#queer stories

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Hey, you!

Yeah, you!

Do you crave more ✨canon queer stories✨ in your fandom experience? Are you begging for more major character representation that you don’t have to headcanon for yourself?

Then have I got the kickstarter for you!

The Tin Can Bros (a comedy trio and makers of live theatre, digital sketches, webseries, you name it! You might know them from all the work they’ve done with Starkid—founding Tin Can Brothers Joey and Brian played Ron and Quirrell in A Very Potter Musical) are launching a brand new season of projects, most of which contain QUEER MAJOR CHARACTERS AND THEMES. These guys have got gays, they’ve got lesbians, they’ve got trans and gnc characters, they’ve got wholesome first love and Hannigram levels of fucked-up toxicity. It’s a whole cornucopia!! They’re planning to produce work in Los Angeles, NYC, London, Edinburgh, and Adelaide, but there will be digital tickets so you can watch where ever you are!

We’ve got:

-Two Rocky Horror-style concerts of the cult-hit, spy-movie parody musical Spies Are Forever. Gay protagonist who will sear himself into your heart! Seriously, his relationship with fellow spy Owen will emotionally destroy you for at least seven years.

-A concert of the developing musical This Could Be on Broadway, which follows a group of high school kids putting on a production of The Matrix: The Musical (not a show in real life) in their theatre department. A bunch of the central kids are canonically some flavor of queer, and there’s a central, very sweet lesbian romance that includes a trans character. She’s played trans actress Esther Fallick, who also worked with TCB as a consultant to make the character and show as authentic as possible. Seriously, if you want to see a trans teen thriving in their own skin, this is the show for you.

-An Edinburgh Fringe Fest production of The Solve It Squad Returns, a Scooby-Doo parody that follows the parodic versions of the Scooby Gang when they reunite as fucked-up adults to finally confront the almost-twenty-years-past traumatic murder of their dog Cluebert. I promise it’s funnier than it sounds. Esther, the Velma-esque super genius, is gender non-conforming and identifies with they/them pronouns. They also have a girlfriend WITH a boyfriend!

-A workshop reading of the QUEER SCI-FI TELEVISION COMEDY PILOT Intelligent Life. Unlike the other projects I’ve mentioned, this one is new to the TCB fans, but will follow a pair of ex-boyfriends forced to survive together in an extra-terrestrial colony. From the sound of it, there will be plenty of queer supporting characters as well. This frankly sounds like it could be tumblr’s dream show, and it’d be great to support its development.

-The Great Debate—a live comedy game show where comedians debate silly things. While this obviously won’t have narrative gay rep like the other projects, it will showcase gay talent (at the very least, Tin Can Brother Corey will participate in every show) and may include debates involving queer topics.

-Gross Prophets, in which three wannabe gurus/cult leaders lead a seminar on the path to enlightenment. This is a completely new stage musical so I honestly don’t know if it will contain any queer characters or themes. But the TCB queer track record is pretty good!

Guys, I’m so genuinely so excited by this season. But all this awesome queer art won’t happen unless we get their kickstarter funded. And they need our help! So let’s get fundraising!!

TLDR; Comedy group Tin Can Bros are attempting to fund a season positively filled with queer stories and characters, and they need help! If you want to support the creation of queer theatre and the development of queer TV, consider checking them out and giving to the kickstarter!

#seriously guys we’re always talking about how we want more queer stories #and content #and these guys are trying to give them to us! #let’s make it happen instead of just sitting around with wistful thinking #starkid #team Starkid #tin can bros #Tinlightenment #queer #queer community #queer stories #gay #lesbian #trans #gay stories #gay theatre #queer theatre #lesbian theatre #lesbian stories #trans theatre #trans stories

[starchilddante]

It is now my personal goal as a writer to create queer stories for all the major stereotypes

Like come on, how have we not had a gay Christmas romance? (I'd sure as hell watch cheesy hallmark Christmas movies if they were gay lmao)

Or a cliche coffee shop meeting between two lesbians?

Or two aroace royalty in an arranged marriage trying so hard for a romance to please the other until they're like oh, dang, we just realized the other is aroace, let's rule this kingdom as best friends instead

Or a transgender princess/prince who is so insecure but turns out their fairy tale lover adores them as they are?

We get the same cliches reprinted over and over with straight cisgender people and while that's fine I want to see diversity in those cliches

I want to see queer normalized

I want in every crevice, every niche because it belongs

Because we belong.

That's my dream as a writer.

