#lgbt rep talk ig

[a-thenais]

NOVA APOCRYPHA VULGATA... but make it bingo!

I'm making it sound so funny, when it isn't, unless we exclude the little danger noodle in the middle, by @sancta-seraphina. The font was also made by her! 💜

But coming to us, I wanted to use this more immediate but complete format to talk about the generalities behind my series of novels! I added a little' everything, from genres in which the picture, to some small trope (who follows my editing page knows how I feel about it 🤐... so maybe just two people on here) and more complex particularities.

I would like to specify some points:

By "aesthetic representation of different ethnicities", I mean that by necessity, being the fallen angels/angels/demons non-human characters, they will portray only the physical-aesthetic part of certain terrestrial ethnicities and certainly not to the cultural one specifically. There might be some exceptions for characters who need to blend in with humans, but as a general rule, I'd just like to remind that it is not granted that they will reflect the cultural aspects of human life. The same goes for LGBT rep, which can be extrapolated outside of the narrative context, giving a human coding to relationships and gender identities of characters who are not human and do not live in a human society with human implications.

The part of "Paradise Lost" & the manga of "Tokyo Ghoul" (a fundamental media and that changed my perception of storytelling) refer to the characters and setting of PP and the atmosphere and the way psychology is narrated in TG.

The three genres I listed in the first column do not refer to all novels. Some are more based on dark fantasy, others on horror, others on history, with various genre and subgenre hierarchies.

In the last slide you can find, along with a small infographic presentation, some artwork of my faithful @waveworm_y (on IG) that every time makes me feel like my works do have a small fandom 😭🙏🏻

And what else? Feel free to do the same! I will open the tag #mybookbingo 🐍💜 ~

[geckcellent]

post s7 ep7 thoughts

halfway through and i got some thoughts on the plot in general but mostly the hot topic of the day: The Gays Of Voltron

under a cut bc long and spoilery

predictions n hopes n thoughts as of the end of ep7:

1. W OW. ok maybe jeith has a chance after all idk maybe im just hoping

2. prediction: the final battle will ft a 2nd voltron made by allura and sam (altea/the universe’s defenders & earth) and it’ll be piloted by james’ crew alongside alfor’s voltron in a fucking superb “We Won’t Make The Same Mistakes As The Past Generations” past/future generations uniting climax

3. ezor and zethrid are in lesbians, try and tell me i’m wrong i’m waiting

4. where the Fuck did acxa go she just disappeared????

5. lotor might still get a redemption arc -- he’s an amazing villain and i wrote about him, the nature of quintessence & the ending of s6 here at the time and while he COULD be left as a finished point as is, given how shiro* was essentially brought back from the dead with no drawbacks AND there’s a history of revivals albeit ominous evil ones, i at least think it would be theoretically possible given all the UPSTAGING THE PAST themes. also it would be an interesting direction to take the plot thread with ezor/zethrid’s search for lotor

*he says in the deep space void episode, verbatim, that he was lost in the infinite quintessence void within the black lion’s consciousness.. where was lotor last seen again???

6. why are you guys so caught up with adam?? i’m not there yet but i heard? he died off screen and. honestly that’s about what i expected, right from the 1st trailer i was pretty sure ‘lovers’ was solidly past tense (though i didn’t think he’d die jfc). he was a way to open up the relationships and ‘people back on earth’ plot line and that’s it. and probably also to give shiro more trauma bc the writers are mildly sadistic but i digress

6.1. yall be screaming BURY YOUR GAYS but who said adam/shiro was the only lgbt rep?? no. shiro’s the lgbt rep we have confirmed so far. him being gay or not is in no way hinged on whether he’s fucking adam or whoever. the gay is out of the chicken coop but hasn’t flown off yet. imo.

6.1.1. literally nobody else has had anything confirmed relationship wise except hunk(?) and as far as i’m concerned everyone else hasn’t had ANYTHING confirming sexuality,.,.. and idk bout you but it feels really fluid to me for lance/allura/pidge.. hunk to a lesser extent and keith?? yeah we know NOTHING about the guy’s (lack of) romantic history. point is none of them seem strictly stuck to the Laws Of Straights, like ofc we have lance’s flirting and shit but look me in the eye and tell me, a gay, before getting comfy in a community of More Gays that you (also a queer) didn’t unconsciously default to what you were taught was socially acceptable. anyway,

6.2. one (1) gay has been buried. he was not really plot relevant to begin with and it woulda been different imo had adam been introduced BEFORE literally 2/3 ~ 3/4 through the whole story. there would’ve been a need to have time spent on him as a character and how he integrates into the plot AND the paladin fam.. and we don’t HAVE that time with 2 seasons left and the climax revving up. without it, adam/shiro would literally just be the ‘throwaway queer pandering’ everyone likes to point fingers and yell about

6.3. in conclusion, the gays haven’t been buried bc here’s a hot damn take & the reason shiro being gay was only revealed just now: gay is a character trait rather than a plotline ,!! adam is out of the picture but shiro is still gay and even if he doesn’t end up with a new partner, there’s still keith and lance and james squad and allura and pidge,, and so on and. i HIGHLY doubt the vld writers would leave the long awaited lgbt rep as a throwaway death

thanks for coming to my slightly-lowkey-pissed ted talk now i’m off to watch the rest of s7. feel free to discuss

[hewwoes-moved]

i dont know how 2 explain to some of yall that voltron, a show that killed off its only "lgbt rep" after like 5 minutes of screentime, isnt comparable to steven universe, a show with multiple canon lgbt people (two of which are married lesbians and components of a major character)

[androgynousblackbox]

I keep seeing "fetishizing mlm" and "fujo bs" talking about Boyfriends and... I don't follow refrainbow but a quick look says his pronouns are he/they. I know pronouns =/= gender but I read the comic (in short binging sessions, since it's v cotton candy fluffy which I like sometimes but not something I can read alot of at once if that makes sense) and they give me mlm trans masc or trans masc-aligned vibes? Idk how to describe it other than like recignising like, but as an mlm demiboy, I'm used to people seeing us as just "infiltrating fetishists" so ig I shouldn't be surprised.

