#only to get fucking Klaine as the main queer relationship

[thestrangestthlng]

Public Figures Owe You Nothing

Same thing, different fandom. Now, my first soiree into internet fandom was Glee nearly fifteen years ago. Given insane popularity of the show and one of their two main couples, Klaine, and Darren Criss being a straight man, I am no stranger to the "only gay (out) queer actors should play queer roles" argument.

I don't necessarily disagree completely. Queer actors should be highlighted in queer roles. But guess what, the film industry is shit.

Not everyone is out, can afford to be out, is ready to come out publicly, or cares to have anyone in their business. There is a huge number of fans who are way too invested in the parasocial relationships with their "favs" and cross lines.

It's a tale as old as time. Darren Criss' now wife, Mia (Swier), was mercilessly harassed online and honestly in person. I distinctly remember people MAILING her things. There was an incredible amount of hate directed towards her because SHE wasn't a HE and a group of fans were hellbent that he and Chris Colfer were secretly in a relationship, even though both were happily in their own relationships. (Both of them are actually still IN those relationships and I love that for them.)

Someone gave Dannell Ackles (wife of Jensen Ackles) a gift at an event. When she reached it she was cut by a bunch of rusty hooks in a fucking voodoo doll.

One of the NSYNC members (I can't remember if it were Chris or Joey) ended up being broken up with by their partner at the time because of the amount of hate they were getting.

This came up because someone said on instagram that they "will not be watching [RWRB]" because [Taylor and Nicholas] "are not out" and "they are gay for pay". So, me being me, says to them that the actors owe you nothing. Their sexuality/gender identity is no one's concern but their own.

Also, it was really disgusting what alot of Heartstopper did to Kit. He's just a baby and they strong armed him to coming out before he was ready and made him feel like he had to justify it. Cruel irony being that it's the exact opposite of the point of the books, and exact opposite of his character. I'll never forgive them for what they did to my son.

I went on to tell them that Hollywood is shit. It's homophobic, racist, sexist, xenophobic, transphobic, everything phobic. They like beautiful and handsome, classically beautiful, white, straight actors that fit into their perfect mold. As soon as actors come out they get type cast, lose rolls (because how could a homosexual portray intimacy with a woman? It's not like they are actors or anything). I, of course, got blocked because they didn't agree with me and that's fine.

Did you know that many actors in the union don't even make the $26,000 a year that is required to qualify for health insurance? Most actors are working class. Yes, many acquire a net worth, but it's honestly one huge disaster from losing what they have. The median salary for actors in the US is about 60K a year. So why would a working class actor or even a upper middle class actor, want to potentially dismantle their career trajectory by telling something that is really no one's concern anyway?

Not everyone wants to be stuck in a Ryan Murphy rotation. Maybe once we get more queer film and show makers and Hollywood execs start to fuck off we'll get more. I'm 99% sure that RWRB is the ONLY gay romcom without underlying trauma porn. The only other one that comes close is a Christmas movie.

Actors are still human and deserve privacy. They owe fans nothing. Their partners deserve privacy. If they are queer good for them. If they are not, good for them. But fans don't get to dictate who comes out and when. So yes, we want more queer actors in queer roles, but we don't get to decide if the ones who are not open get to have these roles. Sometimes it is who is best for the role.

As far as RWRB: Neither Taylor nor Nicholas have ever made any public statements on their sexuality and are both private people when it comes to their relationships. It's really goofy that people think it's an appropriate question to ASK them personally. Interview or not.

All that matters to me is that they killed that online and the characters they acted were madly in love with each other.

Moral of the story: they can want someone and love some one and not want that life for them. Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka were together for three years before they came out and that's when NPH came out - at 34 on his terms, as it should be. Some people really missed the message of the book; that queer people deserve to come out when and how THEY want to.

/Ted Talk

[fictionimitateslife]

As someone who absolutely HATES Klaine, sometimes I will think about how pretty much any other male character in the first seasons of Glee would have been a better love interest for Kurt than Blaine, and right now I can’t stop thinking how good Mike and Kurt would have been as a couple.

- A gay interractial couple?

- Mike having to deal with being gay in a strict family?

- Kurt learning about asian culture?

- Kurt and Mike helping each other improve on their singing and dancing skills?

- Kurt thinking he has to prove himself for Mike’s family (like he has had to do to pretty much every character in that damn show) only for Mike to say he absolutely doesn’t have to?

- Kurt “gonna be myself no matter what” Hummel helping Mike be himself even if other people don’t want him to?