#lgbt pride #pride #writers on tumblr #lgbtq #lesbian #asexual #aroace #queer experience #queer joy #writing goals #writing #transgender stories #transgender #gay pride #queer stories

[raviosprovidence]

This is such a dumb fucking post because holy shit, IT DID! Y'all saying it didn't either ignored the entire first four seasons, or just straight up think gaslighting, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and forcefully mind controlling someone and fantasizing about how you'll make them kill their friends is perfectly fine (yes, the latter thing did happen within the show, check out the episode White Out)

The problem is that CATRA SAYS 2 SHITTY APOLOGIES AND THATS IT. There is barely any acknowledgement on 90% of the bad shit she did. Nothing on calling adora stupid in a derogatory way. nothing about the excessive amount of violence or the insane amount of gaslighting done within the show. Hell, they didn't even acknowledge the fact that catra nearly destroyed the world out of spite and thus, *indirectly killed someone*. Never acknowledged!

We DO like less sanitized queer stories! When they're actually given the weight they deserve and characters doing shitty things aren't constantly excused or told that they're in the right. Gen V is pretty gruesome and that's very lgbtq+ friendly and not sanitized. Arcane is leading towards a lesbian romance and it's FAR from sanitized and child friendly. Everything Everywhere All At Once (though not technically a queer focused story) casts a lesbian AS THE ANTAGONISTIC ROLE against a straight woman and no one had a problem with that! Bottoms! Exists! The fact that it exists and got as popular as it is shows that this is just wrong.

Y'all just didn't watch the She ra . I unfortunately paid attention. Having a character get brain washed, apologize twice vaguely, and then kiss the main character doesn't excuse all the prior abuse that character committed.

#media talk #media criticism #she ra #anti catradora #anti catra #queer stories #also im so mad that 14 minute video showcasing all of the abuse #got taken off youtube #anyways we do like less sanitized queer stories #we just like good ones #she ra doesn't count

[deyathemuniz]

I have a gay little Graphic Novel coming out in May 2023 and you can preorder it RIGHT NOW ✨🌈

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

#wlw #graphic novel #lgbt #lgbt art #queer #queer stories #comics #comic #comic art #art #cheese #the princess and the grilled cheese sandwich

[bardcoven]

it’s been 18 hours since FOR THE FUTURE was uploaded to youtube, and it currently sits at about 13k views away from hitting 1 MILLION within 18 hours.

for reference, it took THANKS TO THEM roughly 21 hours to hit 1 million.

keep streaming!!

#the owl house #owl house #owlhouse #owl house memes #lumity #disney #king owl house #disney channel #lgbtq+ #lgbt+ #owl house season 2 #toh lumity #the owl house lumity #luz x amity #luz noceda #amity blight #lumity fanart #queer #queer stories #toh #huntlow #for the future #thanks to them #boost

[windywallflower]

QUICK REMINDER

We're a small queer duo making comics and we have...???

THINGS YOU CAN READ FOR FREE????

AUGUSTINE

We've been telling folks this is kind of a Mad Max meets Greek Mythology, my brother said its more like a Disney's Hercules meets Borderlands-- all of these are absolutely wrong but we'd be lying if we weren't inspired by them all even just a little bit. Its queer, this group of misfits is a found family out in some junky little desert where the cash is literal liquid (water) and the people are rough around the edges. August and her team just want to be heroes but maybe pissing off rich people comes at a bit of a nasty price.

We're working on Chapter 2 right now and will be back to regular updates in August this year!! You have a whole honkin 75-page first chapter to read already!! HURRY!!

--

PAINT THE TOWN RED

You want vampires? You want werewolves? You want them to kiss? You want them to flirt? You want that gross gooey shit that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside? Look no further, we're throwing a layer of sapphic over all of these babes and ripping the drama rug out from under them-- okay I'm losing my train of thought here.

Winny's never known much about the supernatural side of Merlot aside from the fact that werewolves exist, so what does she do when she suddenly becomes one? Well she sets up a shelter with her best bud Odile (also turned werewolf) and takes in visitors during full moons. Except one night a vampire stops at their doorstep... what are they even supposed to do with that?

We've got 3 volumes up on our shop and are now uploading them on a schedule to make the story free to read online!! We're nice like that.

--

THE SANITY CIRCUS

Hey so, you totally know what its like when you're living your life absolutely normally, totally unbothered, just having an average time living and then suddenly your best friend is actually a monster and your whole life goes to shit and you meet a shifter who turns into a seagull and I guess he's you're new best friend now and--

No? Well you can definitely learn what that feels like reading through 700-800 pages of Sanity Circus up riGHT NOW--

I know... its on hiatus... its not been updating REGULARLY--if I catch you making my partner feel guilty about it I'm breaking through your screen and kicking your ass. It's not dead, the whole ending is planned. Its gonna be killer I promise.

