Oh, what the hell.

[were_lemur]

Not speaking for anyone but myself here, but when somebody says something along the lines of "gays don't belong in Star Wars," (or Harry Potter, or whatever) it's not just making a statement about Star Wars, it's making a statment about ME. It's saying that I don't belong, that I'M not good enough, or normal enough. It's saying that just the fact that I EXIST is somehow offensive, and needs to be hidden from children.

And though I might ordinarily stuff that down and pretend -- even to myself -- that it doesn't matter, the truth is that it DOES.

Comments

[pet-lunatic.livejournal.com]

Word. Also, the kind of half-assed attempted justification some people come out with for their bigoted opinions is somehow worse than the dickheads who just grunt 'queers...bad...want beer now'.

It makes me hugely angry when people rate (or feel they have to rate) fics PG-13 just because they have references to not-straightness, even though it'd be Disney if it was a straight couple. Gah. Fics are bad enough, but mainstream movies and TV shows on DVD being given higher ratings because they contain OMG gay people!!!1111!!!! is infuriating. So it's ok to expose kids to, say, Anakin sucking face with Padme, and people's arms and legs getting chopped off, but not ok for them to see a nonexplicit *hinted* romantic moment between two men or two women? It's totally illogic. And one of the shows I hate most for doing stuff like this, I'm sad to say, is Star Trek. They were happy enough having two alien women kissing - though of course it had to be explained by one of them previously being male in a totally acceptable and not at all transsexual way, because of course the audience could never cope with that - but apparently it was unsuitable to include a bisexual *male* character, despite the writers intending it and the actors being completely happy to play it. Gah. I sincerely hope the network was to blame for the Garak fiasco, and not the producers. But now I'm rambling and derailing your post. Sorry, will stop now :)

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

It makes me hugely angry when people rate (or feel they have to rate) fics PG-13 just because they have references to not-straightness, even though it'd be Disney if it was a straight couple.

I do this, and I feel bad when I do. Like I should be braver, but after strikethrough, it's tough. With the flags, it's just easier to rate them for adult content than to have to worry about defending myself -- or being TOSsed without a chance to defend myself -- down the line.

I used to be braver than this.

Failing an injection of courage that leads me to man the barricades, I should at least write some Garak/Bashir porn. Or maybe Garak/Bashir/Ezri. I had an odd plot-bunny about that once. :p

[pet-lunatic.livejournal.com]

I don't blame the fic writers for doing it - I've probably done it myself (I always rate things too high anyhow) it's the circumstances that force them to do it that make me crazy. It's sad that we have to do such things just because a nasty and/or tragically misguided faction of society is painfully detached from reality. What I've come to call, not at all fondly, the 'won't somebody think of the children' faction. Either too stupid or too wilfully ignorant to see that censoring kids from exposure to all facets of society will make them horrible bigots as adults. How many people would agree to rules whereby ratings have to be higher if a black guy is in a US film, because we shouldn't expose our kids to ethnic minorities? It's this cowardly 'not in my backyard' attitude that really gets me. If somebody hates gays or blacks or whatever, they can at least come out and say it honestly and allow the offended party to defend themselves. This cloak and dagger stuff is too 1984-esque for me.

Garak/Bashir/Ezri? *intrigued* I've never seen that! Sounds great...Garak het seems relatively rare. I'd be interested to see what he does with a woman of the female sex ;) Or does he just molest Bashir during Bashir/Ezri? :D

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are people who'd like to keep the notion of ew those icky minorities away from kids, too; fortunately, our society has moved to the point where it won't accept that. But when it comes to homosexuality (because it includes, you know, sex) they've got the excuse that it's all about the sex. Even when the "homosexuality" is as chaste as either of my Goran/Medrit fics so far. :p

The G/B/E notion was that Garak was feeling alone, when both Bashir and Ezri glomped him. May have to think a bit more about it ...

[emavalexis.livejournal.com]

"gays don't belong in Star Wars,"

Uh... WTF?!?!? Did someone actually say that to you? That is SO offensive, and just plain wrong. And you know what? I could TOTALLY see LGBTs fitting right in in a place as huge and diverse as the GFFA. So I call total bullshit on that point of view.

Wow. Some people are still living in the dark ages. Fuck them.

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

It's wasn't specifically to me, and it wasn't specifically about gays (this time). And the fact that I'd had a rough week hasn't helped. The guy did apologize for his wording, for saying that it "didn't belong in Star Wars" when what he meant was that he didn't want to play in a roleplay with slash.

I guess it just hit a little too close to home; when Sacrifice came out, complete with canonical male/male couple, there were people saying that gays don't belong in Star Wars. Because it's supposed to be a "family-friendly" universe. Complete with massacred younglings, but I digress.

I suppose you could call my reaction an emotional bran muffin. :p

[emavalexis.livejournal.com]

Ehh, maybe in this case, but I can understand being in a tough spot (hope you are feeling better). But still... the thought that people have said that is just extremely disheartening in this day and age. And I stand by my previous observation that the GFFA seems like the *ideal* place in which same-sex couples could thrive.

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

I'm fine. Overworked, underpaid, but the migraines seem to have stopped *knocks on wood* and the editing is going fairly well.

In theory, the GFFA (with its variety of species, societies, and cultures, all somehow managing to mostly get along) should be a fairly tolerant place, at least as soon as you get out into the galaxy at large. As a practical matter, there are out-of-universe reasons (aka the insistence on making it a "family-friendly" 'verse) that make it less so.

[qurinas.livejournal.com]

I saw that in starwars_EU. I was going to advertise for my RPG since that is what the person was asking about, but then I saw the comment about slash and since we are very slash friendly, I didn't bother.

People suck and are closed minded. We're a big fandom and that person can stay in their ignorant little corner.

Too bad for them there is canon evidence of gays in SW and it was admitted at Celebration II that there was intentional F/F subtext between Jaina and Anni Capstan.

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

I'm obviously not nearly up enough on the EU, since I've never even heard of Anni Capstan. Shall have to check this out! :D

[qurinas.livejournal.com]

She was a VERY minor character from the early NJO books. Stackpole's books, I think.

But, yeah. I am sure that she has an entry in sw wiki or the sw encyclopedia but there are sure to contain major spoilers.

well, don't put yourself down because they do

[rc-8015-fi.livejournal.com]

you belong, you're good enough, you're normal enough, and they would say the same about me because they think i'm a complete pychopath, which i'm not, but Sev is. and anyway, they'll say that about all clones and Mando'ade, and i hate them for it.

Re: well, don't put yourself down because they do

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) (((hugs)))