So many possibilities. They could have been so good together and I can’t help but think about it.

[forabeatofadrum]

Hello everyone and a fine El WooWoo Wednesday to you. Thank you @facewithoutheart​ for the tag. I woke up today and I chose violence and by violence I mean “doing something batshit like posting another WIP Wednesday Hospital”.

It’s been a while (7 months, apparently) since I last did one of those, so for the ones who are new, let me explain what a WIP Wednesday Hospital is real quick. The WIP Wednesday Hospital is inspired a post by @facewithoutheart​ called a WIP Wednesday Graveyard, where Christina put her abandoned WIPs to rest and I was obsessed with the idea, but I also realised that I wasn’t ready to put my WIPs to rest since I had the intention of finishing them. So instead of a graveyard, my WIPs reside in a (long-stay) hospital ward. All my WIPs are waiting for me to discharge them (aka finish them). Some WIPs have been in this long-stay hospital ward for years (shout out to aap noot mies for getting discharged after 7 years!) while others are still getting used to it.

Below the cut are 10 patients waiting for a visit. You can go say hi to all of them, or just skip to the ones that interest you. I bolded the fandoms/ships etc. for easier browsing.

So please mask up and leave your name at the guest list: @quizasvivamos @crissmastrees-and-candyklaines @coffeegleek @esperantoauthor @otherworldsivelivedin @caramelcoffeeaddict @sillyunicorn @bazzybelle @dragoneggos @raenestee @tectonicduck @nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @thnxforknowingme @captain-aralias @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @takitalks @justgleekout @cerriddwenluna @wellbelesbian @tea-brigade @cutestkilla @ivelovedhimthroughworse @moodandmist @artsyunderstudy @whogaveyoupermission @bookish-bogwitch @confused-bi-queer @martsonmars @aroace-genderfluid-sheep​ @ionlydrinkhotwater​ @1908jmd​ @special-bc-ur-part-of-it​ @larkral​

Patient no. 1 has gotten a lot of love lately. It’s my Snowbaz Carry On Prompt Fest text fic make a fire out of this flame. Simon’s sent a wrong message to Baz and things escalate from there on:

Baz🍆 (17:06) Will I ever meet your soulmate?

Simon Snow-Salisbury (17:06) what

Baz🍆 (17:07) The fish

Simon Snow-Salisbury (17:07) OH

This is Simon’s phone, hence the 🍆 (it’ll get explained) (it’s not what you think). And I hate to say it, but I think I might have to wheel this one back to the hospital ward. I may have to prioritise finishing other fics, including patient no. 2.

Patient no. 2 has the working title comphet babey! and I hope it’s going to be my Klaine Advent fic for this year. I have a total of two (2) ideas for this fic. One is that Blaine and Quinn are in a comphet relationship and the other is that the entire fic takes place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. You’ve heard of “Saló is the place to be”, well, meet a contestant:

Kongresni trg is the place to be.

Kurt loves sitting in the grass - on a blanket, mind you, he’s not going to ruin his clothes - and breathing in the scent from the pizza place in the corner. He’s not attached to the square because of its historical value, but because he likes being here. It’s a nice green spot in the heart of the capital. It’s surrounded by gorgeous buildings and you have a stunning view of the Ljubljana Castle on top of the Castle Hill.

Kurt’s only been here for a few days, but he already loves this place as a spot to unwind. And again, the great pizza place is an added bonus.

Yes, yes, this is based on my own experiences, although unlike Kurt, I did park my ass on the grass.

Patient no. 3 is Just Some Guy. Remember him? Matt Christopher Davis? This is the full 8 years at Watford from an outsider’s POV. Sure, Simon is the Chosen One and Baz is his Main Antagonist, but Matt is just some guy trying to get an education and he’s a bit fed up about these two interrupting his studies. Matt needs a break, so in his fourth year, he exchanges with Micah and fucks off:

“And you would not believe what happened this time!” John says, as usual.

Every week, John gives me updates about life back at Watford. I was clearly mistaken about the year being uneventful. Well, it’s uneventful for me, but for some reasons John finds it important to keep me up to date with the Chosen One’s life.

It all started with the Humdrum sending magickal monkeys to disrupt the welcome picnic.

Oh, and yes, John is Check, Please!’s John Johnson. Why? Because I can.

Speaking of Check, Please!, patient no. 4 is a returning patient and it is a Zimbits fic, although you can also call it a Jack & Lardo friendship fic first and a Zimbits fic second. It’s about Instagram and I haven’t written for it since 2019, but hey, let’s give it some love:

Apparently, the hockey world is not done with Jack Zimmermann.