Now go read for a bit!!

BUT WAIT BEFORE YOU GO--

THINGS WERE GONNA BLAB ABT ON PATREON--

(and reasons why you should pledge-- you're getting like a 3-for-1 deal here we have so much to unpack, this is barely the tip of the iceberg!!)

Hey you mighta seen some of this... looks familiar...?? You should pledge and find out a little bit more, help us out making them all so we don't have to worry & stress about bills! Gosh wouldn't that be something~!

(We also have a shop, though if subscriptions aren't your jam.

AND WE ALSO HAVE A NEWSLETTER we update once a month for folks who might not be able to spend money right now, you can be in the loop of everything we're working on and what's coming up~!)

#WAHOO #QUEER STORIES #idk what to tag things anymore-- #sapphic #queer #greek mythology

[zillanovikov]

holy shit one of my favourite writers and good friends just put a book up for presale without telling anyone

if you like books about early 2000s queer longing for your best friend then a+e is available to make you feel seen in a way that your high school self never thought would happen

i have no idea what this next book in the set is about but i pre-ordered my copy from bed after seeing the notification on my phone when i woke up, it's gonna break me in the best way

#queer stories #queer lit #queer books #Read this #You're not using your heart anyway

[gaileyfrey]

Have You Eaten?

A novella in four parts

(Surprise!)

Have You Eaten? is out this week!

If you’re thinking “what do you mean, you have a new project out? I haven’t heard of this!” don’t worry – you’re not alone. Have You Eaten? is a project that has been years in the making, under cover of darkness, and now I finally get to tell you about it!

In a near-future world where you can't trust anyone but your closest companions, nothing matters as much as the family you choose. Have You Eaten? is a serialized novella about queer dirtbags on the run, searching for their missing best friend. It's the story of how they nurture and nourish each other with their limited emotional and material resources. The entire novella is out this week over at Reactor, with sections going up each day between now and Thursday. You can read Part 1 now.

Each installment of Have You Eaten? is accompanied by an original recipe from my recipe box. You'll also find stunning original art from friend of my heart and genuine superstar, Shing Yin Khor. Thank you so much to the whole team at Reactor for getting behind this wild-ass project–I am so proud of what we've made together!

-gailey

#Have You Eaten #Sarah Gailey #shing yin khor #Novella #Queer stories #Queer community #Recipe #Recipes #SURPRISE LMAO

[duckprintspress]

Celebrate Bisexual Awareness Week with 18 Awesome Books with Bi Characters!

September 16th to 23rd is Bisexual Awareness Week, culminating in Bisexual Visibility Day on the last day! To celebrate, we cooked up a list of our 18 favorite books featuring bisexual characters!

The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths and Magic by F. T. Lukens

Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Guardian by priest

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

When the Stars Alight by Camilla Andrew

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

The Heartbreak Bakery by A. R. Capetta

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

What are YOUR favorite books with bisexual protagonists? Tell us so we can get our read on even more!

This post was compiled with contributions from numerous Duck Prints Press contributors. We’ll have another post coming out on the 23rd, with Duck Prints Press publications featuring bi characters!

#bisexual characters #bisexual awareness week #bisexual visibility day #queer books #bisexual books #queer stories #rec list #book recs #book recommendations #queer book recommendations

[emeryleewho]

I know tumblr basically has it's own tag culture that's different from like... typical social media, but just a casual reminder that I made a hashtag #TransBooks365 that's all about sharing love for stories by and about trans people. It's a happy little tag that can make for a very nice break from the tragedy of the news cycle and can be very useful if you want to read more trans stories but don't know where to find them.

It's not as active over here as on Twitter/Instagram/Bluesky, but please share it and use it if you have trans books you want to share or if you're looking for good recommendations. There are already some excellent lists in the tag!

Also, just some helpful tidbits but:

The tag is open to all trans stories, even if they aren't technically "books". Feel free to include short stories, comics, interactive fiction, etc. We're using "book" about as loosely as possible.

The tag is for all stories BY trans people or STARRING trans people, so if it's got a trans MC but it was written by a cis author [as far as we know], that's fine! If it's got a cis main character but the author is trans, still fine!