And slightly related but I was just thinking about it earlier, but like people pitched a fit over the "bad" rep of Angeldust in HH and the couple in CMBYN, which always sounded like me they were saying, "LGBT not queer coz that's a slur uwu need to completely sanitize themselves and appeal to the people who are taking our rights away and ask pretty please can we have some family friendly rights we promise we aren't degenerates" which rubbed me the wrong way. But now people (likely different people ik but mobs often sound the same) are up in arms against rep that's pure and fluff with very little conflict/drama. We queer creators are just damned if we do and damned if we don't.

(Sorry for the rant)

The author is a transmasc gay person. Meaning that they are a prime target for people who refuse to believe queer trans men exist and we are all just a bunch of cishet girl fetishizing the poor gays. It's transphobia mixed in with homophobia, and I am not happy about how people who pretend to give a fuck about the community keep falling for the exact same fucking bullshit on 2022.

[madame-truffulatree]

MAJOR TOH SPOILERS

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PINK/PURPLE HAIR AMITY??? GOOD OLDER SIBLINGS ED AND EM???? ED HAS A DATE WITH SOMEONE WHO USES THEY/THEM PRONOUNS (rip goldric ig)????? AND UH MOST IMPORTANTLY

AND OF COURSE THE MAIN PLOT WITH GUS WAS EXCELLENT THE ART WAS BEAUTIFUL AND I AM LOVING THE NEW GUS-MATTHOLOMULE FRIENDSHIP BUT I HAD TO TALK ABOUT THE SUBPLOT FIRST BECAUSE THE FACT THAT THERE’S NOW A CANON QUEER RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO MAIN CHARACTERS ON A DISNEY SHOW FOR LIKE THE FIRST TIME EVER I THINK????? in all seriousness i wish i had something like the owl house when i was growing up, seeing positive, inclusive lgbt rep would’ve saved me a lot of sleepless nights and self hatred (and “are you gay” quizzes) so i’m just really really happy that young queer kids are going to be able to see this and know that it’s okay to not be cishet

i may or may not have cried

[whatiwillsay]

kaylor oomfs avert your eyes 😞

i get asked from time to time “why don’t you like kaylor, why don’t you like karlie, why do you think kaylor isn’t together? why aren’t you and ttb married yet?” and i think it’s high time i centralize my thoughts and receipts on all of that in a little timeline of shady things karlie has done to taylor that have made me wary of kaylor/karlie/that whole situation.  don’t read if you stan kaylor this isn’t for you (unless you know you’re interested in the truth.)

first things first, i do think something romantic happened between kaylor go read @swiftiesleuth‘s realistic kay timeline for what i (generally) think happened between them.

but long story short - i think joshlie is real, i think they weren’t all that serious at the beginning, she famously didn’t meet his family for years, he didn’t take her to work events for a long time, so there’s room for her to have a fling with taylor even though we ended up with a real joshlie endgame.

taylor’s music and art supports this theory - in the wd mv she paints herself as the other woman, on rep she sings of secret sexy sex with her best friend that drives her crazy, in cruel summer she sings of a miserable, secret, and toxic situation with a person who rejects her love, in illicit affairs and august again she is the other woman - the art matches up.  she also sings about her sunshine being gone on lover, and eclipsed on folklore. we have good clues in taylor’s artistic expression.

taylor’s given interviews about some of these karlie songs - she said cruel summer was about the start to a “doomed” relationship and look at what she said about august:

“It kind of explores the idea of the undefined relationship. As humans, we're all encouraged to just be cool and just let it happen, and don't ask what the relationship is — Are we exclusive? But if you are chill about it, especially when you're young, you learn the very hard lesson that if you don't define something, oftentimes they can gaslight you into thinking it was nothing at all, and that it never happened. And how do you mourn the loss of something once it ends, if you're being made to believe that it never happened at all?”

if joshlie is real which i think they are that 100% sounds like taylor having to process being gaslit by karlie while she cheats on josh with her.

so why do i think joshlie is real?

-  josh has no credible gay rumors that didn’t originate on gaylor tumblr: he has old ex gfs that came before karlie, harvard message boards gossiped about him and didn’t like him but never said that he was gay, in fact one of the complaints josh’s schoolmates had about him was that he got special treatment for her girlfriend at parties.

-  as stated before taylor’s art suggests she’s been the other woman with someone in her life recently.  if josh and karlie are beards then what is the affair? why is taylor the other woman so often all of a sudden?

-  i’ve spoken to someone with a mutual friend with the kushners - grain of salt of course, i know you can only trust stuff you hear from me with no proof so much, but i do absolutely trust this person and they say - no way in hell is joshlie fake, no way in hell is josh gay, no way in hell is karlie having taylor’s baby.  also karlie absolutely has moved down to miami with josh.  i’m sure we’ll see her in nyc and la from time to time but she is living in miami now.

-  vicky ward, who is a real investigative journalist not some unhinged person on tumblr, wrote a tell all about the kushners.  she uncovered gay rumors about josh’s father and josh’s brother but not josh.  she had actual sources and was legitimately digging up tons of dirt on these people and not a word about josh being gay or joshlie being fake.