He’d been updating his Instagram for a month and he’d gathered a couple of followers when one day, a comment appeared.

‘r u jack zimmermann from hockey???‘

Jack had ignored it.

But the comments kept flooding. His follower count expanded greatly. Jack kept ignoring it.

Then, one day, Larissa barges into his room. 

Patient no. 5 is, well, you can say it is a Simon/Butter fic. No, not really. Remember I can’t believe it IS butter? I then planned a Simon Snow Butter Saga that I do want to finish one day but then I sort of let it go in favour for other fics. This is from Cheer up, butter cup!:

But yeah, I have mini butter cups now. I stash them in my cold and enlarged pocket (I persuaded Baz to also spell it bigger on the inside) .

Back in my flat I put them in my fridge. Honestly, Baz should also enlarge the inside of the fridge to make room for all my butter.

“At least my strawberry dessert syrup doesn’t take up that much space, love,” he says as he watches me shove the mini butter cups to the back.

“Baz, what do I do now with all this butter?”

He raises an eyebrow.

“You’re asking me? You’re the one who eats them like candy.”

Patient no. 6 is a Love, Victor ending rewrite. Yes, I am also creating a bunch of Love, Victor ending rewrites because I thought the final season sucked ass. BEWARE! SPOILERS FOR LOVE, VICTOR START AFTER THIS SENTENCE, SO SKIP TO THE NEXT PATIENT IT YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED. I already posted All I needed for another day, which is an ending where Victor ends up single and rides the ferris wheel alone, and this one is called All I ever knew, only you. Benji doesn’t show up at the ferris wheel either. Instead, they meet again 3 years later. After all... do I dislike Venji? No, but I am also not incredibly happy with how they ended up together. Hence the rewrite:

A host announces a new band and Leah cheers loudly.

Abby raises an eyebrow.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of them,” Leah says and she turns to the others, “They’re a new group, all UGA freshmen. I spoke to the drummer once. They want to do covers, but also try their hand at original stuff.”

“Let them hear it,” Abby says and she raises a glass.

The others join in. They look at their joined glasses and they cheer and hoot even more.

Out of the corner of Victor’s eyes, he can see the band getting on stage and he drops his glass when he sees a familiar face.

“Victor, Jesus!” Felix yells out. It’s a good thing Victor’s glass was almost empty and it didn’t fall from a great height, so it didn’t break. It only spills a bit of beer on Victor’s shirt, but Victor couldn’t care less.

Benji is on stage.

Patient no. 7 is an Under the Whispering Door fic called Actual Freeman. It’s supposed to be short and sweet. Emphasis on short. Yet, I haven’t finished it, but I do have this:

Wallace Reid knows he’s up for another change of names. It was fun being Wallace Reid for two years, but it’s time to move on.

It’s time to become Wallace Freeman.

Hugo is the one who proposed. They were out riding the motorcycle. Hugo took them to their favourite spot and went down on one knee.

Patient no. 8 is another returning patient. It’s Hold on to that feeling, my Glee/CO crossover. I haven’t written for this in ages, but all the new information about Simon being able to sing... oh chef’s kiss! I can’t wait to incorporate that. But first, this:

“Uhm, Simon, Baz… Blaine?”

It’s Kurt’s voice. Blaine opens the door and Kurt looks very confused and surprised when he sees the others.

“You’re- you’re back,” he says quietly. Blaine also guides Kurt inside so that he can close the door. It’s true that no one else can see this room, but it still feels like they have more privacy now.

“Look, I messed up!” Simon throws his hands in the air.

“Again,” Baz reminds him.

“I was trying out several spells that could help us on our quest to get home. One of them was an Everything in its time.”

“Which, as Snow unfortunately forgot with his pea-sized brain, creates time jumps,” Baz says angrily.

Patient no. 9 is, uh, an unexpected patient and honestly this one is still in the waiting room. I might not admit it to the hospital in the first place. I’m still wondering if I actually want to do something with this, but, uh.... Rosemary Snow my beloved:

“Papà, babbo, sono a casa!” I yell out and I close the door behind me, “Anche Ire è qui!”

I hear some commotion coming from the living room. Ire raises an eyebrow and I shrug.

Eventually, a small voice comes from the other side of the door.

“... R-Rosemary?” my papà sounds uncertain, “Is that you?”

