#queer rep in media | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

daigah · 5 months

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I think everyone who complains about the existence of queer people in comics should read this letter to the editor in a Green Arrow 1988 comic and shut the fuck up

#green arrow #oliver queen #dc comics #comics #queer rep in media #queer

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fruity-phrog · 10 months

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Okay, I saw someone say that Nimona, while being good representation, “didn’t take the big step forward in queer rep that everyone says it did”.

That is wrong. So wrong, my dude.

Yes, an explicit and open queer relationship in children’s cartoons is not new, per ce. Hell, just this year, two popular kids’ cartoons had the main character in an open, adorable, plot-based queer romance. But this is different for a few reasons.

Reason number one, it isn’t left in suspense. Yes, they had that split for three odd weeks, but they started the film as a couple. One of the very first scenes is them together as a couple, Ambrosius saying he loves Ballister, them holding hands, Ballister leaning on Ambrosius’ shoulder. Ambrosius says he loves Ballister three times during the film, and none of them are any more than halfway in. It’s very clear, from their very first interaction, that they are an established relationship, which isn’t something I’ve seen...at all in other animation.

Secondly, they are the plot. Ambrosius not believing Ballister, Ambrosius cutting off Ballister’s arm, Ballister trying to get the video to Ambrosius - this is what drives the plot. In any other children’s animation with queer relationships, the relationship is not the main focus. Even The Owl House, which is so amazing with its constant representation, would still make sense if Luz and Amity never happened. But Nimona’s plot wouldn’t make sense without Ballister and Ambrosius’ relationship. It, quite simply, can’t be erased. It could work as a friendship, yes, but that’s the point. They could have just been two close friends that fell on opposite sides of a fight, but they weren’t. They were two lovers that fell on opposite sides of a fight.

Thirdly, they aren’t sanitized for “family viewing”. An emerging trend in children’s animation is to only have mlm relationships as fathers to make them seem more “family friendly”. With the exception of Kipo, there really isn’t many tv shows or films that places light upon an mlm relationship. And if it does, it'll be a teen relationship because teenagers being queer tends to come across as less “dirty” and more “innocent”. But Goldenheart is none of these things. They are adults without the mollifying aspect of having a family. And on top of that, they fight. They wield swords and they get bloody and they shoot at things and get angry and yell. They aren’t “clean” and “innocent”.

As well as this, they are in a film. Films are far more accessible than tv shows. You have to watch twenty seven episodes before Lumity in toh is canon. Troy kisses Benson on the eleventh episode of Kipo. And there are two hundred and eighty three episodes of Adventure Time before Marceline and Bonnie kiss. But with a film, the queerness is much more forward - especially in Nimona, where it’s literally the second scene. Animated films hardly ever display queer relationships, but Nimona did.

Finally - they aren’t perfect. I don’t know about you, but three weeks of thinking your boyfriend/maybe ex is a murderer? Doesn’t sound like a healthy few weeks to me. I have only seen big relationship arguments portrayed in straight relationships in cartoons - think Star Vs The Forces Of Evil - whereas queer relationships either have the massive fight prior to being canonically gay - She Ra - or have conflict, not arguments, that are dealt with quickly - Dead End/The Owl House. But Goldenheart? Goldenheart suffers. Their relationship is pushed to such extreme boundaries as for them to be pretty much exes throughout most of the movie. And yet, they are clearly healthy, happy and very much in love at the end.

TL;DR - Nimona is amazing with the queer representation, and it is a milestone for LGBTQ+ cartoons. Not only is the relationship romantic for the entire movie, the plot is driven by Ambrosius and Ballister’s sort-of-break-up. In short, they are treated the same way straight people are. They have flaws, they have massive arguments, they have plot importance, they have backstory. They are in love. And that’s what matters more than anything else.

#cedar crap #wow I didn't mean for this to be so long #nimona #nimona netflix #queer rep in media #queer rep in animation #goldenheart #ballister boldheart #ballister blackheart #ambrosius goldenloin #and I didn't even touch on the blatant queer flags in the background

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lightning-p · 10 months

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morgangalaxy43 · 25 days

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Dana Terrane and co at Disney after the mouse decided to cancel and shorten The Owl House

#lumity #huntlow #veesha #raeda #the owl house #dana terrace #alex hirsch #disney #queer rep in media #queer representation #lgbtq representation

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lansangprincess · 9 days

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HBH Bi Representation∘—✧₊

there's some discourse going around about the bi representation of Missy and Malakai being "pointless" since their current main partners (who they very well may end up with) are the opposite sex and I just want to voice out my opinion just so that it exists online that I heavily disagree.