-  yes karlie did convert to judaism.  it’s really offensive to suggest she didn’t.  of course she always could have done it for personal reasons but occam’s razor dictates she did it for josh i don’t know what else to tell you 🤷‍♀️

-  also just vibes.  karlie writes him love notes and leaves them with his breakfast.  they make playlists for one another.  if the kushners weren’t so heinous they’d be cute.

so in the joshlie is real world view i inhabit, i don’t stan kaylor the same way i do swiftgron because i don’t think kaylor was ever a committed monogamous relationship.  important and impactful on taylor’s life? absolutely.  inspired some amazing music? 100%. but was is true and tragic love that drives me insane and makes me feral?  no.  i don’t believe so.  is it still an interesting and iconic ship? yes!  but i don’t stan because it wasn’t like...true love or gay shit like that.

so let’s talk about karlie’s screwups that 1. assure me kaylor is not together and 2. make me have no desire to stan karlie/kaylor.

1.  after the kimye drama (something that deeply traumatized taylor we now know thanks to miss americana) karlie said she was sure kim was a lovely person 😭 now i know she walked it back and tweeted she and taylor had one another’s backs. i know karlie was just trying to be diplomatic.  but come on...if someone did what kim did to taylor to my lover or hell even just my friend i would say “fuck that clout chasing fame whore” bottom line.  c’mon guys.  have higher standards for your otp.

karlie also has vibed with kim on IG about her adidasas line.  recently!  yes i know she’s just promoting her brand but c’mon.  taylor still hates kim, their drama got rehashed in march 2020 and just 6 months later kim n karlie are bestie-ing around on ig.

2.  ALL the fucking masters drama and scooter fucking braun

-  not long at all after the masters heist karlie was palling around with scooter on a yacht like come on the only other thing taylor is equally as traumatized over as the kimye drama is the master’s heist.  why is karlie hanging out with him and partying with him at this time?

-  karlie liked a tweet completely incinerating taylor (in a gross and unfair/inaccurate way) regarding the masters heist.  she unliked it but still.  why was she even looking at that shit.

-  and yeah we gotta talk about perez.  so perez hilton (who is a scumbag and gross but sometimes does have legitimate tea) posted a video saying that karlie and taylor were no longer friends because karlie betrayed taylor to scooter.  now if that were all there was to it, it’d be dumb gossip.  but a taylor fan account posted the video to twitter ashley avignone and claire winter both liked the tweet.  ashley liked two tweets about it.  perez proceeded to tweet that since two of taylor’s oldest and truest friends liked the tweets it must mean he was correct and neither of the girls unliked the tweets.  ashley and claire are low key people, not celebs, not pawns in a “fued narrative”, just long time and loyal friends of taylor’s.  they liked the tweet, imo, because there’s some truth to it.

-  that brings me to spencer pratt.  spencer is a reality star and super swiftie/huge fan of taylor’s.  he despises karlie.  he’s tweeted negatively about her and he also had perez onto his podcast to talk about the drama between karlie and taylor.  taylor herself sent him a cardigan.  do you really think taylor is going to allow a cardigan to go out to the guy who’s dragging her girlfriend or bestie? i don’t think so.  receipts on perez and spencer here.

3.  karlie posted for hailey fucking beiber’s bday instead of taylor’s and hailey hates taylor 🤢🤢🤢

4.  karlie married into a fascist family that is associated with the trumps.  like how can you expect me to stan?  trump is a fucking criminal evil piece of shit.  i know karlie isn’t like him (probably) but it’s still awful.  kimby even goes around liking ivanka’s ig posts like give me a fucking break 😭.

in summation, you can disagree w me all you like, you can ship kaylor all you like, but if you’re of sound mind i don’t think you can look at the facts in this post and think i’m misguided for not being a kaylor/karlie stan.  and you can’t blame me for thinking if you spend a lot of time obsessing over that ship you may not really be that big a fan of taylor’s.  and if you’re spending a lot of time leading lgbt kids on to think they’re going to get a kaylor end game when all the objective facts of the case suggest that that’s never going to happen you might need to reevaluate but at the very least you certainly can’t press me for not doing all that.

[lesbinewren]

hey friend, i've been following your blog for a while now and i absolutely think you should go on a rant about modern sw canon being homophobic! i agree with you and i'd love to hear your points (especially re: anything having to do with tarkin, as im not as familiar with that) (:

ill try to not turn this into like a full six page essay lmao

so basically there are at this point a fair amount of gay/bi characters in sw canon atm... just none appearing on-screen (or at least not being explicitly gay on-screen) except for those two women that kissed for like half a second in tros. so thats point one i guess- all but completely restricting even acknowledgements of gayness to books/comics that dont get nearly as much recognition as the screen media does. 

point two is that theres a pattern of the main characters they choose to make explicitly gay as being... considerably less moral than others sometimes. and im not saying that every single gay character needs to be completely flawless with the sun shining out of their ass at all times, but why cant we get more lead, unquestionably heroic characters to be confirmed gay or bi? we have gay villains (tarkin being sorta confirmed gay in facpov, moff mors who deserves an entire post of her own), and then characters that are more like anti-heroes, or at least heros with darker pasts/tendencies (aphra, sinjir, arguably characters like sana, chass and yrica but those three to a much lesser degree). 

and i dont... dislike those characters. i actually LOVE aphra, shes probably one of my faves, and i loved sinjir and conder in aftermath. i dont really have any problems with their stories at all, it’s just that they’re part of a pattern of characters with sometimes questionable morality (aphra working with vader and happily siccing her droids to torture and murder people etc & sinjir being a torturer for the empire who then joins the rebellion and tortures sometimes for that cause too). like again, my problem isnt that gay characters arent paragons of virtue, its that most characters they happen to make gay also happen to be the morally gray ones. im not really asking for less dubiously good cay characters, just also more solidly heroic gay characters to balance it a bit. 