“Si, sono io,” I say with a frown on my face. Why did he reply in English? My papà and I speak a lot of Italian when it’s the two of us, and especially if one of my friends is coming over.

I open the door and my jaw drops when I realise what I am seeing.

My papà is standing in the living room, looking like a lost dog, and he has wings.

Basically, this is an AU of Paradiso? Learn more about it here. Not sure if the Italian is correct. Sorry Marta for cheating on you with Google translate, but like I said, I’m not sure if this is going to be a thing.

And okay, let’s end this with a bang. Patient no. 10 is [REDACTED]. As in, the actual title is redacted. Everything about this fic is a secret, since it is written for the Klaine Secret Santa and any snippet might easily give away what prompt I am writing and who I am writing it for. Yet, I want to share it, since I actually started writing it today and I have clear plans for it now. Here’s the start:

“I am here because I want to be challenged.”

Everyone claps politely and [REDACTED] sits down with a satisfied grin on their face. They’re basking in the praise and [REDACTED] envies their confidence. It’s almost their time to introduce themself and they are incredibly nervous.

This is their first [REDACTED].

This is a [REDACTED].

This is [REDACTED].

Yet, they can’t help but be anxious.

What if they [REDACTED]? After all, if you had told them a year ago that [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED], they wouldn’t have believed you.

[REDACTED], of all people, as [REDACTED]?

I’m sorry. I think I am funny. (I also changed all the gendered pronouns to they/them for this snippet. Gotta commit to the bit ✊😔.)

Thank you for reading. As always, feel free to leave flowers and to make your own WIP Wednesday Hospital. It’s always a lot of fun. Feel free to visit the previous three hospital posts here, here and here, although you will see that some patients have been discharged 🥳.

[tuiyla]

This isn't you but I have noticed that fandom does tend to single out Klaine for Lady Music Week, which imo is ridiculous because unlike Finn singing about sapphic women 'just wanting to have fun' 🥴 and Puck singing about banging a teacher, Kurt and Blaine's song was about loving yourself just the way you are and being perfect despite your flaws and critics, which is something that was really fitting for Santana's situation.

I really don't think they were singing about 'how good their relationship was.' Were they happy to be up there singing publicly for each other? Yes, but that performance was still for Santana. It always seemed like they were coming at it from an angle of 'we've been through it but look where we are now, and someday you'll get here too' rather than it being condescending. I don't think they should've 'known better,' I really thought they were being genuine and unlike Finn, were actually trying to help.

Obviously Santana was justified in snapping at them no matter what bc she'd been fucking outed and had every right to be upset, but I also don't think Kurt and Blaine were inherently wrong or offensive for singing for her.

Yeah the thing is about IKAG, it's all bullshit. Really. I think there's a degree of fairness to saying Puck and Finn were two ignorant straight boys but Klaine should have known better than to participate in this farce that ultimately just took even more agency away from Santana. But there are two main problems with singling out Klaine in that way: 1, it cuts Puck and especially Finn slack and for what? Because boys will be boys or some shit? No, they should have also known better, it's unfair to place higher expectations on queer characters and only call them out when theirs was at least a heartfelt song about both their own queer love and the acceptance of Santana into this small McKinley High queer community. Perfect the way she is. They genuinely did try to help whereas Puck was just seducing the adoptive mother of his child/bio mother of his ex and gave no fucks about Santana. And don't get me started on Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, it haunts my dreams.

2, and this is perhaps a more important, critical, and out of universe examination of it: the show doesn't see an issue with Lady Music Week. So in-universe and in the framing of the show, everything the boys, all the boys, are doing that week are good, actually. And obviously we can recognize that Puck is just gross and Finn is, hmm, I'll refrain from labeling his actions that's for the best. We recognize it's all such bullshit and that sours the good intentions of Klaine. And it's a problem, because yes the whole thing is egregious and this was not the way to help Santana but put this exact same scenario of Klaine singing Perfect to her into a different context and it's miles better.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if we have to out Santana and have a Lady Music Week follow it, a) play songs by queer and/or female artists and b) have the girls perform most of them. In this context I'd allow Klaine to be the exception and still sing Perfect, still have this moment of appreciation for queer love and queer identities. Because in this context it would be just that, like I think the intention was. It could have been poignant and like you, I think even in the original context their performance was primarily for Santana. And if we remove Finn's stupid blackmailing bullshit from the context it could be just that, an offering to a friend and a celebration of queer love. Not “I’m so horny for my teacher” and not “let me mansplain... Sapphic love? whatever the fuck to you”.