Nonbinary/GNC people/characters are welcome and should only be disincluded if they personally state they are NOT trans. It's opt out rather than opt in (because these fall under the trans umbrella unless an individual doesn't want to be included in the community).

It's really just a happy/fun tag, so if you aren't sure if an author is out or whatever, please just leave the book out of your recommendation list. Better safe than sorry, and we don't want to risk outing anyone.

PLEASE DON'T DEBATE WHETHER OR NOT AN AUTHOR IS TRANS ENOUGH TO BE INCLUDED. WE DON'T DEBATE AUTHORS' IDENTITIES HERE!

Anyway, yes, please share and use the tag if it so interests you, and please continue to read and support trans stories <3

#TransBooks365 #books #booklr #books and reading #authors #trans #queer #queer fiction #queer stories #book recommendations #queer stuff #queer community #trans community

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

A few months back I was chatting with @bengiyo when the subject of queer cinema came up (unsurprising considering…ya know, the whole being BL buddies thing). As a semi-recent queerness realizer, and a Certified Baby Gay(™), Ben took it upon himself to share a post between himself and @shortpplfedup that inspired @the-conversation-pod and which also included a Completely Hypothetical Queer Cinema Syllabus Build Up to BL for Baby Gays. According to @bengiyo this started as a thought experiment. 

But, unfortunately or…fortunately? for him, I constantly crave queer media, and @waitmyturtles and her Old GMMTV Challenge have inspired me to try my hand at working my way through this syllabus. I cannot guarantee that I will finish all these films. I have no idea how long it would even take, but I wanted to at least try! 

I have been saying I would do this for months now, but I am inundated with BL content, and getting more every day, so I have been pushing it to the side. BUT! This evening a local movie theater played The Birdcage (1996) and I went and bought tickets and decided now was as good a time as any to get this started, I am hoping to take a page out of Turtle’s book and write notes/thoughts on the movies I end up watching. Forgive me the long winded introduction, but I figured some context would be nice if this ends up being a thing I stick with. So without further ado…

The Birdcage (1996) [Comedy]

Syllabus Unit 6: Gems

Summary: A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing moralistic parents. 

Characters:  Armand: Gay cabaret owner, played by Robin Williams  Arnold: Drag queen partner, played by Nathan Lane Val: Armand’s son, played by Dan Futterman Agador: Armand and Arnold's maid? friend? live in slutty pool boy? played by Hank Azaria Katharine: Val's biological mother, played by Christine Baranski

Overall Reflection

This is a film I had never seen before. Hell, I didn’t even know it existed until around the time Ben shared his syllabus, and someone reblogged a scene from it that ended up on my dashboard. This was an interesting film to experience in theaters, because while watching with an audience made the funny bits funnier, there were also moments that I absolutely did not read as funny that other people did, and I didn’t know how I felt about that. 

This film is set primarily in South Beach, Florida and partly in a drag club, which meant that the only thing I could think about whenever the drag club was on screen was Palace, the gay bar, drag brunch, queer club spot in Miami. On the other funny casual note, as a Floridian I feel seen by the moment where Katharine calls and says she’s going to be late, and it zooms out to show she is stuck at the bridge. Real. 

I feel like the majority of gay media I have consumed in my life very much centers around two very masculine characters. So it was really nice to watch a story that involved more femme characters, and that the femme characters were not left as the butt of the joke. Which I recognize might be ironic considering this is a comedy and therefore there are jokes abound. But, when you compare the femme character in something like Legally Blonde, to the femme characters here, they are allowed to be dramatic, and they are allowed to trip and fall, but the love that Armand has for Arnold is palpable, they squabble and they get annoyed at each other, and they hurt each other, but they are partners, and they love each other too, and it shows throughout the film. 

This sounds fucked up, I guess, but I love the undercurrent of pain that is threaded throughout the story. The way that Val starts off seeming like he is very content with the way he grew up, the parents that he had. The way that Val feels so so loved by his Dads, and he hurts them anyway. Because he is scared, because he loves Barbara and he knows that she is good, and that her parents aren’t, and that he has to hide his family. But in making them hide who they are, he is hurting them and at first you can see and feel the ways that Armand is trying to rebel against it. You can tell that initially he is angry, disappointed, upset, incredulous:

“Yes, I wear foundation. Yes, I live with a man. Yes, I'm a middle- aged fag. But I know who I am, Val. It took me twenty years to get here, and I'm not gonna let some idiot senator destroy that. Fuck the senator, I don't give a damn what he thinks.”

gifs by @hellboys

It is one of my favorite lines in the film. Because Val needs to be called out on exactly what he is asking his father to do for him. Because Armand's pain is visceral in this moment. But Armand loves his son and so eventually he relents. 

