 The LGBTQ plus youth edition today is November 19th and we will be talking about LGBTQ plus representation and LGBTQ, the LGBTQ plus community in media in general. My name is Jules Caserta. I use they, them pronouns. My name is Jamie and I use they, them pronouns. Start off. Let's define representation. Oh, I'm defining. You're defining representation. So representation is basically anybody who, anybody or characters, so actors or characters in media or in books, or online to some, that the public, including youth, are exposed to and how they. So they are part of a minority group. Yeah, yeah, part of the minority. So an actor or character that is part of a minority group that is in. Yeah. That is in media. Yes. So why is it important then? Why is it important, especially like, why is any rep important, but mainly delving into queer representation? Because obviously, that's what the show is for. I mean, I think a big part of it is that we need to like expose younger students to, or not younger audiences to these, these minorities sooner rather than later. Because the earlier they're exposed, the more they can go to accept them, the more it's normalized in communities. And media is like a really, really big part of pop culture too. So when you see these minorities and these figures represented in pop culture, then you, it started to be accepted into regular culture. Especially rep is important for the, like queer community specifically and also for like, outside of the cis hats too, so they can sort of be, so it is normalized and important, but it's also important in like the queer community, especially for youth, because it like gives you a way to sort of grow to understand it a little bit more. Like if you're growing up and all you, as a queer person, but you just don't know it yet and you're seeing like bad representation, it can lead to internalized hemophobia or transphobia, which is like crippling down your mental state. And then like, like you said with the cis, cisgender heterosexual people, you know, they, if they don't have like any queer friends, then this is like one of their only ways Queer friends that they know of. That they know of. This is one of their only ways of viewing the community. So rep is important. A lot of people try to say that it doesn't really matter if it comes to the queer community, that like why do you need to see yourself in media? I mean, you know, it's no different than any other minority. Yeah, rep is important. That's kind of the biggest thing. And it, how does it affect the youth mainly? How do youth like, psychologically, how do you think it affects them a little bit? Did it affect you at all when you were like going through that? I mean, I didn't have any representation. I didn't figure out like, even like, lesbian and gay was a thing until like fifth grade. Shout out to Pinterest, am I right? Okay. But that was, you know, from my own findings online and it wasn't through media, but of course, looking back, there are, I read a lot of like graphic novels that I saw this representation in, but I didn't recognize it as something. For example, this book or series, it's a manga, I think, I read it back when I was having an anime phase type thing. But Wandering Sun, it's a book about, yeah, it's a book about two trans characters. So like, I don't remember their names. It's been a while. But it's about two trans characters and their struggles in middle school, mostly. And as they grow up, you follow them throughout the series and, you know, them meeting other people and dealing it with their friends and family and especially in a culture like Japan that tends to be fairly trans and homophobic. So I mean, I think being able to identify representation is important, too. Yeah. I don't think, maybe for me, representation, I didn't really know a lot about it because I only really started to get into reading queer novels and watching queer shows when I realized I was queer. But I think having it as a kid would have made recognizing my identity and that kind of stuff a lot easier if I was already exposed to that, which I think we've touched on a little bit. Yeah. So it's, yeah. Sorry. No, I didn't have it. Okay. There's a YouTube channel online. It's called Pop and Ollie and they do kids fairy tales, but they have queer characters in them. So like, it's Trans Cinderella and he turns into a boy for the ball and, you know, he's happy and goes from being an unhappy princess or an unhappy slave of the evil stepsisters and to this handsome prince and he, you know, serenades the princess at the ball. So, and those really break it down and also identify those representations for younger audiences especially. Yeah. Even if you're like a child who doesn't eventually realize that they're queer, it's so important to have that representation so you can, like, it can affect your, like, it can affect your ideas about the queer community. Like if you are watching, if you're like seeing stuff where it's like the stereotypes and all of that, it'll lead to you believing that those are real and, like, that's all of it. Like, if you're not exposed to it and being part of it, it's good to have it so you're, the good representation is so that you're a more