In 2020, the online news organization The Intercept revealed that HRW’s then-Executive Director, Ken Roth, accepted a $470,000 donation from a Saudi billionaire based on the condition that HRW would not use the money to protect the rights of the persecuted LGBTQ-plus community in the Middle East.
Roth was compelled to return the donation after The Intercept report.
I wish I had something I could say to help or to sway your fears but I’m a 30-odd year old gay man and I’m terrified for myself and everyone else in the community. For a brief period there was some light that things started to get better but it was just painted faces. This world is… well let’s just say there’s a reason I’m such a big Star Trek fan and there’s a reason why Stamets being gay meant such a fucking enormous amount to me. Finally I got to not only see the world I wanted to live in but also got to know that there is a place for me in the future. That we are real. That we matter.
I get it. I think you’ve probably seen me say before that Star Trek missed a huge opportunity in the 90s to represent the community when Berman refused to let Bashir and Garak be a couple. It’s so sad that it took until Ellen came out in 1997 to even hope for more positive LGBT representation on American television and there’s still precious little of it. I can’t remember which cereal brand it was, but a few years ago, within the past decade, an ad showed a kid eating cereal and they had two dads and people lost their shit. Even in 2023, much of America (and from what you’re saying Canada too) isn’t ready for characters like Stamets and it’s just wrong. Even the fact that Discovery is on Paramount+, which is still pretty niche, shows it. Heaven forbid a regular network have a couple like Stamets and Culber that have a deep and abiding love for each other. The only other example I can think of right now is the Harley Quinn cartoon and you have to have Max to see it. (But it’s really good, I highly recommend it.)
Look what happened with Dylan Mulaney and Bud Light. It wasn’t even a huge ad campaign. They were given a few cans of Bud Light and did a photo shoot with them and posted it online. That’s it. That’s all they did. And suddenly Kid Rock was shooting cans of Bud Light with his rifle. Fucking insanity.
Correct on all points. It’s so depressing man. Also I think it was Cheerios but I could be wrong. God forbid the cereal whose name partially means happy show a happy couple. Campbells Soup had the same backlash as well.
Look what happened with Dylan Mulaney and Bud Light. It wasn’t even a huge ad campaign. They were given a few cans of Bud Light and did a photo shoot with them and posted it online. That’s it. That’s all they did. And suddenly Kid Rock was shooting cans of Bud Light with his rifle. Fucking insanity.
It’s why I am so aggressively protective of my trans homies. The amount of violence that’s being suggested and hinted towards is fucking insane. It’s dangerous as hell and I’m afraid for them. Us gays have the benefit of being slightly socially accepted at least but there are very few famous trans people who are widely loved. No Neil Patrick Harris or Ellen (although fuck that woman). They’re an easy target at the moment and one that has seemingly fucking no one defending it. Just want to scream.
I just hope representation continues in media. My daughter came way after Ellen and I think she’s still too young to really get into Harley Quinn (I don’t mind the language or the violence, I just think a lot of the plot, especially the references, would go above her head), but I hope eventually she’ll find people on TV that represent her.
I’ve been showing her Daria. I keep thinking how much better a show it would have been if Daria and Jane’s friendship developed into love. The way it’s written, I kind of think the creators wanted it to go that way.