Arnold’s presence and importance in Val’s life are constantly disregarded and he is allowed to be upset, and Armand is allowed to constantly put his son’s engagement and wedding in jeopardy to prioritize his partner and his partner’s feelings, because Arnold is a part of this family, and to hide him away is unfair. 

I certainly had to grapple with some complicated emotions around the character of Val. I could understand where he was coming from, that he loves his fiancee and that their families have to meet, and that it is almost certainly physically safer for everyone if his parents are not visibly and obviously queer around the ultra conservative moralist senator. But the ways he ends up exhibiting casual disdain, anxiety, and judgment around the aspects of his parents’ home, his parents’ friends, his parents’ themselves makes me kinda hate him a little bit. It is hard for me not to see Val as entitled, not to consider him low-key dickish, because of how frequently he seems to get annoyed and disappointed that Armand and Arnold are not acting straight enough, that their house isn’t straight enough, that their family isn’t straight enough. But the film does not shy away from the mental toll it takes. 

Were there aspects of the film itself I didn’t like? Honestly, not really. There are some jokes and terminology that do not fully stand the test of time, so if I watch it with a modern lens I think I would give it a 9.5. If I watch it in the context of the time it was written, I would probably give it a 9.8. But watching it in theaters certainly altered the way I engaged in certain scenes. 

Mostly with the “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking dressed like this, I’m even more obvious” scene. 

gif by @rosalie-starfall

Because people in the theater were laughing during this moment. Which is not to say I am judging them, I’m not mad at them for finding the moments leading up to that scene funny. I can understand how Arnold constantly having to catch himself and change his body language could come off as funny. But there is a weight to that scene for me that made the laughter feel incongruous. It is, in my opinion, an incredibly impactful scene. And it was hard for me to fully embrace that moment the way I know I would have if I was alone, after I realized that not everyone reads that scene as a serious one. 

(Side Note: When I was looking for pictures of the movie poster, I found three different versions of it, and I chose the one above because it was the most intriguing to me in the way it presents Arnold. Because it is the only one of the posters that puts Arnold in a suit.)

The other moment, that I think I would have had a stronger response to if I was alone, was the moment near the end where Val takes off Arnold’s wig and introduces Arnold as his mother.

gif by @nicholasbritel

If I had watched this scene alone, I think there is a very high likelihood I would have gotten teary eyed during that moment. Because Val has spent so much time throughout this film trying to hide Arnold away. Wanting to send him off for the evening so they didn’t have to worry, trying to replace him with his biological mother, who he had never really met just for the sake of maintaining appearances. 

Arnold LOVES Val. It is glaringly obvious from the first moment they share a screen that to Arnold, that is his kid. And I cannot imagine what it must have felt like for Arnold to literally have his every move critiqued and criticized for acceptable levels of gayness by his son and his partner. To feel unwanted by his son and his partner. To feel replaced by his son and his partner. He deserves to see and hear his son choose him, to know that Val considers Arnold his parent. Especially when Val’s biological mother is standing right there. 

And as for the comedy aspect of this movie? I mean, it’s Robin WIlliams and Nathan Lane so it is obviously going to be a truly hilarious film all the way through.

gif by @argentinosaurus

Where does it fall in my By, For, About Queers Categorization? 

For and About 

Any piece of media that places queer characters at the center of it is something I would categorize as “About Queers” 

As far as I can tell, the writers and director are not queer. I consider films to be made By Queers when a queer person has a role in controlling how the story unfolds, usually this means a writer or director for me, actors too if they have any influence  over changing the story. (As an example, The Last of Us Episode 3 would be something that I would place in a By Queers category because Murray Bartlet who played Frank is gay and also was consulted to shape the way the characters were written and the story played out.) While Nathan Lane is gay, and I am sure a number of actors who play side characters are as well, I do not know how much influence they had over the film itself. Which is why I am currently excluding it from the By Queers categorization. 

And as for the For Queers aspect? That moment where Arnold appears in a suit and tie before the dinner party, where he appears so much more obviously gay when he’s in “masculine clothes” that is written for the people who understand. The undercurrent of pain I mentioned, that exists to be recognized by the people who understand. Also, I watched this at the movie theater and I saw what kind of crowd it drew lmfao. 

Favorite moment in the film? 