understanding of it, especially. Yeah, it like, it makes it a more accessible idea to a lot of people, especially when it's like sprinkled in pop culture and media. Even like with, like, representation, a lot of the stuff you'll see now, it's like, it's the main thing where it's like, we're talking about like the queer identity and like the queer character struggle over it, but like if you just like have a side character who's like pansexual, it normalizes it. You know, there's this character over here who's, you know, low-key queer, but like it's not about that. Low-key queer. They're probably high-key queer, let's be honest. Are there different keys of queer? Yeah, but like, if you have like a side character who's just like, they're stender fluid and it's not like a huge deal, they can even be a main character who's just like not even like a huge thing. But it's not about that. It's not about that. It's just part of who they are. It's like, if they're hair with a certain color, it's just part of who they are. Which is important to have, but it's also important to have the books where it is like the struggle and all that is the main focus of the book where it's like Simon and the homo sapien agenda, the whole thing is kind of him realizing his identity and like becoming, getting into a relationship with someone. Good book. Good book. And it's huge now. It's huge. And like, it's great that that's like becoming because of big thing in the queer community, that book and that movie. And it's like a huge deal. Part of what was so cool about that is it wasn't, is that it was also something that says het people could get excited about because it's a sweet little love story. And it's not sexualized. It's not sexualized. Like a lot of your makeup can be, it's, yeah. It's so sexual. And it's so strange. And even as a person to look at that, I'm like, what's going on? Yeah, but then it also like paints queer people in a bad light and like perpetualizes. Perpetuates. Perpetuates. That's not a word. Perpetuates. Perpetuates. That's not a word. The stereotypes that queer people are pedophiles or sexual predators. Yeah. And he noticed that too with like people's view, like limited knowledge on poly relationships too. Oh yeah. People are always like, oh, it's just about sex. But if we had more of like healthy poly relationships in media, people who aren't part of that community could also normalize it and learn more about it. And it would give them a chance to know that about that. Because I think a lot of people probably want to know about this, that you just don't really know how. Yeah. So what, so we talked about how like Love Simon is considered like a good representation and like a bunch of different books that we can go into. But what about bad representation? Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Harry Potter. It's a nice place to start. Oh gosh. It's, it's... Oh gosh. Okay. It's a decent series, but it's got... It's an amazing series. Don't... I'm not a big Harry Potter fan. I'm sorry. Sacrilege. I'm just, it's just, I'm not a fantasy person. It's beautifully written though. No, it's not. No, I like, like... Okay. Moving on. Anyway, Harry Potter has some, some kind of sketchy representation and then like... Like what? Like, like there's, like the whole thing with Albus Dumbledore and that was like a queer baiting thing, queer baiting, like... But like go into that a little bit more. Like what happened? Well, I don't, you don't know. I don't, I don't... I'm gonna generate... You, you go. So the Harry Potter books came out, obviously they were all public. They were published and then a while later J.K. Rowling revealed in an interview that Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter's like mentor and the principal of Hogwarts, the headmaster of Hogwarts was gay. It was never explicitly stated in the book series, however, so a lot of people either labeled it as queer baiting or bad representation or J.K. Rowling trying to make herself look more progressive than she actually is. Just to clarify, queer baiting is like when authors or screenwriters or whoever creates these characters and then like... They hint at the idea that they're like in marketing a lot of the time? But don't make it ob, like... They never explicitly say. Yeah. They don't explicitly address that the character is queer so that leads to bad representation and like... It's not representation. Exactly. It's like leading queer people on and trying... It's like monopolizing queer people. So queer baiting is essentially they hint at it in the marketing to get the queer audience or like get those views or whatever, but they were actually delivered on that so they don't upset the homophobes but they also have the queer people watching because they want that representation. Yeah. And then like during Pride Month a lot of like big corporations will like make rainbow themed stuff even if they don't actually support the LGBTQ plus community. So personally I wouldn't label the Albus Dumbledore thing as queer baiting because it was never handed out explicitly like in the... Yeah. So it's like if you really, really squint at it, you can kind of see it but not really. So but it's also not good