festeringfae:

I can’t bring this up at all without reiterating “the question we should be discussing is how to get rid of homophobia within the entertainment industry” but with that said I feel like a lot of people iterating the reductive “only gay people should play gay characters” bit focus only on the very few “prestige” gay roles that serve as Oscar bait for straight actors. It completely ignores shit like Laura Dern, Harry Hamlin, Micheal Ontkean getting blacklisted for a DECADE after playing Ellen’s love interest in the coming out episode of her show and starring in Making Love (1982) respectively. And those are just examples of straight actors who managed to bounce back after not getting work for t e n y e a r s, God knows how many more there are, especially since we’ve now started this lovely ahistorical trend of treating straight actors (Rob James-Collier) speaking out against homophobia getting them blackballed as co-opting oppression for attention instead of, you know, being mad homophobia can cost anyone a job. And how do you classify actors like Cate Blanchett and Gillian Anderson, who both identify as straight but have openly revealed having prior romantic & sexual relationships with women?

If you still can’t be bothered to care about any of this because they’re straight people and what about gay people: it’s a much more prevalent and damaging stereotype that gay people can’t convincingly pretend to be straight as actors. Sean Hayes’ negative reviews in the musical (MUSICAL!) Promises, Promises were so based in this homophobic idea that his straight costar Kristin Chenoweth published an op-ed entirely devoted to shaming critics for it. Any piece of media Matt Bomer has been in since he came out is guaranteed to mention his inability to pass as straight at least once, no matter that he did it just fine before he chose to come out.

The belief is so pervasive that it even impacts straight actors, through typecasting. When was the last time you saw Natasha Lyonne play a straight woman? Melanie Lynskey? How many straight actors have you seen have to have to have “transitional” roles from playing gay to playing some sort of sexual menace before they’re allowed straight roles again? Stanley Tucci’s pre and post Lovely Bones roles come to mind offhand, as does Gethin Anthony’s leap from “the gay king from Game of Thrones” to “Charles Manson on Aquarius” (a show which no one watched, but, HMM, NBC renewed over gay-run Hannibal). The gay actor inverse of that phenomenon, of course, is the hyper-masculinity and/or depravity of all Neil Patrick Harris’ straight roles (How I Met Your Mother, Gone Girl) or hyperconformativity to the feminine ideal alongside unthreatening homoerotic humor (Portia de Rossi as the wife of Tobias Bluth, Kate McKinnon in various roles & sketches).

And if all that isn’t enough to convince you that “straight actors shouldn’t play gay roles” is a laughably ignorant statement, I would really encourage you to think about everything we know about the production of the movie Frida. Should Salma Hayak have just not fought to have a Latina wlw on screen? Are we going to argue over whether or not she was the “right” person to be coierced into a sex scene by Harvey Weinstein? Are we gonna do that for Blue Is The Warmest Colour, too?

Or we could just focus on asking how to stop violence, including the innate violence of bigotry, within the entertainment industry. Yeah, let’s do that instead.

zebrashavestripes:

nowletsfixthismess:

The thing about being LGBT+ is, at some point in your childhood, no matter how accepting your parents are, at some point, you have to question: “do they love me unconditionally?” And then you have to plan for the possibility hat the answer is no. And that fucks you up. Straight cis people never have to question that.

Before I came out to my parents, I literally planned what I’d do if my parents decided to kick me out, like what I’d pack, which friend I’d stay with. Luckily, I never had to do any of that, but the fact that being disowned seemed so likely to me, that I planned it to so much detail… it fucks you up, man, and it takes a while to stop feeling like you’ll be forced out any day. 

That’s why I hate it when people dismiss the importance of coming out, and just how difficult the process really is. Straight cis people really don’t know what it’s like. It’s only when you’ve found yourself preparing for the absolute worse when you can truly understand why so many people opt for silence.

This is also why there are so many people passionate about sexuality/sexual orientation/gender/general queer-ness. We don’t want other people to go through the same things we’ve gone through. And we want to make it easier for the people whose ‘escape plans’ actually become reality.

This is also why I’ve heard so many people say ‘I’ll never deny my sexuality/sexual orientation/gender/general queer-ness’. Because you don’t go through all that fear for something that isn’t important.

peachytimothee:

sodiumforsaltytimes:

foxrat:

spaceddad:

pomegranat:

i–started-a-joke:

pomegranat:

heca-tea:

let 👏 bisexual 👏 girls 👏 love 👏 boys

what

LET 👏 BISEXUAL 👏 GIRLS 👏 LOVE 👏 BOYS

who’s stopping them

Lesbians who say they’ll never date a girl that has touched a man. People that say bi girls will cheat because they’re bi. There’s so much biphobia not only with straight people, but in the gay community

my lesbian friends who told me they were “high-key disappointed” when i started dating a cishet boy. my ex girlfriend who asked me “wait weren’t you gay” and then when i explained i was bi went “um. ew lol”. the whole “gold star lesbian” bullshit. can we face the biphobia in the lgbt community instead of shoving it under the rug lol

I’ve seen and reblogged this for the boy version as well, so it’s only fair if I do it for girls as well!!

LET 👏 GIRLS 👏 LOVE 👏 WHOEVER 👏 THEY 👏 LOVE

stilesisbiles:

bi-and-monogamous:

“Bisexuality is a whole, fluid identity. Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or duogamous in nature: that we have “two” sides or that we must be involved simultaneously with both genders to be fulfilled human beings. In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders. Do not mistake our fluidity for confusion, irresponsibility, or an inability to commit. Do not equate promiscuity, infidelity, or unsafe sexual behavior with bisexuality. Those are human traits that cross all sexual orientations. Nothing should be assumed about anyone’s sexuality, including your own.”

(From the 1990 Bisexual Manifesto, Bay Area Bisexual Network, “Anything That Moves”)

“In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders.” -From the 1990 Bisexual Manifesto 

So maybe people can stop saying bisexuality’s inclusion of nonbinary folk is ‘new’. Signed, a bi nonbinary person. 

rubyfruitgirl:

I know a lot of lesbians that used to identify as bi who worried that coming out as a lesbian would contribute to invalidating bisexuality in some way, by making it seem like a “stepping stone” to coming out as gay. I’ve also known bi women who identified as lesbians and changed their labels later, and worried that they were contributing to some kind of idea about how men can ~turn lesbians. I just wanted to say that it’s no individual lesbian or bi women’s responsibility to fix straight people’s perceptions of us. Like, it’s not your duty to serve as a political symbol! It’s your duty to find happiness even if that means changing ur label at some points.

caristars:

jacquesspier:

if 2018=20GAYteen, does that mean 2019=20BIteen?

Oh this is valid, fuck yeah

theambassadorposts:

This is a beautiful thing to spread.