Posts Tagged GLBT

The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together on the TARDIS (Matt Smith & David Tennant)

To say I’ve been crazy busy lately would be an understatement. I’ve got Script Frenzy going on, and it’s going well. I’m actually close to hitting that 100 page mark (though the script will probably go a bit past that).  Work’s been crazy busy, which is a good thing. See, I work for an attorney who deals primarily in real estate, so when the real estate market died, our business pretty much died with it.  The fact that our business has suddenly gone crazy busy is a good indicator that the economy’s beginning to come back.

This, of course, is a good thing for everyone. But with my days spent scurrying around the office trying to Get Things Done and my nights spent clacking away at the computer on my script, I haven’t been able to fit in my usual blogging schedule.

Which is a bit sad, because some awesome things have happened while I’ve been away from the blog working on my silly script.

First of all, the new Doctor Who premiered. You all know that I am particularly fond of David Tennant, but Matt Smith has taken up the mantle of the Doctor even better than I could have hoped.  He had me hooked at the custard-and-fish-fingers.  If that first episode was a test – a “Can I believe this new kid is the Doctor?” test – he passed it with flying colours. And I’m hoping that his tenure will be another long one, like Baker’s or Tennant’s, because when you get right down to it, well, the Doctor doesn’t really have many regenerations left, if they’re going to stick to the Time Lords Have 13 Lives rule.

For some even better news, Obama has extended healthcare rights to gay partners, allowing visitation rights and forcing hospitals to recognize the rights of same-sex partners as next-of-kin. This should (hopefully) end one of the worst problems facing same-sex partners, something that has kept even those with the proper documentation (healthcare powers-of-attorney, etc.) from being able to be with their loved ones during their most difficult times. There is more that needs to be done, of course. There’s always more that needs to be done, but this is a big, important, and very needed step in the right direction.

So there’s my update! I haven’t forgotten about my blog, and I’m not being lazy (anything but!) – but hopefully I’ll be able to get back to my normal schedule once Script Frenzy is over.

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In American television, there are plenty of shows that have gay people on them, but those shows are all, in some way, about gay people and/or being gay.  When it comes to other shows that are about other things, gay people go unrepresented.

It rather reminds me of when the only way an african-american could get on TV was to be on a TV show that was entirely about african-americans or submit to stereotyping or both.

There are a handful of minor exceptions to this. Ugly Betty was wonderful for it. Modern Family has a prominent gay couple and Glee just featured a wonderful coming-out story. However, in these shows, there is still a great deal of stereotyping involved. In no way are the characters ever dealt with as if they are just everyday people. The romances are never dealt with as everyday romances, and never with similar treatment to how straight romances are dealt with.

I never really realized the differences until I recently began watching a number of BBC productions.  Before, my usual thoughts were something along the lines of:  “Oh, these shows are being so progressive for featuring gay characters!” now…I’m seeing exactly how much they’re putting those gay characters in that stereotypical box.  When watching American TV alongside BBC TV, the difference in treatment is glaring.

Because, you see, on the BBC shows, the gay characters are treated like any other character. They’re normal, ordinary people. The fact that they are gay, involved in a homosexual relationship, etc. is not treated as something out of the ordinary. The romances are written in the same terms as heterosexual romances. The characters are rarely stereotyped or caricatures (the exceptions being purposely exaggerated comedic sketches).

Why do I have to look to another country’s offerings to find television that treats gay people as normal?

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When I was growing up, it was a fairly common thing to see girls going to the prom together when they didn’t have a date – or when all of the prospective dates simply didn’t measure up.  They’d go as couples, they’d go as groups, they’d dance together rather than sit on the sidelines.  I know of at least one straight girl who came to the prom in a tux.

But if that girl is a lesbian, and the girl she’s going with is her girlfriend, and the school would rather cancel the prom entirely than allow lesbians to take part in a time-honored right of passage like the prom.

In the case of young Constance McMillan, it is perhaps fortunate that she is fairly well-versed as an activist, and knew just what to do and which channels to pursue to get the ACLU involved. Now, she’s fighting not just for the opportunity to go to the prom with her date of choice, but for the entire student body to have a prom at all.

Meanwhile, the school officials are trying to put together a “private” prom where they can exclude whomever they might wish without getting sued.  This reminds me all too much of a tradition that is, unfortunately, still common where I live where there’s a school prom that everyone gets to go to, and a private prom that only the white kids get to go to.  It’s not right. It’s sanctioned segregation, regardless of the minority being left out.

I’m proud of Constance McMillen for standing up for her rights like she’s done. She’s bound to be getting a lot of abuse from the student body for being the reason their prom was canceled, but she’s become a hero to so many more in the last few weeks.  We need more activists like her.

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I had a couple of things I want to address today, so I’m going to be jumping around in topic just a bit.

First of all, I’d like to thank Admiral Mike Mullen and Secretary Robert Gates for their recommendations regarding the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It is a heartening sign of progress when it comes to the acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality. Unfortunately, I don’t think the repeal process will be easy, and will likely take longer than the gay rights community would like, even with the support of high-ranking officers.  Even so, hope given is a wonderful thing.

