#queerphobia cw

[felassan]

Article: 'The Industry Is Divided On How To Write Video Game Romance', by Kenneth Shepard

Baldur’s Gate 3 is the latest big game to follow an inclusive (but divisive) trend in video game courtship

Some excerpts:

"In 2011, BioWare’s Dragon Age II portrayed its four main romantic conquests as bisexual, allowing them to be pursued by either the male or female version of main character Hawke. At the time, I was a young, mostly-but-not-completely out gay high school student, and I spent hours each week on the BioWare forums, hoping for some information about which men I’d be able to pursue as I ventured through the fantasy city of Kirkwall. When the game finally came out, much to my delight, there were no restrictions. I wasn’t forced into one choice like I was with the roguish elf Zevran in Dragon Age: Origins, or excluded completely like the first two Mass Effect games. The approach was met with predictable pushback from bigots, and Lead Writer David Gaider responded to criticisms that the game neglected the “main demographic” of the “straight male” in what became a core text about who deserves to be depicted in video game romances. He wrote: “The romances in the game are not for ‘the straight male gamer’. They’re for everyone. We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and they deserve no less attention. We have good numbers, after all, on the number of people who actually used similar sorts of content in DAO and thus don’t need to resort to anecdotal evidence to support our idea that their numbers are not insignificant... and that’s ignoring the idea that they don’t have just as much right to play the kind of game they wish as anyone else. The ‘rights’ of anyone with regards to a game are murky at best, but anyone who takes that stance must apply it equally to both the minority as well as the majority. The majority has no inherent ‘right’ to get more options than anyone else.” The idea that romances could be “for everyone” stuck with me, and with the video game industry. Dragon Age II was an early example of what has become colloquially known as “playersexual” experiences, in which every romanceable character is pursuable regardless of your character’s gender. Everyone got an equal piece of the pie. Queer people weren’t relegated to table scraps while straight people got to have a feast. But it turns out, giving everyone all the same options brings its own baggage, and in the years since Dragon Age II, developers are still struggling to find the best approach. The mother of invention According to Gaider, while Dragon Age II’s love stories have become a model for inclusive romance design, they originally took this form due to the sequel’s breakneck development timeline. “We were working on far fewer resources compared to Dragon Age: Origins,” Gaider told Kotaku. “The whole game was gonna be done within a year and a half. So when it came up to how are we gonna do the romances, it was really a matter of economy. We’re gonna have four romances. If we decide to make them sort of a spread of sexualities that are immutable, then there’s no choice for the player. They have one character available to them, and we didn’t like that idea.” Resource division and lack of choice remains a cloud that hangs over even the biggest games that feature romance."

-

"When every romanceable character is pursuable regardless of who the player is, it creates a perception that these characters’ identities are defined by the protagonist’s presence. Gaider likens this to treating characters like a “toy” just meant to be romanced. This is part of how the “playersexual” moniker came to be, as it implies that characters weren’t bisexual or pansexual, but adhered to whatever main character they came across in any given playthrough. Dragon Age II has a specific plot beat that added to this: If the player chose to play a male version of Hawke, Anders would be forthcoming about his past relationship with another man, but that conversation doesn’t come up when playing as a woman. Gaider explained this was meant to distinguish how Anders related to male and female versions of the same character, with the BioWare team believing he might keep a past relationship with a man “close to his chest” if he were interested in a woman. In retrospect, he says he understands how it could be read as something only real in one version of the story. “Unfortunately, we just didn’t have enough time to get enough feedback and iterate on those situations,” he said. “We would hit a particular interaction, we would make a judgment call either as a group or the writer on their own, and that was it. There was no time for anything more than one gut-check, which is probably not the way to go.” Room to explore While Dragon Age II was written to accommodate any pairing because of the economic realities of its development, it’s become a recurring blueprint for several romance-driven games."