Though sexuality is obviously about sexual attraction, queerness is an identity that exists outside of one's relationships and especially with Malakai and how he was exploring his sexuality at the beginning, I saw myself in all the uncertainty, in all the chaos, in all his overdramatic spiraling, to say the least.

They are more than their partners and I personally never felt like I was being misrepresented just because of who they were currently with.

But also, it's so useless for me to track how many hetero-presenting relationships there are on this show when the biggest representation win for me is that this actually feels like a queer community. The HBH characters feel more than a sum of their parts, compared to other shows/film where even if there are a few really good representations of queer people, the main group as a whole doesn't necessarily feel like that queer community my younger self was seeking all their life.

In truth, there are so many ways these characters could be romantically linked which would make for really interesting dynamics. And to me, every single one has a chance of becoming a plausible canon scenario which makes Heartbreak High such a groundbreaking show. I have my ships and my OTPs but I don't see how I could ever lose when the group as a whole truly feels like a super warm and safe and gay af found family regardless of who ends up with who.

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weirdly-specific-but-ok · 4 months

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mmgh good omens mascot here, why is every beautiful queer relationship either not canon or sad or both

CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME SOME HAPPY QUEERS PLEASE? TO DISTRACT ME FROM CROWLEY AND AZIRAPHALE I WATCHED LOKIUS EDITS AND THEY'RE ALL SAD AND JOHNLOCK AND THEY'RE ALL SAD AND BOTH AREN'T REALLY CANON AND MY FANON OTP DRARRY ISNT CANON AND REALLY APART FROM HEARTSTOPPER WHAT HAVE I ACTUALLY GOT

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purplehalnw · 6 months

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Look I know that the Carol/Valkyrie scene was Marvel literally doing the bare fucking minimum and I shouldn't be praising them for it but I'm just happy that it's at least explicit enough that straight people can't ignore it.

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jalluzas-ferney · 5 days

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Cole wasnt “changed” to be gay. He never was STRAIGHT in the first place.

and hell- whi says he’s strictly gay now? Cole could like girls as well for all we know 🤷��♀️ uk like, be a Bi king or smth.

The thing is, just like people are used to seeing characters from books as white as a default until stated otherwise, just because they’re so used to it, this happens with straightness as well.

People are will BEG and SWEAR that a character is straight just because they were never outright stated to be otherwise. And emphasis on “outright stated” because even when there is coding, hinting or just blatant portrayal of it, people will still deny that that certain character is queer because it’s not like they canonically turned to the camera and told the audience that “I AM NOT STRAIGHT.”

But to them, even if the character rarely showed any interest in the opposite gender or ever really talked ab their attraction, the character is just automatically straight. It’s just inherent. Of course they’re straight.

And you know what? Even if the character does, who said Bi people don’t exist? I have a lot of Bi friends and a family member that either are bi or are dating a bi person, and their attraction towards the opposite gender has never invalidated their attraction towards the same if gender non-conforming.

And even then, a lot of gay men or lesbians have struggled with comp-het in the past, reuniting them in having tried to date or even marry people from the opposite gender only to then realize they never truly were straight, and were just compulsively trying to conform or believe that they are straight because again, straightness has always been seen as the status quo. As the normal thing to be. The default.

And this isn’t me saying that “the writers were writing Cole as a dude with comp-het this whole time” or smth because I don’t know that. And while I could theorize that I don’t think the writers really were thinking about implementing compulsive heterosexuality into this silly Lego show.

But just like I can’t assure that Cole canonically has suffered from comp-het or that he is gay and not Bi or hell he could be asexual or smth while being gay WHO KNOWS-but just like we can’t exactly assure that he is exactly one of those labels, people cannot come here and act like Cole was ever REALLY canonically straight. Hell. You could even say None of the characters of the show are STRAIGHT because who said they were? You can def interpret them as straight! But why do people insist on acting as if portraying Cole as having a male character a romantic interest as them CHANGING him as if he really ever WAS straight?

No one acts that when a character is straight that it was a huge betrayal or smth because the character was “OBVIOUSLY” gay by default. No. People just see it as normal and move on because that has always been the status quo.

Because this is a heteronormative society as much as people try to act as if making a character gay is “appealing to the world and the general public” as if straight people are suddenly oppressed. Hetero friends of mine or my family will always automatically assume I’m straight because that’s the norm to them. People will always assume someone it het or cis unless outright stated otherwise.

