One of my favourite things about heartstopper is just how explicit it is that being closeted isn’t bad. Ben isn’t awful to Charlie because he’s closeted, he’s awful to Charlie because he’s cruel and insecure. And everybody tells Nick at every opportunity that he shouldn’t have to come out if he doesn’t want to, especially Charlie because he knows how hard it is to be out and he cares more about Nick being safe and happy than being open about their relationship
The closest anyone gets to telling him to come out is during the conversation he has with Tao. And even that’s just him saying that Charlie deserves more than to be the guy he kisses sometimes on the downlow, but it’s fine if he can’t give him more than that and that Charlie would never make him come out if he isn’t ready. He isn’t telling him to come out, he’s telling him to consider what Charlie would be feeling. And it feels more like he’s telling him to make it official than to actually come out, it was Nick’s decision to come out because he wanted to make it official
I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a queer story be this kind to closeted people before. They aren’t treated like cowards or liars or burdens, they’re treated like people in situations where they may not feel comfortable/safe enough to come out. Because in a lot of cases, that’s what they are. And they’re treated with as much kindness and understanding as they deserve and I just love that
Well. A seven minute nap in the car has received me enough to make it thru this first hour. WILL be sleeping during my hour off and hope that gets me thru the last three hours.
Thru w section one of the day. I’ve been running students all over the theater all day aaaaand now have to pivot and teach. Will not be fielding anyyyy bullshit thanks much.
Excerpt from Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts, erasure poetry of legal documents challenging the incarceration of people because they could not afford to pay bail
[text ID: erasure poem, left out words read: “It is the policy of the City to jail people / It is the policy of the City to jail people / It is the policy of the City to hold prisoners until extinguished”]
transcript of video by TikTok account thatannamarie from early December 2021
-begin transcript
Here’s a word that every queer person should know: homonationalism is not the name of my new synth-pop album. It’s a concept from sociology that acknowledges how queer people are used in conversations about global politics.
Homonationalism is when we use LGBT rights as a yardstick to judge how “moral” a society is. It’s short for “homonormative nationalism"—say that five times fast—and it was first coined by Jasbir Puar to describe how the US presented itself as LGBT-friendly to contrast itself to "homophobic” Muslims during the War on Terror. It can also be applied to other contexts, like the way we talk about homophobic countries in Africa or the Caribbean while ignoring the role of European colonialism in those regions.
Put a finger down if you’ve ever heard something like:
You know being gay is a crime in Ghana, right?
Those Middle Eastern countries are so backwards. Do you know what they do to gay people over there?
Oh it’s so weird. [Looks around as if hearing something from outside the room.] My neighbor’s dog is going crazy…
You know you’ve lost the plot when you’re talking about homophobia among Muslims, when white American Christians are the ones who made gay marriage illegal, ignored the entire AIDS crisis, and to this day don’t have any national policies regarding conversion therapy, a trans-panic defense, or the forcing of trans women into men’s prisons and vice-versa.
Barbados just became free of British rule this week; we should not be shocked if they have some homophobic policies.
And while I obviously believe that a more moral society is one with robust protections for queer people, LGBT rights can’t be used to judge other countries, to make us feel better about bombing them.
As an aside, I live in Connecticut, an American state where it gets dark at 4pm now, and where LGBT rights are actually pretty good. We were one of the first states to institute gay marriage, transgender health care is part of our state insurance, and we’re just generally more legally protected here.
And yet while legal support is very robust in our state, there’s very little cultural support. Homophobia and transphobia in day-to-day life is roughly as bad as any other part of the country, and we have no gay cultural infrastructure. Only enough gay bars to count on one hand, and no known queer meeting spaces otherwise. It’s obviously not as bad as living in a place where being gay is a crime, but it’s still pretty lonely out here.
So for a variety of reasons, I don’t appreciate queer and trans people being used as a pawn to further Islamophobia, anti-African sentiment, and general xenophobia. Mainly because it’s racist and ignorant; many of these countries have a long, rich history of queer and trans and nonbinary identities before white European colonizers showed up, but also because western “acceptance” of LGBTQ people is very conditional and very limited in terms of material and legal protection.
White supremacy wins when we pit queer people and people of color against each other. We need international solidarity and an acknowledgment of colonialism to achieve equality and equity.