and they are getting better, there are more solidly heroic main gay characters... its just for every wyl lark or kaedan larte you have a gay imperial officer and an offhandedly mentioned dead pair of husbands. and i also dont think id mind as much if there wasnt a history in film especially where even implying gayness was prohibited unless it was condemned or shown to be immoral. i dont think its intentional, but its hard not to get that vibe when they make their biggest canon lesbian character blow up cute tooka cats for fun lmao (as much as i adore aphra)

and my third and probably final point for now is the deliberate vagueness of things, and the way that they sometimes confirm characters. i think they’re especially egregious about this with bi/pan characters. i dont have the direct quote, but when confirming lando to be lgbt during solo promotion, they essentially said he’s pan because he... has sex with droids and aliens? no mention of you know... being a man attracted to other men, that might be too controversial ig. also i think it was donald glover who specifically said something like “how couldn’t you be pansexual in space, there’s so many things to have sex with” as if thats what being bi/pan is which just... yeah.

and then also in the leia book (a book i really like), the “confirmation” of holdo being bi is when leia says something about sticking to “humanoid males” and holdo tells her “thats limiting” or whatever which a) its a personal pet peeve of mine as a lesbian when people say things like that, even tho its said to a straight person, its just insulting and acts like sexuality is a choice and bi/pan people are more enlightened by choosing not to “limit themselves” and b) in context they’re talking about a like... bug alien or something like that, its been a minute since i read the book but it wasnt just like a humanoid alien woman or anything. so again... being just vague enough to get woke points for your character being lgbt without actually having them express same gender attraction AND equating being bi to just being willing to screw whatever i guess.

and for the record i dont think that this all means star wars is being unforgivably homophobic. i DO think characters like aphra, sinjir and others are good representation, i just dont want characters like that to be our only representation, because thats when things start to get more questionable for me. but like, i think its AWESOME that aphra has her own comic line and audiobook where she’s very explicitly gay, and the fact that she’s probably the most popular modern star wars comic-originated character while being a lesbian seriously makes me happier than i know how to express. i think the fact that the alphabet squadron trilogy made two of its female leads explicitly bi and one of their male leads end up in a relationship with another man is amazing. i love sinjir and conder’s romance being a primary feature of the aftermath trilogy. i think its incredible cool of them to have the bravery to make an iconic character from the original trilogy pan, even if im not a huge fan of the phrasing they used (and would like them to be more explicit about it in future content). like, i dont want to be all negative because i think there is a lot of good rep there. i just know it can be better, and being allowed to criticize it makes me feel better about it, and hopefully will start more conversations that lead to them being more mindful in the future. 

[heartknives]

god that one post going around rn that’s obviously shading yoi is so bad/obnoxious lmao.... why do people on this hellsite literally hate seeing other gay people enjoy harmless media. why is it 100% fine to enjoy ‘mediocre’ american tv/other anime even but as soon as a show has any lgbt rep whatsoever people immediately feel the need to tear into/make fun of any person that might like it. stop looking down your noses at others for being less... idk, cynical? not having as "”high”” of standards? wanting to be happy and not constantly apologize for it?? just let my gay ass have some fun for once, dude

[meetmebehindthemall13]

I was thinking.. when taylor did that ig live and was nervous and told us about the diaries everybody was saying"this is it she's going to come out* me included. But now, after Vogue I feel like people are backing off. I know everybody tried to light up the situation and create excuses but at the bottom line I don't see people talking about she coming out soon any more. What do you think?

I mean, given the buildup and the consistent hints at rainbows, inclusive pronouns and the almost lgbt centric or lgbt related content and aesthetics that she has showcased from the beginning of Rep Era I almost believed that as well.

It kind of felt like a climax that was either going to explode with a final coming out or implode and cause a retreat that would send us back to the initial ambiguity.

At this point i don’t know what to think. I mean I don’t know if she was ever planning to actually come out, she might have just been really stressed about new music coming out for the first time without BMR. Let’s not forget that every album she puts out there is like her baby, she pointed out I think when she was at Ellen that she still get anxious about general reception, critics and I guess about sales and records as well. So It could be that.

However, if we are really delusional, Kaylor doesn’t exist, she’s straight and happy with joe-looking-for-my-personality-have-you-seen-it, I can’t really fathom why she sticks to this ambiguity.

It could’ve really be just as simple as laughing it off or stating in any moment of the last 6 years something like: Hey guys, I noticed someone started to make a big deal about me and Karlie. I love her but we’re just very good friends. Not that there’s anything wrong with women in love. As a matter of fact, I am a big supporter of the lgbt community and I’m going to advocate for it more in the future because it’s something I really believe in.

That never happened.

What do we get instead? Dancing with our hands tied, Dress, the Reputation Prologue, constant and unbelievable coincidences and graphic remainders of what canonically relates to them, dates that link back to Karlie, awkward, deafening silence and a messed up timeline. And let’s not forget she has eyes everywhere and she knows what things are being attributed to Kaylor.

What are we supposed to do???

[mikeshanlon]

Happy Pride! .... Like... more than halfway through the month lmao sorry, better late than never ig! I’ve compiled a list of some of my fave LGBT+ books, as well as a few I’m planning to read for pride/in the near future. Please feel free to reblog and add some of your own recs, especially for the sexual and gender identities that are lacking in my list!!!!!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: This beautiful, wholesome coming of age novel is pretty popular on tumblr and with good reason! It’s set in the 1980′s and follows Aristotle, aka "Ari”, as he grows up an tackles with his identity-- he feels like his story is written by someone else, that his path is not up to his control. Whether this is due to his complex relationship with his family, or societal expectations/stereotypes of Latinx men, or the fact that maybe his friendship with Dante might be more than that, and that kinda terrifies him. (Rep: Gay, Latinx, (I believe this is own voices) Warnings: it’s been a minute since i’ve read this but i believe some racism, internalized homophobia, and an instance of violent transphobia)