And if you can’t tell what’s wrong with that…

…

And you know what? Get all pissed off about it. Complain. Make petition for “saving your boy Cole” (save him from what exactly? It’s not like Christianity exists in Ninjago so yall can scratch hell out of the list at least) the season was made. The character of Geo was made. The scenes where Geo fantasized about Cole being awesome and handsome were made. Scenes where Cole and geo talk about needing each other were made. Scenes where geo and Cole hold hands and look at each other all lovey dovey were made. None of that bigoted complaining is going to change that. Theyre not going back and deleting those scenes and they’re not suddenly gonna write Geo and Cole in completely different way from what they were written before. Womp. WOMP.

#ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #lego ninjago #savemyboycole #cole #ninjago cole #cole Ninjago #dragons rising #ninjago dr #gay rights #gay #comp-het #comphet #queer #queer representation #queer rep in media #geo Ninjago #Ninjago geo #geo

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dabblingreturns · 1 month

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Thankyou Brennen Lee Mulligan and Brian Murphy for pinning down one of the great isolating fears of being ace/aro. And turning that into an amazing horror plot line.

I dont get to see aro/ace charecters in media often. And mostly they arnt the heros, or if they are the heros they are either childlike to a fault, so old as to seam androgynous, or a perfect bastion who is above all this silly romance.

I don't get to see people dealing with my fears that my friends and family will end up prioritizing thier romantic relationships above thier friendship with me.

I've seen love work. My parents and grandparents all seamed to have married thier best friends. But I never will. And I've tried to.date.and I hated it. And I've tried to describe what I think might be attractive and just stuck my foot in my mouth.

And its sad and makes me feel petty worrying about it. But it's also true.

So to have Riz Gukgak in the forest of the nightmare king face the fear of being alone because he is ace/aro and to.face the consequences of his own lies and insecurities.

Well it doesn't feel good to watch but it feels so good to be seen

#riz gukgak #fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year #fantasy high live #brennan lee mulligan #brian murphy #aro #aromantism #aromantic #ace #ace/aro #asexual #queer representation #queer rep in media #dimension 20 #fearfull symmetry #to be clear im happy with all ace/aro rep #i love luffy and camilla hect and but thier is something nice about a hotmess goblin who asked his mom to prom

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samasmith23 · 9 months

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Iceman Almost Came Out as Gay Back in the 1990s

So prior to Brian Michael Bendis revealing Iceman (aka, Bobby Drake) was gay in the pages of his All-New X-Men run from 2015, apparently writer Scott Lobdell had planned to have Bobby come out of the closet two decades earlier but was unable to go through with his plans. Lobdell did however, lay the ground work for Bobby coming out during his time on the X-books in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Specifically, during an encounter with Emma Frost back when she was still a villain, the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club briefly took control of Bobby’s mind and actually used his mutant powers in more creative ways than he ever had done before. Emma accurately pointed out that Bobby was intentionally holding back the true potential of his powers, and was using humor as a shield to mask his own insecurities due to his conservative upbringing by mutantphobic parents.

Writer Sina Grace actually followed up on this old plot point from the 90s during his Iceman solo-series which immediately followed Bobby being outed by the time-displaced Jean Grey in All-New X-Men. In addition to depicting Bobby becoming more comfortable with his sexuality and gradually out to his fellow teammates, ex-girlfriends like Kitty Pryde, and especially his bigoted parents...

...Grace finally allowed Bobby to fully embrace his potential as an Omega-Level mutant. Not only did Iceman singlehandedly defeat the unstoppable Juggernaut in combat after after overcoming his greatest fear by coming out to his parents, but he began using his powers in more creative ways than before such as constructing ice-shuriken and multiple ice-clones and kaju.

Furthermore, Grace also revealed in his run that yes, during that time Emma Frost had mind-controlled Bobby back in the 90s, she actually did learn that Bobby was gay. But unlike the time-displaced Jean Grey, Emma never outed Bobby’s closeted sexuality to him or anyone else, and instead respected his privacy due to her own tragic experiences with her older brother Christian Frost being forced into "gay conversion therapy" (aka, torture...) by their abusive father.

Essentially, all of the people who try to argue that Iceman coming out makes zero sense or that it somehow "ignores/erases several decades of past continuity" (I'm looking at you homophobic Comicsgaters!) completely miss the fact that both Bendis & Grace were simply building upon the foundation that was already put in place by Lobdell back in the 90s! That’s NOT “ignoring or erasing several decades of continuity,” but the exact opposite!

