A whole lot of isms, but mostly heterosexism.

[strange_tomato]

Given that this Sunday, May 17, is the International Day Against Homophobia, it's interesting that I was recently called out for being heterosexist. To my face, by a lesbian. I was pretty embarrassed. (Not that it would be any better to have this pointed out in another way, but I felt pretty careless.)

Comments

[leskuh]

I think it's good that she mentioned it, but I definitely wouldn't call you heterosexist. Yes, you overlooked sexuality this one time, but you're usually very aware of it. I try to be, but I do definitely default to heterosexism most of the time, which I'm trying to work on.

Haha, I'd be totally cool if my son/daughter ended up being gay or bisexual or anything like that. But I'd also probably worry about it too, especially depending on where he/she grew up. If I were where Ale is, I probably wouldn't even think about it, but I grew up in a very conservative area and I know what it can do to kids growing up. There's actually a documentary that was made about Jim Wheeler who went to our high school and was an artist and a poet and also he was gay. He ended up committing suicide a few years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_in_Bold

http://www.jimwheeler.org/

Since then, things have definitely changed. In my Freshman year of high school, they instated a Gay-Straight Alliance which has really done wonders for the school. So things are getting better, but it's still good to keep talking about sexuality and gender and heterosexism.

I do think, at the end of the day, the best way to approach gay characters is to approach them as characters. They're people first and their sexuality should not be their defining trait.

That's actually why I love how you write. There's so much variety and everyone is written in ways put their character and their habits above their sexuality. Franny is Franny. He's not the token gay. Same with Beau or Ripp or Jaxy.