Well, I could go sappy with it and pick one of the scenes I referenced above, but I would be lying. My absolute, hands down, no contest favorite moment in this film was seeing Agador in this cropped tank top: 

gif by @thevelvetgoldmine

Now, I know that Ben told me that the Units could be done in any order, but I think I want to start from Unit 1 and work my way through from there, so stay tuned for a write-up about Pariah (2011) from Unit 1: Coming of Age Post Moonlight.

#the birdcage #robin williams #nathan lane #bengiyo queer cinema syllabus #wka long post #queer stories #queer #lgbtqia

[demontobee]

Good Omens queering storytelling/TV – part 2: PLOT/NARRATIVE

Structure: The show does not present us with a traditional “beginning – middle – end” structure of storytelling that goes back at least to Aristotle. That is not to say that it does not adhere at all to traditional structures of storytelling. Remember, queering things is not about doing the exact opposite of what has become the norm (as that would feed into binary thinking as well), but to challenge the norms by playing with our expectations in a way that make us realise that we had expectations and  normative assumptions in the first place. So, for example, the traditional structure is challenged and exposed through the first scene of S2, which takes place “before the beginning.” This does not only challenge our perception of how time works in general, but it also tells us that what we thought we knew as “the beginning” of Crowley and Aziraphale’s (love) story was not really their beginning. It was just presented in a way that made us believe it was.

It also presents us with more insight into and background of the characters and their relationship, which might also change how we perceive them now and, in hindsight, perceive them in S1. This scene is there to, among other things, tell us that nothing is absolute about the story, that nothing is as it seems, and that everything depends on perspective, editing and version of narration. Along the same lines, the minisodes we get this season play with our expectations of structure. The Job episode, for example, is placed, chronologically speaking, between the flood and the crucifixion, both of which we saw in the first season. Now, the way they were presented in S1 probably made most of us assume that these were the exact times they saw each other, in chronological order (note here that the minisodes themselves upset the chronology of the narrative). In this season, however, we are presented with another encounter (and a whole story with character development and sexual tension which I will not go into here) that took place between the other two. It not only shakes up our assumptions about what we know about Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship, it also explains, content-wise, how Aziraphale became such a foodie. (Also note, plot-wise, how Aziraphale’s morally difficult decision to lie to heaven in the Job minisode is juxtaposed with the swiftness of him telling a lie in the present day portion of the episode). It is like we are getting small bits and pieces that together make a whole story, but we do not get them in an order that we would expect, and it messes with our expectations and assumptions. A similar thing happens with the sequel to the 1941 minisode. Again, we were presented with a piece of the story in S1, probably assuming that we were being told the most important bit of that part of the story. However, in S2, we get the rest (or, at least, another part?) of the story about the night in 1941. Again, this new part seems to be rather vital for our understanding of the relationship between the two main characters and the level of trust they have in each other (not to speak of the sexual symbolism and tension of the whole magic trick scenario). What we realized while watching S2 that in S1 we were only told parts of the whole story, and only edited versions of what was going on that showed the characters in a certain way that way relevant to the story then. We can assume that this is also true for S2.

Plot: We do not have the typical “hero has a certain goal in mind and has to go out and overcome obstacles to achieve it and become a better person on the way” journey that informs the plot. In fact, a lot of the 1-star ratings of S2 on Prime criticize the apparent “absence” of a plot, or, the lack of action and “sense” in the plot. This is, in my opinion, due to the queer nature of how and to what end the plot is crafted. Because in S2 especially, the journey(s) and “action” in general are not there to make a given character look good or to show them succeed in a very normative way (hetero, capitalist and otherwise). The events of this plot all seem to be metaphorically or literally about Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s character development concerning emotions, moral values and, most immanently, their relationship. Thus, the plot is there to show character development in a very unmasculine way: Learning to face their own, deepest emotions and being able to communicate them better. And there is not even success (yet) at the end of the story!

This ties back to the characters and the roles they are assigned in the story (which probably deserves a post in its own right). Basically, both main characters are initially assigned roles in a system that they both, in one way or another, are not comfortable with – and thus question, defy, rebel against them. They are initially presented as opposing forces and very different from each other. However, we soon understand that they are both liminal creatures who challenge the binary opposition set up by the system in power. And they do this out of love – for the world, for humanity, and for each other. As if this was not queer enough, Crowley seems to be a genderfluid chameleon who journeys through time and space to find out who or what he is, being the only one on his own side. Aziraphale, on the other hand, sets out seemingly knowing who he is and where he belongs, but gradually shifts in his view of his own identity and that of “his side” until he more or less joins Crowley on the (no longer) lonely side of systemically uncomfortable misfits. They seem to recognize in each other the queerness, not only romantically, sexually or gender-wise, but also in their queer habit of questioning and troubling the status quo (in hope of creating a better world). This is what the plot of S2 is there to explore. Not a whole lot of external action, but the formation of a (forbidden but unbreakable) bond between two confused queer beans who do not always know what they want or need. It is not a story of success, it is a story of being queer in a world that wasn’t made for people like you and figuring out how to exist and to love in this world, with all the breakthroughs and setbacks there are to that.