-

"As Dragon Age II has been pivotal in discussions around the playersexual design philosophy, its successor Dragon Age: Inquisition has been hugely influential on relationship systems featuring more defined identities. Gaider said the decision to tweak the approach came from a desire to decenter the protagonist in each of these character’s lives. “We didn’t like how [playersexual] made the characters feel like they existed in service of the player; like they were there in the game to be a toy. [...] We felt like that wasn’t why those characters existed. That wasn’t the kind of game we were making. These characters were characters first, and they had their own stories, and the player could interact with them, but it wasn’t always about the player.” The result of this shift is characters like Dorian Pavus, a mage from the land of the Tevinter Emperium, who is a gay man. His backstory involves nearly being put through a magical version of conversion therapy, an abusive and baseless real-world practice reliant on mental and often religious conditioning. Dorian’s parents planned to use dark magic to make him straight and take part in an arranged marriage, prompting him to run from his family. His story touches on real-life experiences of queer people, and fills in Dragon Age’s world in the process. “Dorian’s story could not be told if he was in a game where playersexuality was the rule of the day,” Gaider said. “When I say that it opens up different types of stories, Dorian is the best example, because his story is about being homosexual and that doesn’t work in any other context. So that was very special. [...] it meant a lot to me as a gay man that I had this opportunity.” Defining Dorian as a gay man is intrinsic to his story, but sometimes the effects of this approach aren’t as grandiose. Cassandra, the first party member you get in Inquisition, is a straight woman, and if you flirt with her as a female protagonist, she takes you aside and tells you…well, straight up. Whether that’s a fun wrinkle to your story or feels like the game is gating content is in the eye of the beholder. “For players who just wanted to romance whoever they wanted, they would do something like encounter Cassandra as a female character and get turned down and be like, ‘that’s not the game I wanted,’” Gaider said. “But then you had other people who were like, ‘that was really cool that Cassandra has her own identity, and it has nothing to do with who the player is.’ I think that makes for more realistic characters, and a more coherent world, and allowed us to create characters that were more self-realized.” The middle ground between opting for playersexual romances and representing the queer experience is making sure those bisexual and pansexual identities exist whether the player is there or not. Baldur’s Gate 3’s party is a solid example of this. Characters like Gale, Wyll, Astarion, and Shadowheart have established relationships and flirt with others of different genders, regardless of whether the player romances them. This ensures their identity doesn’t come off like a switch to be flipped depending on which protagonist shows up at the beginning of the game. Gaider points out that part of circumventing the weaknesses of the playersexual approach is adding “a metric ton of content” as Baldur’s Gate 3 did. Overcoming those hurdles is “possible, just very expensive.” Howard-Arias cited Dorian from Inquisition as an example of a story that could not be told in a playersexual game"

-

"When you’re on the outside looking in, it’s tempting to assume developers are intentionally snubbing certain groups of people. The Mass Effect series pushed the envelope for sex and romance in its time, but it was deeply dismissive of queer men, and BioWare’s explanations of Commander Shepard supposedly being a “predefined” character weren’t satisfactory considering the series’ emphasis on choice. Breaking down choices to numbers isn’t telling the whole story, but it does ultimately leave some people feeling burned. “[Some players reacted to limited romance] like it was unfair that I didn’t get more options, as if in-game romances were a matter of social justice,” Gaider said. “Like, in terms of how fairly you allotted them to players, like candy being divided. It’s such an awkward conversation to have because it’s so removed from the realm of game development. But still, game developers do need to stop and have that conversation.”"

-

"Even the word “playersexual” sounds like it’s an identity, which can be problematic. Gaider points out this is especially touchy for bisexual and pansexual people, who often face erasure in the real world, so labeling characters as something other than what they actually are sours the discussion before it even starts. Hunter echoed the sentiment, saying having characters “flip flop” felt like a betrayal. “The difference between a bisexual character versus a playersexual character really is a matter of context,” Gaider says. “By calling a character ‘playersexual,’ you’re sort of erasing the fact that they are bisexual, but, the part where having a term for that becomes useful is when you start to investigate, like, why is this character bisexual?” So these two distinct approaches aim to be inclusive, but both can carry a perception of unfairness to either queer identity or queer experience. The sentiment from everyone I spoke to was that both approaches are legitimate; they just have their own pitfalls that anyone making a game should be aware of. Sometimes you just have to accept when one game is aspiring to something different than another. Gaider says the key to making either approach work is to stop trying to please everyone. “Say something with your writing, with your game, with your romances. Because if you don’t say anything, if your goal is to make it inoffensive, then it’s gonna land like a wet fart. It’s not gonna have any substance to it,” he said. “So say something and just be aware of how it can be interpreted and stand by it. That’s all you can do as a creator.”"