representation because even though he is canonly gay it's never stated and it's never shown meaning that the kids reading it didn't really get that. Yeah so it didn't, it just doesn't create any representation. And even now there's this huge scandal with the new movie series which is creating Fantastic Beast which focuses on a young Albus Dumbledore kind of. He's in it where he would be able to be shown as explicitly gay because now the Harry Potter audience is a lot older too because it's like they're a lot older so he would be able to be shown as explicitly gay but in the movie that... They shouldn't have to be older just... Yeah but he was giving them an opportunity to be shown as explicitly gay and now she said that he would not be trying to be explicitly gay. And that my friends is queer baiting. That's where the queer baiting comes in. Yeah. Also if you have to like drop it in an interview or like write it in the margin of a paper which is what she did to her editor. She was like the editor was like he was like trying to like get Albus in a relationship or something and particularly was like he's gay which is what she claims would have happened. Yeah. And generally I could rant about this for so long but it's even with like race and religion too she does it a lot where she like now she's trying to seem more progressive than she actually was like by adding it in where it's like I think she was like there's one Jewish person in Hogwarts and I was like what? But that's a whole thing. And then another thing with bad representation is playing on stereotypes of like the gay best friend or you want to go? Not... Yeah that's a big bad stereotype. And then that whole like the feminine you know gay guy type thing is a bad stereotype and that's like a really popular one too. Like the butch lesbian. Yeah. They're both like these really popular stereotypes which do exist but they are not anywhere near the entirety of those identities. So then like writers will put those in to like again try to seem very progressive and like try to appeal to the queer audience but in reality just perpetuating these bad stereotypes. And then like again back to that whole over sexualizing thing. A lot of queer media while it does you know while it is queer and it's about these queer characters it is sexual. It's not a sweet love story. We need more wholesome gigs. Yeah I mean there's no like... Especially for like youths too. Yeah it's really hard to expose younger children to these ideas when all the only place that they're being put in is sexual. Yeah it's really interesting. There's another trope with bad representation. I swear we'll talk about representation soon. This is very negative. But another one that you see a lot is the barrier gaze trope. They will introduce a queer character in the story and then quickly kill them off. So you appeal to the queer audience a little bit but also not angering anyone because they're dead now. What you see a lot in like a recent one is like Voltron which is a they introduce a gay character and then immediately kill them off. Like immediately kill them off. It was like two episodes. He was there and then he's dead. So they get to claim representation but they didn't actually again show it. What you see a lot of people trying to claim like claim to be progressive and had representation without actually showing it. With like Dick Rondling the stereotypes and the barrier gaze. It's all kind of in that realm. But what makes good representation? So much. So much. It's so easy. It really is not that hard. I think like you said making characters that it isn't all about them being queer. It's just part of their personality. Like just like their hair color. And then but at the same time you do need to have stories about characters who are inherently queer because that is a struggle that a lot of people don't always understand and that can open up from understanding from people who don't understand. That made sense. Kind of. And then it can also really provide a good place for queer people to see themselves in representation. Which you know it's like a really good place that you can connect with these characters. So examples of that too. Which I could go on forever. Hold your horses. I'm gonna talk. I love this book so much. Forget that. The Magnus Chase series is a sessful of diversity and representation. We have disabled main characters. We have a Muslim main character. We have gender fluid main character. Pansexual main character. It's so good you guys. It's so good for representation and everyone should read it. Also the way this author did it too was he wrote this series and it was pretty like the stereotypical fantasy series. It was all pretty straight. And then slowly as that series grew more and more popular we started adding in more representation to the publishing company. Couldn't say no at that point because it was so popular. The publishing company was like we have to do this. People are like begging for these books. And the author was like okay well here's the gender fluid main character. Here's a healthy gay relationship. You gotta publish it. You have no choice. Yeah. And that's like great because that also like it's like including queer people who