To conclude, Good Omens is queering plot/narrative by challenging the traditional structure and plotline of normative storytelling, meaning what we expect and assume will happen in a story, and thus gives us, to use the words of Neil Gaiman himself, not what we want, but what we need.

Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments or tags!

#good omens 2 #good omens #good omens s2 #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #go2 #crowley x aziraphale #good omens meta #neil gaiman #good omens season 2 spoilers #good omens season 2 #queer representation #queer rep in media #lgbtq representation #queer media #representation matters #queer stories #queering the narrative #thank you neil gaiman #thank you neil gaiman for cranking up the queer #meta #queer

[seeminglydark]

Sketchy things and color test for the monster comic I’m working on. The best time to come out is OBVIOUSLY while trying to survive in a life or death situation with your next door neighbor.

More Prom Queen Caro and Hurricane Sully adventures coming soon.

#prom queen #horror comic #punk boy #queer stories #trans #original characters

[darlingillustrations]

I'm Gay

When I was eight years old, I wrote my first poem. I remember the moment the words came to me. I was lying in bed at night, the lines rattling through my brain, startling sleep away. I turned on my pencil-shaped bedside lamp, grabbed my pink diary and huddled up underneath the little roses on my wallpaper to scribble the words down before they were lost to me forever. I re-read them over and over, letting them seep into my mind as I drifted off to sleep, so full of mystery and fascination at this new craft that had opened up to me.

The next day, I showed the poem to my mother. It was a love poem, and the only thing she said was, “Why is this written to a woman?”

I didn’t know.

In high school, I also didn’t know why I enjoyed turning around in psychology class to chat with the girl with the cool beaded purse who sat behind me. I didn’t get it why I was so tongue tied around the girl in college with the mousy brown hair and soft floral skirts. After graduation, I still didn’t understand why the scrawny girl with facial piercing who I worked with at the coffeeshop held such a deep place in my heart that I’d give anything to make her smile.

The day I nervously confessed to my parents that I no longer wanted to be in the Church of Christ, the religion they’d raised me in, and that I’d been going to an Episcopal church, they laughed in relief.

“We were worried you were going to tell us you were a lesbian,” they said, wiping tears of joy from their eyes.

It never occurred to me that I could be a lesbian because I was attracted to guys. I didn’t realize that bisexuality was a thing. It wasn’t until 2016 that I started to face the truth about myself. After the attack on the Pulse nightclub, I felt deeply and inexplicably unsafe, and after months of soul searching, I came to realize it was because the people who had been attacked, the LGBT men and women, I was part of their community. They were me. I was LGBT.

As part of my journey, I was asked to exhibit my art at the Pierce County AIDS Foundation. I wanted to share something that was representative of the LGBT community, and that’s how my Affectionate Animal series was born. I chose vintage photos as my source images because I loved the nostalgic feeling they evoked. I wanted to offer the feeling that being gay was a normal thing.

The funny thing is: when I painted these first nine couples, I didn’t yet realize my own truth.

Coming out to myself was about self acceptance. When I told Matt, he asked me what this meant for our marriage. I said it meant nothing: instead of choosing him over half the world population, it meant I chose him over all of the world population. But when Matt left me (for other reasons), some of my close friends whom I’d trusted with my secret blamed me for him leaving. “He’s been through a lot,” they said.

I was scared to tell anyone. For a long time I only told people who were gay, and I spent a lot of time online, on tumblr, living an invisible life, coming to terms with what my sexuality meant.

That’s where I met my first girlfriend. She flew cross country to visit me and I flew cross country to visit her. We fell in love with each other and each other’s kids, and I was going to fly out with the girls to spend Christmas with her, until she broke up with me suddenly and then blocked my phone number before ever explaining why everything was ending.