[source and full article link. the full article also discusses and covers other games]

#dragon age #bioware #mass effect #video games #lgbtq #cassandra pentaghast #my lady paladin #long post #longpost #queerphobia cw

[elysianmadness]

LGBT+ discourse on this website is so wild to me because we are in the midst of an international moral panic about gay people existing, with countless anti-LGBT+ laws being passed in countless different countries. One of the biggest social platforms on the Internet was bought by a raging transphobe last year and has become more and more hostile to the LGBT+ community as time goes on. Now, more than ever, would be the time to stand together. As like, an actual community

But yeah, let's go argue over who can use what words and pronouns because it's somehow harmful for a gay man to use she/her pronouns. Let's go treat aces/aros like they're "less LGBT+" for some fucking reason. Let's argue about which mspec sexualities are and aren't "valid" instead of letting people identify how they want. Let's go tell some bi lesbians to kill themselves because apparently they are Solely Responsible for creepy, entitled cis men harassing other lesbians.

Let's not focus on actual issues that the community has internally, like racism or ableism. Let's not focus on the fact that gay people are literally being murdered. Gay people identifying in any way that might require the use of a braincell to understand are obviously the REAL problem in the LGBT+ community and the REAL threat to LGBT+ rights

That'll definitely work!

#exclusionists are the most cishet sounding gay people i have ever seen #venus.txt #queerphobia cw #anti exclusionist #asexual #aromantic #he/him lesbian #she/her gay #pansexual #mspec lesbian #bi lesbian #mspec gay #bi gay #racism cw #ableism cw

[lizardsfromspace]

Some MAGA rapper (that is to say, a grifter exploiting white conservative's, uh, deficient knowledge of rap) released a song about the stochastic backlash to Target and yes, it is as cringe as you'd expect

But I think it's a good metaphor for Their Whole Thing since he spends the video rapping about all these imaginary, horrible things Target is selling to children and the only examples of pride merch they show all video are...rainbow-branded bottles of Stella Artois. Without a hint of self-awareness they're rapping about companies targeting products to children, and their only example of it is beer. They actively can't find an example of any of the things they're singing about in the store they're singing about, and they don't even think twice about it. It gets at how they tell obvious, provable lies - calling Budweiser sending a trans TikTok influencer promotional cans an "ad campaign", attacking a queer designer by posting images of designs that Target never sold - and expect to get away with them, and often do

Actually they also hold up boxes of tampons and a random Paw Patrol toy which, I can't even begin to guess what the moral panics there are. When the hell did they start coming for the Paw Patrol

#politics #uspol #transphobia cw #homophobia cw #queerphobia cw

[vaspider]

You know, normally I just block and ignore the people who do this and show up in my notifications like OP SUCKS BUT THIS LONG POST FULL OF CITATIONS HE WROTE IS FINE I GUESS or whatever but sometimes

sometimes

when I go over to block them & save them the trouble of interacting with someone who totally sucks ever again, I'm like

damn, I'm glad you think I suck, because holy shit your opinions are terrible, please never interact with me ever again

#i hid their identity on purpose #so no one can whine that I'm sending ppl after ppl or whatever #even though i never fucking do that #transphobia #queerphobia cw #just generally really shitty opinions #homophobia #exclusionists

[aro-culture-is]

Aro culture is being annoyed when your partner invalidates your sexuality by saying "Im going to revert you back"

"annoyed" i'd straight up dump them and get the hell out of there, that's uhhh. really, really bad.

#Anonymous #aro culture is #aro #aromantic #actually aro #actually aromantic #ask #mod alexander #arophobia cw #acephobia cw #queerphobia cw

[fanby-fckry]

Having a nonbinary option for “legal sex” gives me worse dysphoria, actually.

I cannot legally change my sex to nonbinary in my state. Hell, I don’t think you can anywhere in the US? There are nonbinary gender markers on some IDs, and intersex options on some birth certificates, but I’m pretty sure I can’t choose nonbinary as my legal sex anywhere. Probably because it’s not a sex it’s a fucking gender but whatever.

Thanks for the illusion of choice and the crippling gender dysphoria of seeing my actual gender and being forced to click my AGAB anyway.

#it’s for an obgyn so i get why it’s somewhat relevant info for them to have #but why did they have to phrase it like that??? #this is like the only obgyn in my area and the actual doctors are great #but goddam i want to crawl out of my skin rn #fanby’s ramblings #transphobia cw #queerphobia cw #vent cw #not fandom

[just-antithings]

Saw someone being a jackass on one of our posts and sure enough, they had this gem as their pinned post. There’s a lot to unpack here, but let’s go ahead and throw away the entire suitcase

#mod erin #image #dni hall of shame #transphobia cw #ask to tag #nbphobia cw #just exclusionist things #panphobia cw #queerphobia cw

[chelledoggo]

