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VIDEOGAMES: Twelve-Year-Old gamer Calls Out His friends for Homophobia

12 Year Old Gamer - TikTok Screen Capture

A Tiktoker’s brother has given a masterclass in eviscerating homophobic video gamers – and he’s only 12. In two viral TikToks which has been viewed millions of times, the younger brother of user @BumbleBee__ happily plays the video game Call of Duty: Warzone when he encounters something so common for many queer gamers, discrimination. As the first clip shows, the brother can be seen having an intense argument with a friend about him being homophobic. “So, you just blatantly admit to being homophobic?” he asks one of his friends through a headset, who presumably confirms they know this as the … Read more

Umbrella Academy to Tackle Homophobia and Racism in Season Two

Umbrella Academy

As The Umbrella Academy gears up to return for season two, Robert Sheehan (Klaus Hargreeves) has teased how the new episodes tackle homophobia and racism in the 1960s. The pansexual Klaus’ relationship with Dave struck a chord with queer fans in season one – until he was shot dead in battle during the Vietnam War. The Netflix original returns with a new run of episodes Friday (31 July), and this time the Hargreeves siblings have travelled back in time to the early 1960s – before Dave’s death. Though details of The Umbrella Academy’s season two plot are being kept tightly … Read more

FILM: Fantastic Beasts 2 Set Homophobic, Enby Extra Says

Fantastic Beasts 2

Model Jamie Windust has bad memories of their first job as a film extra, on the set of Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Windust denounced the working conditions as “atrocious” and said “misogyny, homophobia, transphobia” were rampant on set in a thread posted on Twitter on Monday (November 19), which has since been retweeted more than 7,000 times and received 23,000 likes.  “I want to use this opportunity not to call out people, but to now for the future ensure we try and create safe working environments for trans/NB people where sometimes they’re forgotten,” Windust wrote … Read more

TV: Exorcist Producer Has Choice Words for Homophobes

Exorcist

TV producer Jeremy Slater has absolutely no time for homophobic fans. Slater is an executive producer on the Fox series The Exorcist, a sequel to the 1973 film. In a recent episode, excommunicated priest Marcus Keane (Ben Daniels) travels to an island to investigate the paranormal. There, he shares a kiss with a friendly local (Christopher Cousins). Slate did an interview with Sci-Fi Bulletin where he talked about the moment in question. He first acknowledged that there wasn’t much backlash. However, when he addressed the people who took issue with the kiss, he held nothing back. ‘I saw a couple … Read more

For Writers: Going Backward

Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Richard Wood: Could western society return to persecution and declaring illegal sexual activities of sexual minorities? If so how and why? It’s an interesting question. We all take it as an article of faith that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But looking at some of the recent political developments around the world, you sometimes have to wonder. Has anyone written sci fi where things get bad again? How could it happen? And what kinds of stories could we tell around this premise? Join the chat

For Writers: Creating Homophobic Characters

Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Janet Gershen-Siegel: Creating believable homophobic characters, the kinds that aren’t just one-note villains. It’s a good question. Any time we create villains, it’s easy to make them all bad, a dark vs. light thing where the evildoer must be vanquished. I have to admit, I am especially guilty of this when the villain is homophobic. As a gay man, I don’t WANT to see anything redeeming in such people. And yet… we are all complicated creatures. I just read the story of a woman who used to head an ex-Gay organization, who now officiates … Read more

Celebrating Diversity

Homophobia

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette: “When you have a culture that celebrates diversity, how did it get that way and how do they make it work? In particular, are any of those things replicable in the world where we live? Look at the places where we’re writing a future in which homosexuality and other sex/gender variations are fully accepted. How do we get from here to there?” It’s a great question. Mark and I run a number of directories, including one for LGBT friendly wedding vendors, and we have known for some time that our business will likely … Read more