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: LGKNLKNGRG okay this is truly one of my favorite books of the year so far and part of the whole reason i wanted to make this. This is a New Adult Contemporary romance set in sort of a like... parallel America where a woman won the presidential election. We follow The First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz, who’s charming, smart ass, genius icon. Him, his sister June, and their best friend Nora are easily marketable and loved by the public for the most part, but when Alex and his rival Prince Henry of England get into a public spat at a Royal Wedding, Alex and Henry must pretend to be friends to patch up relations and public image for his mother’s re-election campaign. Eventually their fake friendship turns real, and then becomes more as they get to know each other, Alex and Henry begin a secret romance that we follow over the course of the re-election year. This book is fucking HILARIOUS (like I have so many tabs for funny moments and i was trying to be restrained), but it’s just so. Like full of love and hope and it’s so beautiful???? It’s definitely political escapism from our current situation in America but still deals with current issues such as racism and homopboia, etc, but gives the reader hope for future progress. Alex and Henry’s relationship is so fun, and sexy, and beautiful and the friendships are so iconic and Alex’s journey with sexuality is... chefs kiss. Also like. Casey McQuiston mentioned that she listened to Texas Reznikoff by Mitski a lot while writing this in the acknowledgments so. what more do you need... (Rep: Bisexual (Own Voices), Gay, Biracial-- Mexican/White (Own Voices), Warnings: Racism, homophobia, mentions of a past sexual harrassment/assault. Since this is a New Adult, there are smut scenes. I wouldn’t say it’s like. Super explicit or anything but there is sex, though it’s often during Important Moments of their relationships so it doesn’t feel like p*rn-- again the sex is happening but its not in hella explicit detail or anything or for the same goal as say an erotica. P much proceed with caution if it’s not ur thing but it’s not too wild!)

Blanca y Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore: This is sort of a Snow White/Rose Red and Ugly Duckling retelling following two sisters, Blanca and Roja, who’s family curse destines that one of the sisters will be trapped into a swan’s body, never to be seen again. (So this is magical realism lmao). We also follow two boys, Page and Yearling, who were wrapped up in the magic of the nearby woods, but have returned to society. Page is a gender queer trans male, and his whole arc that was so beautiful and made me cry, but in a good way (also warning that I’m cis so like. I would love to hear what gender queer trans individuals think about the rep in this book bc I cannot really attest to it.) This book is really about sisterly love and love in general, with all the complexities that come with it. (also wlw grandma’s who grow apple’s it’s p iconic) (Rep: Latinx-- colorism plays a huge role in the story as well (Own Voices), Gender Queer Trans, Queer (Own Voices) Warnings: Some transphobia, racism, and abuse). (I believe most of Anna-Marie McLemore’s books are magical realism and have some Latinx and queer elements to them as well)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: god..... This (gay ass) novelization of The Illiad is just so tragically romantic and beautiful... We follow Achilles and Patroclus as they grow up and grow closer, and eventually fight the Trojan War. There are so many beautiful quotes and scenes but like. You will most likely cry so keep that in mind eklrgerg. (Rep: Gay Warnings: Violence, there’s like..... a weird r*pe/homophobic scene)

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan: YA Fantasy set in a world where there are three castes: Moon-- the highest caste, demons with animalistic features in a humanoid form, Steel-- humans with part demon physical features and abilities, and Paper-- fully human, the lowest caste. We follow our protaganist Lei, who despite being a Paper caste, has beautiful golden glowing eyes that end up garnering attention from the Demon King. She’s stolen from her home and forced to join The Paper Girls-- a group of paper caste concubines in training at the palace. As she tries to find a way to escape, she ends up falling for one of the other paper girls, Wren, who might be just the key to freedom. I love Lei and Wren’s relationship and I’m excited to see it play out in the sequel! (which i believe ngan said will introduce more LGBT characters) (Rep: Asian (Own Voices), WLW (I believe this is Own Voices as well). Warnings: As their role as concubines suggest, a large part of this book revolves around the patriarchy using women for power and sexual assualt/rape. There are no explicit rape scenes-- though they do occur ‘off screen’, however there are a couple attempted sexual assault scenes that I believe could be p triggering. This book is also largely about the Paper Girls taking back their power, and I don’t believe these scenes are done for shock value, however please proceed with caution. Subsequently, sexist and patriarchial views are present within the authority, though shunned by Lei, however there’s a lot of internalized sexism and objectification among some of the other Paper Girls.)

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell: I probably don’t have to talk about this one much since it’s super popular, but in what is like essentially Harry Potter but like gay and wholesome, we follow Simon Snow, the Chosen One who’s actually not that good at magic, his best friend Penelope, and his roommate and arch nemesis that’s totally a vampire but won’t admit it, Baz. (Except Baz is, like, totally in love with Simon and Simon’s just too dumb and wrapped up in his own shit to realize it). Truly just,... an iconic enemies to friends to lovers story that unfolds as the three of them try to uncover a mystery surrounding Baz’s late mother. Ik some people have found it confusing bc it’s sort of like starting the Harry Potter story off at book 7 and only getting some background info along the way but honestly I really enjoyed that lmao. Also there’s a sequel coming out this fall, Wayward Son. (Rep: Gay, Some POC rep. Warnings: not rlly any i dont think??? There’s  like. some Homophobia lmao bc we can’t have a gay book without it.)

Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins: This is a cute YA contemporary following Millie Quint who, post being cheated on by her best friend and wanting to have a fresh start, flies to Scotland to finish off her senior year at her Dream prestigous boarding school, joining a handful of other girls as the first female class in the institution’s history. Plus like. Cool Rocks and Scotland. Only problem is that her roomate is sort of a bitch and also the Princess of Scotland who she totally just told off. So yeah yet another royal gay enemies to friends to lovers with a dash of and they were roomates LMAO. This book could be like.... a bit cheesy and rushed but overall it was cute and like...... The Cover.... (Rep: Bisexual, Lesbian, Warnings: Some homophobia. Also this is a companion novel to Prince Charming but you don’t have to read that first, there’s just some references to the couple in that book as the Prince is well.... The Princess’ brother and where they end up so if you don’t wanna be spoiled read that first ig!)