CW: queerphobia, religion, pulse nightclub mention, shooting mention, death mention

okay.

i wasn't gonna bring this up because i figured i shouldn't give people like this attention.

but i think God's putting it on my heart that i DO need to.

last night i got a reply to a comment on youtube from a """""christian""""" telling me, in the name of Christ, that i deserved to be brutally murdered for being queer and progressive.

screenshot below the cut. the above CWs apply.

i'm not even offended on my own behalf. like seriously if they'd just mocked me for being queer i would've shrugged it off.

but this isn't about me. this is about Christ, and it's about the LGBTQ+ community.

if you claim to be a Christian, you are a representative of Christ.

if you curse people in Christ's name, not only are you committing a sin, but you are also spitting in the face of the God you claim to love and follow.

Christ said that the two most important commandments are to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-40)

a Christian should believe that all humans were made in the image of God. it stands to reason, then, if you love your neighbor, you are loving God by proxy.

likewise, when you hate others, you hate God as well.

when you preach Christ and hate in the same breath, you are offending Christ.

what's more, when you are taking a very serious tragedy in vain - a tragedy that resulted in the death of 49 people and the harm of 53 more - you are displaying blatant animosity towards God's beautiful creations.

it doesn't matter how you feel about their """lifestyle""" (it's not a "lifestyle" btw it's literally just how they were born). God's hands still lovingly sculpted them.

when you say shit like this, you're basically looking God in the face and saying "hey, Father! you know these sentient beings that you crafted? the ones that you made unique and special and breathed the gift of life into because you loved them so much? yeah. i think they're shit and deserve to burn. i think you made a mistake when you made them. fuck you."

say what you want about me. but when you talk smack about God and his wonderful works while also claiming to speak on His behalf, you've crossed the line.

sorry for the rant.

this just...

really pissed me off.

God bless every single LGBTQIA+ person. i'm proud of you all for waking up every day and continuing to live despite how scary and hateful the world is becoming. you're all very strong and very brave, and i love you all. 💖

#queer christian #progressive christianity #lgbtq+ christians #evangelicals #religion cw #queerphobia cw #shooting mention #pulse nightclub #important

[is-this-trans]

Sending anonymous hugs to everyone I follow

There are people at Pride who give people "dad hugs" and "mom hugs," it's very appreciated. I've seen stories of people just breaking down in tears at a parental hug.

Although this hug isn't being offered because I'm at Pride, because I'm in a group that experiences much higher rates of parental rejection than cisgender and gender conforming people, it's still reminiscent of it.

Conclusion: This hug is trans.

#WE'RE SO BACK #anon #transgender #queerphobia #queerphobia cw #queerphobia tw #transphobia #transphobia cw #transphobia tw #child abuse #child abuse cw #child abuse tw #asks

[astriiformes]

u (asexual) were not always included in the lgbt community 😭 y’all started existing in 2008 after the hard work was all done don’t lie

Usually I wouldn't reply to a message like this -- it was sent in response to a post that included plenty of examples of historical ace and aro involvement in what we now think of as the queer community, and was obviously sent just to be inflammatory and get an upset reply. I'm secure enough in my ace and aro identity -- and have more then enough allo, queer friends who consider me a part of their community -- that mean asks on tumblr aren't about deter me from my activism, both in the aro/ace sphere and the broader queer one.

But this particular anonymous ask just so happens to be one of the most astonishingly self-centered, short-sighted examples of ace hate I've ever gotten, so let's have a little talk about what's going on here.

Anon, it takes a special kind of person to claim the hard work is done and over on Trans Day of Remembrance, when we are mourning at minimum 32 people who were killed in the United States for being transgender in this last year -- and at least 327 people globally; on the heels of 2021 being the single worst year the Human Rights Campaign has recorded for trans murders on the United States, and when just yesterday night, 5 people were murdered and another 25 injured in a shooting at a queer club. When 2022 has seen the highest number of pieces of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation filed in the United States on record -- many but not all targeted at not just trans people, but trans youth. When states like Texas and Florida are sending social workers after parents who support their children's gender transition and scaring queer and trans teachers out of schools. When there is an increasing movement to ban books featuring queer stories from schools and libraries across the United States -- including ones like Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, which talks extensively about the author's aromantic and asexual identity as well as their gender journey. When TERF rhetoric dominates the news and political spheres in the United Kingdom, and British trans folks face horrific waits of three, four, five, and more years to access lifesaving care as the number of providers in the country who can offer it to them dwindles. When queer Ukranians are speaking out about the danger the invasion of their homeland by a country with a number of trans- and queerphobic laws in place puts them in (and when queer Russians have been living under those laws for some time now). When queer and trans people all over the world are watching all of this with worry for ourselves and the people we love.