And if you still need further proof that Bobby was always gay, just a reminder that during his very first appearance in X-Men (1963) #1 by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Iceman was the only person who was not acting like a horny jack-rabbit at the mere sight of the then-new student Jean Grey.

In other words... Iceman was always gay even as far back as his inaugural issue! Suck it Comicsgaters!

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blossomthepinkbunny · 1 month

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Poor rendition of queer characters in HH and HB

Here I am again talking about queer representation in Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, this time just more generally. Because it's always a little weird to me when people claim HH/HB to have good queer representation, when in actuality most of the queer characters are either just blatant stereotypes or get mishandled somehow. And with Helluva Boss recently winning the Queertys - Web series reward I think that this is probably a pretty good time to acknowledge that kind of stuff (as people have done before).

TW: Sexual assault, R@pe (when referring to the actions of characters)

Blitzø (Pansexual): is very sexual and seen on screen multiple times either having sex or just having had sex. Pretty much fits the general stereotype of queer men always being sexual and also the stereotype of pansexuals just sleeping with everybody. Like, he literally screwed the mutual Ex of his coworkers even though he knew how much that guy hurt them.

Stolas (Gay): also mostly sexual (from how he was introduced) and he is in a pretty terrible "relationship" with Blitzø, which includes coercion, SA, Power dynamics and fetishization. Another very sex-driven queer man. Also just great proof for the people assuming that queer relationships are inherently predatory, unhealthy and never work out.

Moxxie (Bisexual): is often forced into a very feminine role because even in relationships with women, queer men always have to be pointed out to be feminine and putting a guy in a dress is funny I guess.

Fizzarolli & Asmodeus (Queer): they're actually better than a lot of the other characters here but there is still some of that uneven power dynamic going on with them and there are obvious issues with their relationship. Overall they aren't too bad though. They didn't get that much sexual focus and what they got is kinda warranted since Ozzie is the Lust demon. But there is that one scene with Fizz stepping out of his car with Dildo confetti canons (I think) and that was sorta weird, since in an episode before that they presented Crimson as being homophobic and stereotypical for assuming queer men are all obsessed with dicks. Which is just interesting because thats most of the queer men in Vivzepops stories.

Chaz (Queer): just a sexually abusive asshole because we definitely needed more predatory queer men in this show.

Sally May (Trans mtf): basically the single recognized trans character in both shows and she only had one line. After that they made fan merch for her which consisted of her in a bikini with her bulge being drawn pretty visibly (multiple times). Of course there's nothing wrong with Trans people who don't have surgery but it's just a tiny bit weird to me that fanservice merchandise is what she got reduced to, when something like that wasn't even the joke of the only line she had in the show and because she hasn't recieved any kind of focus after that.

Angel Dust (Gay): now there is a lot of stuff that could be said about Angel. On one hand he is another very sexual gay man whose screentime often just consists of sex jokes and references. On the other hand that's a big point for his character. How he tries to act confident in his sexuality when in reality it's the main source of his problems. Though he does often harass other men in the show and that's just so unnecessary. Talking about Angel mostly leads into discussing if he is good representation for SA victims or not, which is something I don't want to talk about that much because I feel like it's not my place to judge that as someone who never has experienced SA. I'm gonna say that I do find Viv's treatment of him outside of the show insensitive (with the pro-shipping, diminishing Valentino as an Abuser and general sexualization of the characters) but as far as the portrayal of him in the show goes I've heard different opinions and you should read the discussion's of actual r@pe survivors about this topic if you want to know about more about it.

Husk (Queer): I don't have anything to say about Husk. He is a very refreshing queer man in these show's and there is nothing bad about him I could think of right now.

Valentino (Queer): for him I mostly want to talk about how he is treated outside of the show which doesn't sit right with me. He is a villian in HH so it's understandable that he is gonna do effed up stuff. I also like that the show tries to make a point about how men get sexually assaulted too (wether they succeeded in that inside the show I'm not gonna judge too hard like I said). But there are a lot of people who not only sexualize him, but also his actions and his relationship to Angel and from what I know Viv never really spoke out against that. She actually interacts with people who do that stuff and I it's just kinda gross.

Vox (Queer): I also don't have a lot to say about him. He and Val are a couple so he is dating a r@pist but he is also a villain so you can't really expect more from him. Especially since he would still be interacting with a r@pist even if they weren't dating.

