I want black girls to know they can make music that isn’t hip hop and rnb
I want black girls to feel welcome making rock, I want every little black girl to feel excited and encouraged picking up that gutiar should she choose to
I want black girls to know they can be Stevie nicks and bjork too
I want black girls to pick up a banjo and yodel their hearts out
You can do whatever you want to do, don’t let them corner you
Cheat on each other or anyone else (especially not if the cheating is portrayed as romantic).
Die tragically, violently or AT ALL.
To all the people in the notes going “but but tragedy is a valid form of…” Yeah, sorry, straights broke it with decades of nothing but tragedy for LGBT characters. This is a moratorium on all such tragedy films with tragic endings for at least the next 50-75 years at which point there will be a review to determine if mainstream media has EARNED it.
From 1922 to 1968 the Motion Picture Production Code(commonly known as the Hays Code) enforced rules regarding the treatment of gay characters in tv and film. Homosexuality and gender nonconformity could be acknowledged, but it had to be punished to show that consequences would come from such “immorality.” Showing these characters as creepy, predatory, unfaithful, etc etc was common, and for decades pretty much every queer or queer coded character was brutally murdered. The homophobic tropes born from the Hays code are pervasive in media today. The sheer amount of tragedy and violence written into queer media in the last century has in the long term damaged people’s perceptions of what queer stories are “supposed” look like.
New Bechdel-like test for gay/lesbian romance films: If your queer piece of media complies with the Hays code, start over.
Man, B99 did Holt so right. He’s not just gay as lip service, he’s visibly gay. We see acknowledgement and dealing with homophobia and racism, and his success despite it. We see him advocating and supporting other queer black officers. We meet his husband, not just as a “here he is” but as an actual relationship. Kevin isn’t just a carbon copy of Raymond nor is he a comical opposite. They are similiar enough that you understand how they fell in love, but they are unique personalities. They have troubles and arguments, but stay together and support each other. Honestly they are one of the best on screen couples I’ve seen period, let alone a gay one. He’s also a stoic character who remains stoic while still warming up and having humour and connection with others, without changing his personality to make it easier for the writers. He’s an enjoyable character, and respectfully treated, and I love him and the writers and the actor.
The real problem with books-turned-movies isn’t “omg they didn’t include every single word in the book” it’s “omg they completely overlooked the main theme, threw out any significant allegories, took away all the emotional pull, an turned it into a boring action movie with a love triangle in it”