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman: I talked about this some in this post, but I feel like I did kinda a shitty job so. A YA fantasy/paranormal series about the descendant’s of the town’s four founding families-- Violet Saunders, Justin Hawthorne, Harper Carlisle, and Isaac Sullivan (the most iconic one). The latter three have lived in Four Paths their whole lives, protecting the town from The Gray-- p much the Upside Down from Stranger Things lmao, using powers specific to each of their families. Violet and her mother move back after Violet’s sister died in a car accident, and she’s thrust into helping save the town as the Gray grows more restless and having to uncover the secrets of her family as well as all the history brewing between the other three. The Stranger Things and Riverdale comparisons are p valid, (but like. Riverdale in the sense of small town secrets and a bunch of tense history that the kids don’t really understand and must uncover, and some like love triangle but..... not Rlly Love triangles just a mess of ppl being like oh shit i like this person and this person.... Bisexual Chaos if u will... not like. The I’m cuckoo bananas for u let’s go get high and play dungeons and dragons and smash in a bunker LRGKJRLKGJ), the Raven Cycle comparison’s are kind of a stretch, I can see the abstract comparison’s if i squint but like. Don’t go into this expecting TRC lmao. I really enjoyed the theme of grief throughout this book and seeing the powers unfold (and one of the dynamics a lot) and while not perfect the series has a lot of potential and like. Bisexuals. So. (Rep: Bisexual (two mc’s are bi and say the word!!!!!!!! As well as some secondary characters), Disabled (one of the mc’s is missing one arm from the elbow down). Warnings: Grief, Violence)

The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: Also talked about this in this post and did a better job there, but to sum it up it’s essentially a friends to lovers, bed sharing, road trip au with a dash of magic but set in the 1700′s! There’s also a sequel/companion, The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy that I have yet to read but it follows Monty’s sister, Felicity, and I believe goes more in depth with her identity. (Rep: Gay, Black, Disabled, Aromantic, Asexual, Warnings: Period typical homophobia/biphobia, racism, ableism, sexism)

Simon vs. The Homosapien’s Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Like. I don’t think i really have to explain this one LRKGJJRG but added it just in case. YA contemporary following Simon as he e-mails another gay student at his school and falls in love. (Rep: Gay, Black, Jewish, Warnings: Homophobia)

All For the Game Trilogy (The Foxhole Court, The Raven King, The King’s Men) by Nora Sakavic: If y’all have been on my blog at all you know i’m back in aftg hyperfixation mode after another reread lmao. Is it a lil messy is it a lil dramatic... yes. but i love it!!! We follow our protagonist Neil Josten, who’s been on the run from his crime lord father, The Butcher of Baltimore, since he was young. After his mother dies on the run, Neil finds a new place and adopts yet another identity, and ends up playing high school exy (a made up sport but like we’re barely here for the sports lmao), something he used to play as a child. Despite playing a new position, he attracts the attention of the PSU Foxes, who’s coach David Wymack specifically recruits players with a troubled past to give them a second chance. Neil really shouldn’t sign-- it goes against everything his mother told him, it puts him at risk of being in the spotlight for his father’s men to find him, and puts him on the same team as Kevin Day, someone from his past that knows his true identity. Still, something draws Neil to joining the team, to finally try to live instead of just survive. UGHHHH like truly this book just makes u fall in love with all the characters and the beautiful and broken found family that develops over three books and one of the most iconic and amazing (ha....) slowburn relationships ever.... Also if i recall they’re super cheap on iBooks (at least when i bought them, the first book was free and the other two were $1.99). (Rep: Gay, Demisexual, POC, Warnings: MAJOR trigger warnings for like. everything bc all the foxes have fucked up pasts. But the biggest ones are probably rape, abuse/torture, and substance abuse)

Six of Crows Duology (Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom) by Leigh Bardugo: Idk how much I really have to talk about this bc it’s popular but I am physically unably not to reccomend this duology bc its just. So. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The most barebones summary is that this is a YA Fantasy about six people coming together to perform an impossible heist. This is truly like...... a masterclass in developing characters and has one of the best m/f ships i’ve ever read... But also since it’s on here there is some gay shit going on, 3/6 mains are Not Straight and there’s a cute m/m couple! Also you don’t have to read the Grisha Trilogy to read this but u can if u want (I have yet to). (Rep: Bisexual, Gay, Disabled, POC, Warnings: Again these ppl have fucked up pasts, biggest are PTSD, past sexual abuse)

The Raven Cycle Series (The Raven Boys, The Dream Theives, Blue Lily Lily Blue, The Raven King) by Maggie Steifvater: Again i don’t think I really have to explain this one but like. In case you haven’t read this series it’s truly iconic..... Idk even how to explain this LKGJLJRG just like magical realism wonderfulness and found family and amazing relationships and shit.... (Rep: Gay, Bisexual, Disabled, Warnings: Abuse)

The following are books I plan to read for pride/in the near future. I can’t wholeheartedly reccomend them obviously, or fully detail all the rep/warnings, but I’ve heard some great things about these books and a lot of them have representation that the first part of the list is lacking, so I figured I would add them! (Also if I use ‘queer’ that’s because that’s the only label I have been given by the authors or reviewers, or the characters identify as queer)

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman: To my knowledge this is a really emotional YA coming of age/college story that has to do with like. A podcast? Idk a lot of people love it and side note I’ll be suing B&N bc they NEVER have it relkj (Rep: Bisexual, Demisexual, I belive Latinx.)

