.

And he’s falling.

He only just stops himself from hitting the ground, bangs his knee against a sink. Left alone, he coughs and coughs as the stampede of people leaving class rumbles on outside.

Saved by the bell, says a wry voice in his head. It sounds a bit like Eddie.

Eventually he manages to look in the mirror. There’s a line across his neck, almost touching his Adam’s apple; tiny beads of blood from where the knife was pushed hard against his skin. He cleans it up with paper towels, tries not to gag.

Steve had a mark like this, he thinks; he remembers seeing it when they first discovered the gate in Eddie’s trailer.

Steve never flinched.

-

His mom’s packing for a wedding out of town, which means he’ll be spending an ‘extra long weekend’ at Steve’s, Thursday through to Monday—something he’d ordinarily be looking forward to.

But right now he can only focus on hiding his neck. He keeps his coat zipped up when he enters his house, all casual, then changes into an old sweater that covers the mark if he folds the turtle neck just so.

As his mom triple checks her case, he relies on her distraction and steals an old tube of foundation.

He dabs it on his neck, wincing at the abrasion.

Another sleepless night.

Why is this so hard? After everything that’s happened, this is nothing.

It should be nothing.

-

He almost misses Eddie’s van completely, even though it’s parked obnoxiously at the very front of the parking lot. It takes Eddie honking the horn for an embarrassingly long time until Dustin notices him.

“Steve’s picking me up,” he mumbles.

“He took Robin’s shift, she’s sick. So you get me,” Eddie says, complete with the world’s most passive-aggressive jazz hands. “You know, if that’s okay with you and all.”

Dustin doesn’t have the energy to bite back—sure, Eddie’s snippy, whatever—so he just huffs in acknowledgement and gets in the van. His head aches with fatigue; he can barely even feel relief that the day passed without incident.

Lucas had passed him a piece of paper with a comical stick figure during History: ‘Are you okay? You look like your brain is melting through your ears.’ He didn’t even have time to enjoy the stupid drawing, because the teacher busted them for passing notes soon after.

“What’s up with you?”

Dustin starts at the question—only then realises that he’s been pressing his forehead hard against the window as Eddie makes a turning for Steve’s house.

“Nothing. What’s up with you?”

And it should land on just the right side of petty for Eddie to give him shit about it.

But instead, all he hears is the uneasy drumming of rings against a steering wheel, a soft, “Right, right.”

Eddie isn’t angry anymore; he’s worried. Guilt twists Dustin’s insides.

He heads straight upstairs for the bathroom when they reach Steve’s, uncaring of the fact that Eddie can probably see him limp up every step.

The problem is that he doesn’t think—he just does.

Throws off his coat. Turns on the faucet. Splashes cold water in his face.

It helps, but his eyes still itch. Maybe he can pull out the mountains of homework card again, camp out in the guest room and sleep until Steve—

A faint knock on the other side of the door.

“Hey, uh. Just checking you haven’t died, man.”

And Dustin hates that he’s made Eddie sound hesitant.

“Yeah, I’m so dead. Oooo.”

Eddie chuckles slightly. But then he says, “Listen, did I do something? Like, tell me to fuck off, if so.”

“Fuck off,” Dustin says, not convincing in the slightest.

In the silence, he can practically hear the cogs in Eddie’s brain turning.

“You didn’t run track.”

It’s not a question.

Dustin rubs at his eyes. “I got tripped.”

“…Tripped,” Eddie echoes. “Dustin. Come on.”

“Fine. I… got in a fight.”

“You?”

“What, is that hard to believe?” Dustin snaps.

“Yeah. Yeah, it is, actually.”

There’s something in Eddie’s tone that makes Dustin’s eyes threaten to burn. It sounds like I know you.

“Well, go on. Gimme the details. What, did you place bets in the cafeteria about who would—”

“No-one else saw,” Dustin says, then immediately cringes at the fact that he’s walked right into Eddie’s trap and given answers.

“Oh, well fucking done,” Eddie says, and maybe it’s meant to sound sharp, but Dustin can only hear how it’s tight with anxiety. “So someone started shit, and you decided, in your infinite wisdom, to settle it alone, when anything could’ve—”

“What the fuck was I supposed to do? Just let them keep saying—”

“You run,” Eddie says. “Jesus Christ, Henderson, I don’t give a flying fuck what they were saying. You run like hell out of there, and you don’t look back, do you fucking hear—”

“You didn’t run!” Dustin says.

He hadn’t planned on saying it at all; the words feel like they’ve been ripped out of him, his voice wrecked.

Silence.

The door opens. Eddie looks completely floored.

“Was this about me?” he asks very quietly.

Dustin looks away. “He—he just—you didn’t hear what he was saying. Eddie, it was. Bad.”

And I’ll never repeat it, he thinks. I’m never using that fucking awful word.

“Hey, what’s that on your…?”

Eddie’s eyes narrow, and Dustin realises too late that he’s staring at his neck.

“Are you wearing make-up?” Eddie says, faintly baffled, and Dustin sees the exact moment that he recognises the mark for what it is, because his eyes widen. “Oh, Jesus.”

Dustin uselessly tries to cover it up with his hand. “It’s—it’s fine, it didn’t even—”

But his words die away at the sight of Eddie’s rapidly paling face.

Stop it, Dustin almost wants to say. Between everything that Eddie and Steve have… this is nothing.

He doesn’t expect Eddie bursting into tears.

“Oh God,” Eddie’s saying, and his breathing’s all wrong, “Dustin, please, please don’t—” But it’s like the words are choking him, like he can only stare at Dustin’s neck as if the world is ending.

The front door opening. Steve’s voice echoing, calling out a questioning greeting.

“Hey? You in the kitchen?”

Dustin moves quickly, shoves past Eddie.

“Dustin,” Eddie says again, loud in his panic, “d-don’t go, come on—”

He knows precisely when Steve can hear the fact that Eddie is crying, because his footsteps are rapid on the stairs, speech just as quick and frantic, “What happened, what happened?”

Dustin briefly feels Steve’s hand close around his elbow, “Hey, hey, what’s—?”, but he wrenches himself free. Runs down the stairs as fast as he can, stumbles on the last step.

He feels his ankle give way, and his heart is suddenly pounding like he’s back in The Upside Down—and he lies there, guilt and embarrassment in every heaving breath he takes.

[thenugking]

Look i'm not saying Belos the puritan witch hunter isn't homophobic but i feel like the headcanons that he tells Hunter he's not allowed to like boys have it wrong.

I don't think it even occurs to this crusty old puritan that the kid he's raising might not be straight. being Gay is a weird witch thing!! hunter's human, that means he's normal!!!

What he does teach hunter though is that he's not allowed to kiss girls. Like, kissing girls is the Thing That Killed Caleb. Can't have his nephew going the same way!! Stay away from those evil witch temptresses!!!! being with them is a Sin and god the titan will be Mad At You!!!!

hunter nods and thinks "okay, kiss boys only, got it" and accidentally grows up heterophobic.