On the new budget, I keep hearing all over the mainstream media about how NASA’s budget was cut. What they don’t say is that the NASA programs that were cut (specifically NASA’s Constellation program) were backwards-looking cost-hogs. Instead, that money has been put toward more innovative R&D, education, and the privatizing of space exploration. Already, we have seen private corporations doing much more effective work with much less money.  Rather than the new budget striking against science and research, it shifts the focus toward the sort of innovation and creativity in which good science can thrive.

Also, there’s been a great victory for fact over celebrity-fads this week, as the medical journal Lancet has retracted the faulty research  linking autism with the MMR vaccine, apparently finally realizing the fact that scientists and logically thinking people the world over have always known: Correlation Does Not Equal Causation.  At the same time, Meryl Dorey has stepped down as leader of the Australian ["anti"] Vaccination Network in the wake of the blame placed on her shoulders for the death of a 4 week old child infected with pertussis because there was no blanket immunity in her community thanks to the anti-vax movement. It looks like she may even be prosecuted for dispensing medical advice without any medical training. (Because, apparently, a lot of people don’t realize that taking medical advice from celebrities who have no medical training is a bad idea.)

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Now that I’m firmly back to blogging from my month of NaNo, I’m ready to offer a few comments in support of Adam Lambert. The scandal arising out of his performance at the AMA Awards wasn’t all that surprising, and yet, at the same time it was rather saddening.

How quickly Americans expose their inner bigots when faced with something a little bit different from what they’re used to.

Adam Lambert Kissed A Man. On National Television. After 11 o’clock on a school night. Oh my god, the children might see.

What on earth sort of parents let their children watch TV that late at night, anyway? This is a case where people are calling out for censorship as a substitute for being responsible parents who, you know, take a hand in what they allow their children to watch and, when something potentially disturbing or worrisome shows up on those shows, discusses this and the implications of it with their children. Adam Lambert was absolutely correct in placing the responsibility of what children watch firmly with the parents rather than the entertainer.

Unfortunately, these lazy parents want to let their kids watch tv long after they should’ve been in bed, without them paying proper attention to what their kids might be watching.  Needless to say, this wouldn’t have been an issue at all if the person that Adam decided to kiss was a girl.  If Adam had decided to act out a grizzly murder on the stage, complete with spurting blood, well, that would’ve been okay too.

Censorship in this country is so incredibly backwards from the way it should be. When it comes to acts of love, or even completely non-sexual brands of nudity, the censorship organizations cut and mangle and block things out, but when it comes to violence, expressions of hate, the censors look the other way.

It shouldn’t work that way. Violence should be “worse” in the considerations of ratings and censoring than nudity or sex.  A movie is more likely to get an R rating (or worse) here for nudity than it is for violence, and PG-13 movies continue to grow more and more violent as the years pass.

I’d be much more worried about my kids watching some of these violent PG-13 movies than some of the R rated movies that are tame, but for a moment of non-sexualized nudity, or, heaven forbid, gay kissing.

But then, it all goes back to the same thing. Enforcing “Morals” in this country these days tend to mean it’s okay to hate in public, but love and affection gets censored.

In one of those mind-boggling episodes of backwards and bigoted thinking that tends to run rampant here in the South, a teen attending school at North Cobb County High School was told that he either needed to dress more manly, or consider being home-schooled.

Now, there’s a little secret of the educational system down here: Frequently, drop-outs are instead classified as being “home-schooled” so that the school they dropped out from doesn’t have to count them as dropouts for AYP standards, and risk losing funding.  This child would have no educational resources at home, so for him, being “home schooled” would mean “dropping out.”

So, what the administrators were telling  Jonathan Escobar was that he either had to stop wearing feminine clothes - clothes which, on a girl, would not have been against dress code, and which were in fact a good deal more tasteful and modest than what many teenage girls in attendance wear – or he would have to give up his constitutionally guaranteed right to an education.

The school administrators are blustering and making excuses about being worried about the boy’s safety, but rather than punishing the boy in question for being different, they could have turned this situation into a learning experience for the other children.  Rather than making bigotry into school policy and enforcing that bigotry, any students who were threatening or bullying this student for his difference should have been punished and taught that such behavior is not acceptable.

Instead, those students are getting taught the exact opposite: That bigotry is okay, that it’s perfectly alright to beat up, threaten, and bully children who are different because it’s those children who are going to get punished, rather than the bullies.

For those of you who would like to help Jonathan, give him your support and express your opinions on the matter to the North Cobb High School, your letters can be sent to the following addresses:

Principal Philip D. Page
North Cobb High School
3400 Highway 293 North
Kennesaw, Georgia 30144

Principal’s Email: Phillip.Page@cobbk12.org

Cobb County Board of Education: http://www.cobbk12.org/board/

Other Email Addresses: http://www.cobbk12.org/NorthCobb/admin.htm

There’s also a Facebook Group.  If you make a blog post or send a letter, please copy the address, comment, etc. to that group to show your support of Jonathan, and email your post to the school administrators.

This is something that cannot stand.

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