Basically TL;DR I think it's fair to have issues with Perfect because of the overall context but I don't think it's fair to be more critical of it than Puck/Finn and the overall concept of Lady Music Week. I agree, it wasn't inherently wrong at all for them to sing to her and to sing that song; the whole concept of Lady Music Week and men singing to Santana while she's being silenced on all levels was wrong. And that's very far from being on Klaine.

(Klaine also come first chronologically when Santana's the most resistant to the whole thing, so that adds another layer of burden and explains her snapping. Wild how they allowed her to express it with Klaine, who genuinely were trying to help her, and then had her cry about and thank Finn. IKAG failed everyone people I keep telling you. There's a single scene that doesn't fill me with visceral rage and it's the one actually written by a queer woman.)

Anyway where was my one-on-one scene with Kurtana? Fuck IKAG so hard man.

[purekesseltrash]

Okay so sorry for going destiel on main but I have shit to say. No one is going to read this anyway, so who really cares.

There's a lot of anger from people on tumblr about the response to 15x18. Alot of it seems to stem from people feeling defensive over their ship and the show that they have poured so much time and personal investment into. And it appears that a lot of the general consensus is that the people who are saying that Jensen wasn't giving anything in his acting or that the scene was homophobic are people who hate the show and hate the pairing.

Oh no baby, you do not have feelings this strong about something that you do not love.

There are a lot of us who got really invested in Supernatural. Some of stayed in the fandom and believed in the show. Others lost faith in the show and not for bad reasons. For one, the direction of the writers was clearly going in different directions with on faction more pro destiel and the other simply not interested in that. Charlie's death was another one that should probably never feel right with anyone. But along with that, there was the generally accepted knowledge that the writers were never going to do this thing right because no show ever did when it came to queer content.

Maybe it's because Supernatural didn't even air until I was a senior in high school and I didn't get into the show until I was in college but man, by then I had seen shows just like Supernatural that developed a huge, rabid community that saw queer content reflected in it. And I'd been let down by them all because that was just what the culture was. Will & Grace was about as close to queer content as you were going to get on major network television and Queer As Folk and the L Word were as close as we really got to mainstream. And sure, there were outliers like Willow and Tara but the quickest sign that a character was going to die was for them to come out. I had accepted pretty early on that I was never going to see relationships reflected on TV that matched up with what I wanted. Fanfiction was where I was represented. I could trust 23 year olds working dead end jobs who wrote in their spare time to speak more truth to me than any showrunner ever could. As far as I was concerned, the canon was just what created the building blocks for the fandom. I'd learned my lesson, canon just let you down.

With that in mind, I hope that it makes more sense as to why Glee, of all fucking shows, shocked me. Because Klaine was canon and Brittany and Santana BECAME canon. It was accepted and there and on mainstream TV. Ryan Murphy is problematic as hell and Glee really went downhill fast but that was a first big sense that a shift was going on. That being said, Glee remained the anomaly but the self awareness that Supernatural's writers had made things seem... possible. So you got these baby little fledgling hopes up that maybe, just maybe - but nope. Wasn't happening.

Then, in the meantime, the Legend of Korra happened. Steven Universe happened. All of these shows started to come about that had been created with actually showing healthy queer relationships and diversity to the world and the constant toss and turn of Supernatural's will they won't they with canon became even less appealing. You didn't need to get queerbaited anymore.

So when I heard about the clip, all of this baggage came down and it was like 'oh god, have times really changed this much?! Are we actually going to be able to have this?!'. And I watched it and started bawling. For one, that was basically the storyline of how Angel lost his soul in season one Buffy and that was frustrating. But also, because I had waited so long to see this and to see Castiel speak his truth only to immediately have him get killed. Immediate case of bury the gays. Instant. And there wasn't even any clear reciprocation, it was legit Cas coming out, feeling the happiest he'd ever been in his frankly brutal existence and then he was gone. It didn't feel fair, not to the character and not to us.

Listen, they could fix this and make it better. Idk, I don't know much about the writing crew right now. And I did feel at least somewhat better when I watched a more full clip with Dean actually crying at the end. But after all of this time and all of this waiting and teasing... I both had hoped for more but also don't expect to get it because historically, I almost never do.

We don't hate the fandom or the show or the pairing or you, we're just jaded and have been let down a lot. I hope they make this better. I do think it was appropriate for the show and was in character but after all that waiting, it didn't make me feel as though anything has actually really changed.

I hope I'm wrong.