Saying it out loud. Quietly

Less is more

There are several reasons this article is awesome:

1 - Its an article about gay couples on tv

2 - One of the couples only exist in its fandoms mind and the other is just a rumour

3 - It debating the merits of which couple is better

4 - Its a regular article

When I came out we had slim to no articles about gay characters. Less gay couples, even less gay couples that the fans created! Whenever there was an article the headline screamed ‘LESBIAN CHARACTER REVEALED’ or ‘GAY STORYLINE SHOCKER’.

It’s articles like this that give me hope that things really are getting better for equality. A regular website holding a debate about characters in a show with no ‘NEW LESBIAN HOOKUP!!!!’ tag-line/header screaming for attention.

The whole article does not once mention the word lesbian or gay. It recognizes that those words are irrelivant, the reader already knows the characters its talking about are female, and thats not an issue. The article debates who the better pairing is, regardless that one of the pairings has never happened on the show and discusses the chemistry of the two potential couples. Whoever wrote this article, along with whoever green lit its publication, I ADORE YOU!

If more websites, papers, magazines and TV channels treated gay characters/actors this way; like everyone else and without needing to put ‘lesbian character’ anywhere in the article it would do so much for equality.

So near, yet so far

TV shows.

Mindless fun or powerful media? in most cases it’s both (in a few neither) as it gives you a chance to live vicariously through someone else while seeing how their problems and issues are dealt with. Many people will argue ‘its not real’ but the situations and moral issues, while sometimes being set within a sci fi or fantasy world, completely resonate and strike a cord within many of us.

Buffy was the master of this. A completely unrealistic premise; one girl with the strength to stop the hoardes of evil from taking over the world, yet through the genius of Joss and his writing team he evoked feelings and emotions that everyone could empathise with. The feelings of first love, unrequited love, pressure from parents to do well in school, not fitting in, dealing with sex for the first time, questioning your sexuality….all major themes in every teenagers life.

I miss Buffy.

This is why shows with so much promise, like Glee, disappoint even more when they get it SO wrong. Glee was fantastic when it first exploded onto our screen. A teenage show actually focusing on the misfits; showing what it is really like to be the outsiders, the people that genuinely have reason for not wanting to go to school every day. Pus there was two openly gay actors on the cast, major bonus points!

Things started well, the first season was everything you expected it to be, light hearted fun with some serious topics to show it wanted to be informative as well as frivolous. We rooted for Will to dump Terri and declare his love for Emma, and even though Finn was a bit of a numbskull we wanted Rachel to get him because she was the underdog that went through hell every day and always came out with a smile still in place. We saw Quinn’s fall from grace; from social queen to social outcast, beloved daughter to homeless teenager, carefree cheerleader to heartbroken mother having to put her child up for adoption and we felt ourselves go from hating her for her haranguing of Rachel to feeling for her and understanding her fears. There was that ‘sex is not dating’ line from Brittany that gave every lesbian hope that they would have some representation on screen. Sue with her comedic quips was only able to be out matched by Brittany’s genius one liners.

Season two was even better; an episode devoted to Brittany, Kurt gets a love interest of his own, Kurt’s father shows the entire population how to parent correctly, Hollie Holiday appears and councils Brittany & Santana about their feelings for each other, we see Karofsky go from stereotype bully to kid struggling with his sexuality, Born this way teaches everyone the importance of loving who they truly are.

Then came season three. So eagerly awaited, so much promise. So many issues. Yes there were the plus points, but there was always an issue to negate it.

Brittany and Santana finally became an item - but their coverage wasn’t equal to their straight counterparts.

Santana finally came out - but Finn outed Santana without any comeback on him and was then shown to be the hero by getting the group to sing ‘female empowered songs’ at her.

There was an episode devoted to Blaine’s relationship with his brother (something that has had NO follow up) - yet Brittany failing her senior year and not graduating was merely a side note shoehorned in as a ‘oh yeah and this is happening too’.

The transgendered storyline of Wade/Unique was handled masterfully well - but  Brittany & Santana’s relationship was made fun of when Brittany released a ‘sex tape’ to try and help Santana achieve the fame she wanted; even though Hollie Holiday clearly said to Puck & Zizes who were thinking of doing the same thing in season two that it was a felony.

Quinn was shown to go from self obsessed bitch to caring and selfless friend when she gave her much coveted win of prom queen to Rachel, a girl who dreams of Broadway but never thought she stood a chance at high school prom queen - yet Joe is shown to question his long held faith after he gets a couple of boners. He then speaks to Sam about having sex with Quinn, something that is highly inappropriate as A. he’s not even dating Quinn and B. even if he were, that should be a discussion he holds with Quinn.

On a show that has proved it can get it right, it makes having to endure the wrong SO much worse.

Now my feelings go:

It just got better

Four states. Four in one sweep. Washington, Minnesota, Maine and Maryland. In one day walls have come down and massive strides for equality have gone forward.

This is one of those small moments that lead to a real change in the world. For all those that voted for equality, even though it isn’t my country I still thank you. Thank you for being you, for being open minded enough to realise that just because I love a woman it doesn’t make me a threat to you. Thank you for seeing that love between two people, regardless of gender is still love, and that love is and always will be the strongest power in this ‘verse. Your love and acceptance has made us feel loved, not just the LGBTQ community in America, but those all over the world.

With your one vote, you spoke to the world. You spoke to all those kids out there that need something to hold onto, that need a sign to get them through the dark. You just told them IT GETS BETTER.