They say your first heartbreak after a divorce is the worst. When you get divorced, there’s too much other stuff in the way that inhibits the grieving process, so when your first heartbreak after divorce hits you, all that pent up grief rears its ugly head and devastates you. In short, that’s what happened to me. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I kept throwing up for weeks. I lashed out at people, then became disgusted with myself for acting like such a monster and fell into a pit of despair. My body felt like knives were stabbing me, raking my arms from the inside out. My chest felt cavernous. I felt beyond gutted. I felt like I was in tatters.

God bless my therapist, because she texted with me through the worst of it, assuring me that this is what grief felt like. I’d tell her I was scared of the depression. She said I was strong enough to weather a little depression. I took comfort in that. Deep down I knew she was right.

I started cleaning my house. It wasn’t much, but a little every day gave me a sense of normalcy. I signed up for the Motivated Moms checklist so that I wouldn’t have to think about what I was supposed to do. I could just do it.

On Friday, my checklist said to spend time on a craft or hobby. I spent more time scratching my head trying to figure out what I was interested in than I did playing my guitar once I finally remembered I liked to sing. On Sunday I was paralyzed by the suggestion to pamper myself. How does someone pamper themselves? I googled it and read dozens of suggestions before I felt inspired by the suggestion to give myself flowers.

I’d always thought that, when I was with my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day, we’d do some sappy romantic thing, and I’d post sappy pictures & let people draw whatever conclusions they wanted to about our relationship. Now that I’m single again, I guess I’m coming out of the closet anyways. I’m not doing it for another person. I’m doing it for myself. Because, at the end of the day, lovers come and go, but there is one person who will love me for my entire life, and that person is me. And it doesn’t take a parent or a husband or a girlfriend to validate my loveliness. I am loved. I am darling. And I am complete, just as I am.

I don’t know why God made me this way, but this is the way I am. I don’t fall in love with people because of what’s in their pants, but because of what’s in their heart. So, in closing, I’d like to share with you the poem I wrote when I was eight years old, long before I knew what the depths of my heartache might bring:

Beauty Your eyes sparkle in the moonlight, Your legs tremble fast, Your voice can sing the wonders, And your ears can hear me laugh, Your nose smells the flowers that I bring to you in prize, Your legs can run freely, And your hands can hold my thighs. But you’re the one in my mind, The wonders that I dream, For you are so beautiful, The wonders of my dreams.

I like to think that, maybe, the woman I’d written it for was, in fact, myself.

[ This essay first appeared on my blog on February 14, 2019, and it is how I came out publicly to my friends, family and the world. I want to repost it here to tumblr in the hopes that it might resonate with you. ]

#coming out story #queer stories #queer artist #queer art #im gay #well technically im pansexual and a few other lgbt terms but i like using gay as a signifier #most importantly #i am loved #thank you for reading along #queer poetry

[brain-squid]

Just finished Young Mungo by Douglass Stuart and I’m just blown away,, I have lost all ability to form coherent thoughts but one thing I will say is that I’m mad that its described as a Romeo and Juliet like story. Obviously the Protestant/Catholic conflict is a major part of the story but its also so much more than that? Its an incredibly family oriented Queer coming of age story about a young gay boy finding himself in the violently homophobic world. Its about violence, bigotry, the working class and how 80s and 90s British politics destroyed generations of working class families, and most of all its about a young boy who’s been ostracized from society for his differences, and forcefully molled by his family to be whatever they need from him, choosing for himself who he is. Its Just so Much and if it becomes “Romeo & Juliet but gay” I will strangle someone and I will not be sorry.

#young mungo #Also everyone that enjoyed young mungo should read Stuart's other book #shuggie bain #douglas stuart #bookblr #books #queer fiction #queer #queer stories #gay

[zillanovikov]

Free queer sci fi books!!!

I am obsessed with queer sci fi, because, well, look at me, this is not a surprise to anyone. I bought Cascade immediately because "gay disaster wizards" is basically my entire sexuality.

But what if you also like gay disaster wizards but you are broke? Maybe you're striking? Maybe you're just trapped in late-stage capitalism and the whole gig economy thing isn't working out as planned? (Or is working exactly as planned, which was designed to crush the little people, which is one more theme in Cascade, it is a very relatable book).

Never fear! There's a giveaway going on, get it free in return for signing up to a newsletter. Normally I'd tell you to subscribe, get it free, and unsub, but the newsletter literally is just about giving away monthly queer sci fi so um, this seems like a good deal all around.

I think this deal is only for July? Honestly I'm not certain. But if you click this link and it doesn't work anymore, there's always this newsletter which gives you a couple free short stories from the Cascade universe.

#queer fiction #queer stories #science fiction #queer science fiction #climate fiction