It's quiet uptown.
I've been quiet recently, for a variety of reasons. RL is quite busy with the end of the school year, the end of some projects I've been a part of, and the end of the repair work on our house. I'm reading a lot, catching up on fandom and commenting where I can, and mostly just trying to grab some peace for myself when a moment appears.
I have lots of things to say - about Hamilton and the Tonys, about watching The Tudors for the first time and railing against inaccuracies while adoring some of the casting choices, about how I do not fully understand Orphan Black this season no matter how hard I try - but mostly what I want to talk about is Orlando and homophobia and Islamophobia and that utter child of an actor from The Real O'Neals saying stupid and uninformed things about characters and actors who came before him and how it still is an act of bravery to be out and I just...
It's been weird being an adult in a fandom (Glee) where the central characters talk all of the time about being LGBT in this world and so much of the younger parts of the fandom tell us old folks how it isn't a big deal anymore. They told us to get over it, to celebrate the LGBT community without fear, to disregard the narratives that older people from that community (like Ryan Murphy) were writing on shows like Glee because they aren't valid now. They told us we were forcing our history on a present that doesn't line up with it.
And look, a lot has changed, and the culture now is different even from when Glee started. We are growing by leaps and bounds both in public sentiment and in legislation, and it's absolutely wonderful.
But from the perspective of someone whose best friend came out to her in 1990 by saying with devastated tears that he'd never be able to have kids or get married - and who now is happily married to another man and has two beautiful kids - as much as things have changed for the better, and there is so much better, we still live in a society where kids are getting bullied every day, and the government is fighting over whether they can legislate gender and bathrooms or whether LGBT people are allowed to foster or adopt kids or whether gay people can donate blood, and the streets are often unsafe places to walk while not 'looking straight,' and gay clubs and bars are often a desperately needed refuge for simply being able to be in public in your own true skin and I...
I guess while I want people to yell and fight and mourn and change the world, and while I want them to dance and celebrate and love and shine so brightly, I also want them to stop and listen sometimes, because there is wisdom and history that matters, too.
The world has changed, but it also hasn't. Looking back, we can see how far we've come, but looking around, we can see how far there is to go.
But still. I wish I had been proven wrong. I wish the kids who told me to stop thinking about the hard stuff and the history because it wasn't valid anymore had been right.
I have lots of things to say - about Hamilton and the Tonys, about watching The Tudors for the first time and railing against inaccuracies while adoring some of the casting choices, about how I do not fully understand Orphan Black this season no matter how hard I try - but mostly what I want to talk about is Orlando and homophobia and Islamophobia and that utter child of an actor from The Real O'Neals saying stupid and uninformed things about characters and actors who came before him and how it still is an act of bravery to be out and I just...
It's been weird being an adult in a fandom (Glee) where the central characters talk all of the time about being LGBT in this world and so much of the younger parts of the fandom tell us old folks how it isn't a big deal anymore. They told us to get over it, to celebrate the LGBT community without fear, to disregard the narratives that older people from that community (like Ryan Murphy) were writing on shows like Glee because they aren't valid now. They told us we were forcing our history on a present that doesn't line up with it.
And look, a lot has changed, and the culture now is different even from when Glee started. We are growing by leaps and bounds both in public sentiment and in legislation, and it's absolutely wonderful.
But from the perspective of someone whose best friend came out to her in 1990 by saying with devastated tears that he'd never be able to have kids or get married - and who now is happily married to another man and has two beautiful kids - as much as things have changed for the better, and there is so much better, we still live in a society where kids are getting bullied every day, and the government is fighting over whether they can legislate gender and bathrooms or whether LGBT people are allowed to foster or adopt kids or whether gay people can donate blood, and the streets are often unsafe places to walk while not 'looking straight,' and gay clubs and bars are often a desperately needed refuge for simply being able to be in public in your own true skin and I...
I guess while I want people to yell and fight and mourn and change the world, and while I want them to dance and celebrate and love and shine so brightly, I also want them to stop and listen sometimes, because there is wisdom and history that matters, too.
The world has changed, but it also hasn't. Looking back, we can see how far we've come, but looking around, we can see how far there is to go.
But still. I wish I had been proven wrong. I wish the kids who told me to stop thinking about the hard stuff and the history because it wasn't valid anymore had been right.