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand: I believe this is a YA horror-ish novel where there’s a monster stealing girls on and island. (Rep: I believe all three main girls are queer Warnings: Since this is horror im assuming. Horror stuff LMAO)

I Wish You all The Best by Mason Deaver: A YA contemporary romance about Ben who comes out as non-binary to their parents and gets kicked out, and moves in with their estranged sister. They soon are taken under the wing of a senior named Nathan Allan and begin to fall. (Rep: Non-Binary (Own Voices), MLM/Queer, Black (im assuming from the gorgeous cover lmao. Warnings: Misgendering, homophobia, anxiety, depression)

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno: YA Magical Realism about Georgina, who has yet to inherit the magical powers that have been passed down her family, including her twin sister Mary who, unlike Georgina, is coming into her powers. (Rep: Lesbian, Queer, Aro/Ace, Warnings: Rape and sexual assault, underage drinking, animal death, drug use.)

[muchymozzarella]

john is against finnpoe for religious reasons. i'm the same religion as him and yeah lgbt+ is frowned upon. he was raised that way and over the years i've seen him become more relaxed about finnpoe but he's definitely not a shipper like oscar. i don't talk about john's believes because i don't want reylo scum to rip him to shreds. religion is a big part of his life and it's been nice to see him relax a bit about finnpoe.

I don’t think he’s against it in any way, but I do know he’s raised religious, and religiousness is a big part of his family (whom he loves) and he definitely had more exposure to the “hero gets the girl” storytelling growing up, and I think the amount of positive response to Finnpoe as well as his and Oscar’s friendship and Oscar playing hard on the Finnpoe angle has helped him open to it. And honestly I don’t think it would’ve taken much, since he’s clearly a chill, fun dude who loves that kind of positive rep. 

He’s shown a ton of enthusiasm for Finnpoe, including sharing Finnpoe stuff on his IG and doubling down on Oscar’s comments about Finnpoe or even just reminding people that Poe is definitely in love with Finn. 

It’s not unfair to say he doesn’t go hard on it as much as Oscar, but that’s okay. He clearly supports Finnpoe and the shippers who love Finnpoe, but I think he’d be happy with Finnrey just as much, and definitely would be happy if it means Finn got a better story, either way. Which he definitely deserves. 

And he is definitely not homophobic, no matter what idiots claim lmao

[vs-stardream]

ooh how about anime kawasaki for the ask meme?

1: sexuality headcanon - ok so i was actually talking about this with a friend the other day. that like... if the anime chose to include one (1) token gay character, they’d pick kawasaki. you see, the whole episode would be a commentary about “gay people are just like the rest of us! :)” and it would be on the nose in the typical hoshi no kaabii way but ultimately not get very much into the Gay Experience beyond “gay men like other men and sometimes people don’t like that.” the plot is that kawasaki is revealed to be gay and he’s embarrassed about it and all the cappies are weirded out, but ultimately kirby and fumu teach them that love is love and everyone deserves respect, and it would just reek of 2000s lgbt rep but it would be wholesome in its own way. also, it would have to be kawasaki who’s the Gay One™ because he’s a side character, yet also a pretty major one (so it’s taken seriously), and he hasn’t had any love interests. anyway to answer the question he’s gay2: otp - that whole episode with nagoya had some really gay vibes so imma say nagoya3: brotp - his relationship with kirby is really cute, i love how kirby always eats all his cooking no matter what it is4: notp - like kirby and the kids ig idek5: first headcanon that pops into my head - expanding off of this post i quite like the idea of escargon leaving the castle and coming to work for kawasaki in cappy town. in teaching escargon how to cook his way (i can’t remember if escargon knows how to cook in the first place?) kawasaki sees escargon copying his recipes exactly and yet his somehow turn out much better?? but after careful observation kawasaki learns from his pupil and starts becoming a better cook6: favorite line from this character - he has a lot of lines but none that i remember tbh7: one way in which I relate to this character - i haven’t cooked very much but i’m sure i wouldn’t be so good at it if i ever did, cause i would just be starting out!8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character - his cooking is awful (and that makes me sad cause cmon couldn’t they have spared a little character development for kawasaki? let him actually develop into a better cook?)9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave? - more of a cinnamon roll (apart from that time he tried to cook kirby, among others)

[2ndstringloser]

Time for sap ig

My experience as a viewer: I watched the first episode of Andi Mack when it aired on Disney for the first time. I thought that the first episode was extremely balsy for a kids show (especially one on the most conservative network) and i immediately knew that this show would be something special. I was excited to ask my friends if they’d watched it because this seemed like a show that I would want to talk about.

They had watched it, and I didn’t even have to ask them about it. My friends brought it into the conversation all by themselves... so that they could trash it. They all said it was stupid, dumb, that it was too serious and should just stick to making jokes. I was really sad. From the first time I watched the show I’d heard the rumors that Cyrus was going to be gay, that’s what drew me in. I was young and starved for representation. The draw of a show with a kid like me was so strong, but since my friends thought it was dumb I decided that it was dumb too. I still saw things online about it, I still saw it on the TV guide, I still felt drawn to this.

Then a video came up on my recommended, “Disney’s first coming out scene” I watched a three minute video of Cyrus and i cried. I cried without even having a connection to this character, other than I related 100% to every word he said. I thought that that would be the end of his story, that they’d bring it up once and leave it at that, so I didn’t think about the show again.

Until one day, when my YouTube recommends, once again, put swing scene 2.0 in my feed. The exact title was “The gay near kiss” which I have to admit is what made me click. When I saw that scene I realized that this story was something special. I was still starved for young lgbt rep and I didn’t care anymore what my friends thought. I watched the whole series. At that time hiatus #1 was currently happening so I didn’t know what to expect the community to be like.