What part of that is easy? What part of the hard work is done? Trans and queerphobic sentiments are on the rise and you seem to think you have some kind of laurels to sit on -- and worse, some kind of moral superiority. Tell me you aren't involved in the fight without telling me you aren't involved in the fight.

I (asexual) happen to have marched in a protest for trans rights in below-freezing weather this week. I had a conversation with the vice-president of my university's queer student organization about how I'd like to get involved in leadership next year. I helped talk a peer down from feeling suicidal when she came into the queer student center crying. I have also been talking a lot lately with my queerplatonic partner about how much happier she is having learned to embrace her ace identity and how much more comfortable she is in an ace relationship. I have been fighting for this community out on the streets while you decided the best use of your time was to hide behind anonymity and try to tear someone fighting for you down.

Because guess what, anon? Even if you want to pretend this fight -- that, yes, ace and aro people have been in all along -- is over, I don't think you deserve to have your right to marry taken away just because you grew complacent any more than I deserve to have a doctor make belittling comments towards me while I hold my queerplatonic partner's hand in the ER just because we're not married. (And yes, the latter actually happened to me this year, in this oh-so-easy world where all the fighting's done and where ace people were apparently never victims in the first place.) You're a bully, but you're human, and my queer advocacy doesn't exclude anyone -- even jerks.

I've been identifying as aromantic and asexual since I was 16 years old. In the last decade, I've received dozens of messages like this, and had hundreds of other horrible judgements slung at me in the reblogs of my posts. I've had people I marched with in Pride parades say insensitive things about my identities the very same day. I've watched other ace and aro friends bear similar trauma at the hands of our own community and We're. Still. Here.

My friends from the university's ace and aro club marched side-by-side with me in the snow, with handwarmers stuffed in our gloves, to protest earlier this week. Another of my aro/ace friends founded a queer affinity group in a major international charity club that has hundreds of members worldwide now, supporting each other and forging life-long friendships. Another ace friend is on a committee at my university fighting for more gender-neutral restrooms on campus. I've helped queer friends move from unsupportive homes and spoken at others' weddings when most of the rest of their family refused to show up. The queer community is my home, and it's an honor and a privilege to fight for it, even if it's a tragedy to still have to. I don't have to prove I belong here.

But you -- who seem to to think that tearing down someone different from you, in a community that's been about being different from the start, is the pinnacle of activism? You might.

#honestly just stared at this message in my inbox for five minutes like really? we're doing this today? TODAY???? #like i know the people who fling this kind of thing around are not exactly considerate or stirring activists but. goddamn #going to do my best to tag diligently here but let me know if i miss anything #aroblogging #aceblogging #transphobia cw #queerphobia cw #homophobia cw

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

there really needs to be a name for the trope where a piece of media makes a very obvious fantasy stand-in for an irl marginalized group--or just straight up people from an irl marginalized group--so they can conflate them with their oppressors, whether directly or with sly innuendo and imagery to evoke it. this is never used as an opportunity to explore lateral violence, let alone done so with sensitivity; it's bait dangled in front of an audience who's just aware enough of political movements, structures, and ideologies to go Ideology Very Bad and instantly shut off any examination of the messaging behind it.

(which is, often as not, either shifting the blame to marginalized people so the audience can hate demographics they're already comfortable with hating instead of grappling with the discomfort of real privilege being called out or held accountable, 'so the horrific and violent bigotry leveled at that group irl is totally justified and we should Do More of That Actually,' or both.)

like. i keep seeing this over and over and over. don't get me started on how SF/F media in particular seems completely unable to restrain itself from having at least one black character in a setting that breathes anywhere near fantasy racism say and do just the most ungodly racist shit ever. every time, jesus fuck, it's awful.

this trope is not at all limited to racism or antisemitism--it shows up for pretty much any marginalized group you can think of, BOY i have rants in me about a lot of portrayals of abuse survivors in various media i'm into--but it seems to pop up most blatantly and obviously for those. and fascism in general, which, i HIGHLY recommend these excellent essays for a more articulate and in-depth analysis of than i could give in a paragraph of one post. they're fantastic go read them and come back. especially the second one.

more specifically, it's a special favorite of these fucking people to evoke this with nazism. so the closest term i've got to what i'm describing is naziwashing, which i think is still useful as a descriptor of a subset of that phenomenon but again does not nearly cover all of it. so i'm a bit stumped.