Alastor (Aromantic, Asexual): is obviously not interested in relationships or sex but his identity is pretty much ignored by a huge amount of the fandom. Vivzepop never say's anything about people blatantly invalidating him like that. It seems to me like she doesn't care about characters who can't be involved in shipping but still wanted to have more diversity in her show so she just called him AroAce. In Hazbin Hotel he isn't bad representation though. His sexuality is never the focus but thats fine, it's mostly just the treatment he gets outside of HH which I don't like.

Charlie (Bisexual): doesn't have a lot to her sexuality. This is something I talked about pretty lengthy in my other post, specifically about the lack of Sapphic content in both shows, so I won't go into too much detail here. Her relationship with Vaggie would probably be the best in both shows if it wasn't for the fact that they both never get the real spotlight as a couple. And there is that thing in Vivzepops stories where the women are pretty much sexless without men and that's obviously something that is generally an issue when talking about the lack of Sapphic representation (which is also a topic heavily tied to sexism). Charlie's portrayal isn't necessarily stereotypical but that's just because there is nothing to her identity in the show.

Vaggie (Lesbian): like I said I already talked about the Chaggie relationship so now I wanna focus on something I didn't even mention in that post. Her name literally being Vagina and that's apparently funny because she is a Lesbian so she obviously likes Vagina. That's just incredibly stereotypical and also excludes Trans Lesbians and Asexual Lesbians who don't want sex. The whole joke was that Adam named her that because he is obsessed with sex and he's a jerk. But her name was always Vagina even in the pilot (from what I know Adam wasn't conceived then and neither was the idea that Vaggie even is a former exterminator).

That's all the queer characters I could think of. I hope I didn't miss any.

I thought about including Millie here too. But she was also already included in my other discussion post and I still don't know if she is canonically Bisexual of if that is just a headcannon so I didn't put her here.

I'm just gonna say that i don't have a problem with queer men being sexual (or any queer person in that regard). But it's pretty much every one of her queer male characters. This is especially bad when a lot of the relationships are toxic as well.

I just think too many characters fit stereotypes and to me that isn't good queer representation. If you like the depiction of queer characters in HH or HB that's good for you and you don't have to agree with me. But you also can't really deny a lot of this stuff and you can't expect others to just be fine with bland, hurtful and sometimes even toxic representation like there is in these shows.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel criticism #vivzepop critical #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel critique #vivziepop #helluva boss #helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #helluva boss criticism #queer representation #queer rep in media

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moomoocowmaid · 3 months

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My face when a straight person, with historically low media literacy and overall comprehension, who fell asleep MID movie and woke up at the end explains why they didn’t like Brokeback Mountain

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kittanthaloselorashield · 8 months

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Willow Tuesday Textposts

Shout out to the tumblr acc I found all these very tanthamore posts on (@napping-sapphic).

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ilovelumity3000 · 9 months

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currently reading WataOshi vol. 3 bonus stories for the first time (SPOILERS AHEAD), and i gotta say:

somehow, this books take on queer representation is a perfect blend of "Everyone is Gay" escapist fantasy, and the depiction of how harsh and cruel reality can be for LGBT people

Yes, Claire and Rae get to have a wedding and their own kids, with fully supportive parents/in-laws. And Yes, everyone from thier friend group (except for like, two dudes) ends up being incredibly queer

But also...

the story does not pretend this world is all rainbows and sunshines for LGBT people, just becuase its a yuri romance. The world at large is still either ignorant, or openly hostile towards non-cishet people. The state and the church dont legally recognize Rae & Claire as married, even though everyone who knows them does.

Inori's depiction of LGBT issues manages to simultaneously be realistic, AND incredibly optimistic, and i absolutely love her for it

#wataoshi #watashi no oshi wa akuyaku reijou #i favor the villainess #im in love with the villainess #iltv #rae x claire #claire francois #rae taylor #wlw #sapphic #yuri manga #yuri anime #yuri #girls love #GL #light novel #wataoshi spoilers #queer representation #queer rep in media

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mossymossman · 2 months

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Nimona made me cry. Nimona truly felt like it was made for me. This is a movie that tells our story. And that left me sobbing.

#nimona #queer rep in media #neurodivergent #netflix

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doomed-jester · 8 months

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Okay wait I'm genuinely curious here. Do you feel that a piece of media can claim nonbinary representation if that rep comes from an alien/robot/entity that doesn't fit our understanding of gender but isn't an outlier for its own kind?

Edit: I'd actually like to include this article for consideration if you are on the fence or just want some insight into the topic.

#nonbinary #nb #enby #queer #lgbt #representation #poll #queer representation #queer rep in media #hollow knight #the orville #the good place

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