{"id":135,"date":"2011-10-13T00:40:26","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T00:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/?p=135"},"modified":"2011-10-13T00:40:26","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T00:40:26","slug":"obligatory-gays-in-the-media-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/2011\/10\/obligatory-gays-in-the-media-rant\/","title":{"rendered":"Obligatory “gays in the media” rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, so here’s the thing.<\/p>\n

According to a new study, the number of LGBT characters on television has decreased this year<\/a>. Yes, not increased, decreased. That pretty much sucks! \u00a0I mean LGBT people make up a good percentage of the population (like 5-8%), so why aren’t there more characters on television?<\/p>\n

But you know what’s worse? \u00a0When they’re on, and they’re offed. \u00a0Let me explain.<\/p>\n

One of the last bastions of television is the realm of Sci Fi. \u00a0Gay characters “just aren’t done” in Sci Fi, really. \u00a0I mean with a few exceptions here and there, it’s just not done on mainstream shows. \u00a0Gene Roddenberry wanted it before he died; he promised in the 5th season of ‘The Next Generation’ that we’d see all sorts of people, including gay characters, interacting in their day-to-day lives<\/a>. \u00a0But of course that never happened.<\/p>\n

This year, SyFy decided to add a new character to Warehouse 13, their highest rated scripted show, people were thrilled. \u00a0I was thrilled. \u00a0The addition of Agent Jinks was perfect; he balanced Claudia out, while Mika and Pete had their own thing. \u00a0It was awesome. \u00a0But I always thought it weird that they never added Jinks to the opening credits. \u00a0Like WTF? \u00a0Maybe they’re testing the waters or something…<\/p>\n

And then the writers killed him off. \u00a0Color me surprised. \u00a0::facepalm::<\/p>\n

Here’s what I want: A gay character on a show, that’s part of the show. \u00a0And you know what? \u00a0Their “gayness” is just one aspect of them. \u00a0Like Jinks. \u00a0He was gay, but it didn’t define him. \u00a0That’s how it should be. \u00a0Gay characters shouldn’t be “sidekicks” or “comedic entertainment” or the like. \u00a0They should just be<\/em>. \u00a0What’s wrong with that?<\/p>\n

Yes, Brokeback Mountain mountain was beautiful – but of course it ends with a gaybashing death and unrequited love. \u00a0Longtime Companion? \u00a0A movie about AIDS where half the cast dies. \u00a0Philadelphia? \u00a0Hell, Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas don’t even fucking kiss! \u00a0And oh yeah – AIDS again.<\/p>\n

So come on, media. \u00a0You can add a gay character. \u00a0And they don’t have to be comedic relief a la Jack McFarlane from Will & Grace. \u00a0They can just<\/strong> be<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, so here’s the thing. According to a new study, the number of LGBT characters on television has decreased this year. Yes, not increased, decreased. That pretty much sucks! \u00a0I mean LGBT people make up a good percentage of the population (like 5-8%), so why aren’t there more characters on television? But you know what’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[42,41],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-random-shit","tag-gay-characters-in-the-media","tag-rant"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ZgDO-2b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squidge.org\/walterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}