#tagging #sdmi #mystery incorporated #scooby-doo mystery incorporated #professor pericles #in this one because i have OPINIONS about that in a reblog but this is a general trope thing and pericles is very much fandom-specific #i also want to be clear that this is not an invitation to bring Certain Current Issues into it on this post #they are in some ways very much relevant to this and a lot of other media crit i've talked about before; and maybe i'll discuss that someday #but there's a time and place and i am super not going to make that about fandoms right now #for now this specific trope has been on my mind a lot for years but especially since i started revisiting sdmi recently #and have finally been really registering the ways in which i am incredibly pissed off about how both the show and fandom treat him #anyway. #nazi mention cw #racism cw #antisemitism cw #anti-survivor mention cw #queerphobia cw #antiblack racism cw #the salt files #the crit files #sdmi tag

[just-aro]

got asked to hang out in a double date type of situation by a work customer... and like.

sorry! you guys were fucking weird when, upon me deciding that since you were queer and asking about local queer spots, i could tell you my neopronouns! one of you looked confused, but your partner had a thinly veiled disgust! i neither want to hang out with you, nor explain that i do not have a partner nor want one!

goodbye!

#like no offense but 1) aaaaaa worker/customer relationships. pls. #2) just... if you aren't familiar with the neopronouns feel free to ask for resources but if u are visibly unhappy i uhhh #have some Thoughts and Opinions about my safety and your types of stances in the queer community #3) lol the assumption i have a partner #uhh: #transphobia cw #(though i think they weren't cis either. big yikes) #queerphobia cw #amatonormativity cw

[elysianmadness]

funny how you suddenly care about men harassing lesbians when you're the lesbian being harassed by men. but when other lesbians speak out against mspec "lesbians", you're suddenly jumping to defend them :)

Yes because I actually think we should blame the men harassing us instead of targeting and harassing innocent lesbians who did nothing but use a multifaceted label in a different way from you. Hope this helps! :)

#mspec lesbian hate is so stupid. tell me you've never had an actual problem without telling me you've never had an actual problem #anyways i will continue to defend mspec lesbians and reiterate that mspec lesbian hate is usually a bunch of terf bullshit! #and if it isn't literal terfs hating them then it's people dabbling in lesbian separatist ideology. aka terf shit #live and let live. peoples' identities are none of your business #venus.txt #lesbophobia cw #queerphobia cw #discourse cw

[petrichorvoices]

it’s really frustrating to realize just how many people are still aphobic, it’s just not the hot topic issue anymore so it goes untalked about. i can’t believe that with my own eyes i saw somebody say today that we’re making up things to be upset about like honestly

#rambling #i’m already turning reblogs off on this i don’t even want to take the chance #aphobia cw #queerphobia cw

[notfromcold]

Sitting with a lot of "multiple things can be true at once" as it relates to OFMD.

Within the world of the show, queer community made Izzy no longer a threat. Within the real world, diatribes like the one that Izzy aimed at Ed cause deep harm. I have been harassed out of multiple jobs as a GNC, queer, trans man - to the point of brief, mild food insecurity. I don't think the show was ready to reckon with that and my guess is that it's because many of the people involved have no idea of the deep pain of it.

I can continue to enjoy aspects of the show while feeling a bit like my straight friend got too excited to be "one of the gang" and accidentally used a slur for me. Hmmm, bestie, I think you shouldn't be that comfortable with me, actually.

I have to be a "mean trans person" to survive. I've gotten good at it. So I'll enjoy my blorbos and my rom com and my jokes. But in my own life, I'm more than ready to strategically take as many toes as I need to.

#ofmd #ofmd crit #ofmd s2 spoilers #transphobia cw #queerphobia cw

[spandexbutterfly4lyfe]

The ACA mandate that requires insurers cover preventative healthcare such as PrEP, screenings for some cancers and diabetes, etc. has been blocked in Texas. This doesn’t mean insurers will immediately stop covering these, and the Biden administration is expected to appeal.

The ruling came in a lawsuit that argued the mandate forces religious employers to cover drugs that “encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use.”

Texas is literally passing laws to enforce threat of death for homosexuality. And considering that Austin is one of the most queer cities in America, I’d really love it if you guys didn’t throw the whole state out just because of its oppressive rulers!

#news #world news #American news #Texas news #lgbt news #queer rights #queerphobia cw #homophobia cw