I did watch initially just for tyrus, that’s what brought me in, but I found so much more. There were so many stories that I either could relate to personally, or knew people in my life who felt with that.

So tomorrow night, as I watch the final episode, I’ll be reminded just how special this story is. I’ll always remember the lessons i’ve learned, and the happiness i’ve felt because of this show.

Thank you Andi Mack!

[flockofdoves]

ok sorry to dig up mindnumbing good omens gaybaiting talk but

i was talking to some friends about how it almost feels like neil gaiman has backtracked recently with denying aziraphale and crowley are gay when i feel like before the show came out it was common understanding between him and fans ‘their relationship kinda transcends human concepts but its a very fair interpretation to call them gay from our human perspective’ like generally i think hes goofy but the way hes been putting his foot in his mouth over this is so baffling to me i went to defend his “intention” at first because of my memory of things he said ages ago and also because i do genuinely appreciate the outlook hes expressed before about how even anything he himself thinks of as being true about his work that isn’t shown in canon is “headcanon” so he encourages fans varying interpretations and ideas

he just seems a bit idiotically straight and is doubling down on it when confronted like i think Maybe this whole recent thing started bc hes trying to take credit for being progressive by angels being genderless and takes a step no lgbt person would to then take like -> ‘thus its canonical that they arent gay so this isnt me violating my usual fan interpretation guidelines’. and im sure theres some latent homophobia in how insistent hes been in latching onto this this past year but i do think he really doesnt realize the dissonance when he does that and then simultaneously takes credit for people seeing it as a love story. i think hes pretty ignorant of Why it is that people latch onto them as gay like he probably thinks hes rightful to start lashing out about this because he sees the lgbt rep of them being genderless (which ofc fantastical beings not having human gender doesnt really connect to like. human experiences of lgbt identity which i sont think a lot of cis creators who are like ‘yeah i have a nonbinary character 🙂’ realize lol) and then people wanting to “ship” aziraphale and crowley as separate when really the issue is he doesnt understand how him being insistent on them not calling it “gay” because of him newly deciding to more clearly label angels as not having a concept of gender in the new adaptation for the miniseries and he probably sees that as him having learned about gender identity since then but really its just him being pedantic as a straight cis man about how lgbt people label the actual part of narratives lgbt people come to care about these stories for and how much aziraphale and crowley’s narrative and the themes it brings up make very easy parallels with those of gay people and how angels not having a concept of gender doesnt make them being gay not possible, but actually makes the argument all the stronger because aziraphale actively chooses to align himself with gay humans as demonstrated in canon for example, which can be seen as him seeing his own experiences starting from before humans even had the patriarchy and this by extension concepts of gender/sexual orientation/homophobia as similar to the experiences of gay humans. and that active alignment with gayness is what is important, like. maybe he doesnt realize that for the majority of nonbinary people irl even people who consider themselves to be genderless very often will also align themselves with gayness?? like thats not surprising even its very sensible with how homophobia and transphobia fucntion in our society.

and then its so messy because hes goofy so despite all of that he messily tries to engage with his fans by being like “all your interpretations are valid :)” in the middle of doing this and one of the ones he retweeted was about how someone who said they interpreted their relationship as platonic but phrased it in a weird “gay people are ruining male friendships” way and because hes being dumb ig he just momentarily like. forgot to be the same amount of pedantic about them being genderless when it comes to people perceiving them as men despite making the jump to say they cant be gay despite living on earth functionally as men.

this is so long lol but im Pretty sure its his thought process its so aggravating he needs to get a clue djdjdjdjd. like this isnt me trying to be charitable to him i just was confused how he even got to this point from where he used to seem to be. like i guess he wasnt actively trying to be malicious with it to begin with but im not asking people to give him that when he keeps showing his ass like this time and time again and when people try to discuss stuff he never admits he could be homophobic on accident or be mistaken in his understanding of certain things. (and ofc thats only on this topic, i definitely woudnt even begin to ask people to be charitable to him for shit like how he tried to write in new racist scenes in the script and his apologism for romanticizing pedophilia/abuse/etc in fiction)

[cherrysnax]

idk abt other people but its hard to seperate my identities (being black, fat, mentally ill, lgbt, etc) so finding rep is like. thrice as hard. i have to like pick n choose good rep, which sucks because good rep is already hard to find. its why i often find solice in like. nonhuman characters because i can just project as hard as i want.

but like with human characters, if someones a thin white person whose only issue is that they were bullied once in third grade because they had a bowl cut,,, but they happen to be a lesbian. like o have to peel all of those other aspects away to feel represented but like. even so being a lesbian is Complicated.

nothing really talks abt being nb and a lesbian or having comp het, or cycling through identities, or debating whether ur butch or femme or neither, or the fact that my entire gender is l e s b i a n, and and still theres even more differences. a fat lesbian has way different expirences than a thin lesbian,, esp if theyre a poc,,

so i have to like dissect myself to ever feel truly represented and thats fine ig. i justbwish i had more options

[thetaylorfiles]

Hi TTF— I recently, in the last month or so learned about Kaylor/Gaylor. We all know TS uses metaphorical symbolism in her lyrics and embeds Easter eggs visual work. This era, there is a rainbow doodle that appears in YNTCD on one of the homophobic protester signs, and her ig story today doodled on an image of a letter of support from Sen. Klobuchar. It seems to be TS’ signifier for queer identity. That same symbol appears in the ME! lyric video with “ME” written on it. What do you make of that?

Hi! I haven’t noticed what you’re talking about. Has anyone else seen this? I’ll go try to look.

EDIT: do you mean the rainbow that looks like a drawing?

If so, then I think it stands for lgbt rights and equality in the way that the rainbow is a symbol for them.

She has also said that this album is like what happens after the storm (the storm signifying Rep)