are discovering their identity. It's honestly how it like followed my kind of path too because I started reading it when I was like 10. And now I'm like reading this super diverse book as I'm insanely queer. Which is how I would describe myself. There's also for short stories. I've been really into short stories recently. Not the only one. That's short stories. That's a little more YA. Be careful. Why is it good? Not young. I get it now. Yeah. But there's also this book. I read this recently. It is queer characters throughout history. I am in love. There is a trans Robin Hood. I love it so much. Trans and gay. It's a healthy relationship. The main character for healthy relationships. Is a trans guy. And he's in a healthy relationship with a deaf gay guy. And they're it's so good. And it just it also like exposes the idea that queer isn't like a recent concept and it's not just you know teenagers these days wanting to be special snowflakes. Oh I hate that term. Another thing that makes good rep is like especially in like movies and TV shows is casting. Casting trans actors to play trans characters. Casting is so important. What is it? Three generations I believe. It's about trans guy in his journey becoming trans and how his family accepts that. And it's really kind of a cool film of these like you know cool family relationships and especially because the main character has these gay grandparents and how like that older generation of gay people isn't as accepting of the newer generation of gender queer people. So it's a good series except I mean it's good movie except it's not a trans character playing. That's what I meant. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there like a isn't there like a trans superhero in a new this isn't the news but it's like I think super girl has the trans superhero being played by a trans woman now. I might be wrong. I'm not sure. Younger audiences that's where it gets hard but but it's casting is super important with all kinds of like diversity like you can't it's also like you can't cast a person to play a person of color which is not as common now hopefully good which is better but then I mean like for you there's the Lumberjanes which is a really sweet series about and it's more of a low-key like low-key the characters it's not about them being gay but they are all queer in some way and it's their adventures out of summer camp there's Steven Universe which is so good it's your eyes open up when you talk about these things you know there's Adventure Time which has Princess Bubblegum that would be a huge deal I haven't even watched the show and I'm just like kiss at the end which is so great there's like a wave of gay and I'm just like a sweet little romance that's happened over the years and it's developed and then it's acknowledged at the end which is finally acknowledgement yeah another thing representation is also like mental health representation like you don't see that a lot good book and movie for that perks of being a wallflower you have queer and mental health where it's like one of the main characters is queer and he's talking about like the struggles of dating someone who's closeted and then also the other main character is dealing with mental health and he was put in a hospital it's really really good for mental health and queer I watched it like a few nights ago and I'm still just like overwhelmed by how amazing it was and the actors they were so ever millers in it and he was playing a gay guy and I was like yes what a little problematic I've read something recently okay let's not go it's fine I appreciate him after being a queer person sure and then Freak Boy I read that recently it's like a book that's like set up in poem format and it's about a trans NB woman and her struggle like figuring out who she is and especially like with toxic masculinity in this like modern culture and how that affects queer people who are AMAB you know assigned male at birth and they're coming out processed and we talked a little bit about Simon and the Homo Sapien Agenda a lot of people don't know there are actually two of their books in that series there are? yes nobody knows about them and it bothers me but there's Laia on the offbeat which follows his best friend who is a plus size girl and also discovering her bisexuality and then there was a spin-off book about Abby who is a character Simon Homo Sapien Agenda her cousin who is also discovering kind of who is raised by two moms whose sister is also queer it's so gay the main character isn't gay which is also kind of could still super gay but she's also like yeah there are two spin-offs that nobody knows about I gotta read those I'm talking directly to you you read them you know who you are I don't know what I'm doing so arguments against queer representation sadly there are a few many of most of all them wrong one of them is most people that are watching these shows aren't queer do you really know that do you really know that the person sitting next to you isn't queer I know that they are queer shocker everyone I'm queer sorry but yeah, statistics disagree with the fact that most people aren't queer there are so many broad there are so many identities in the queer spectrum and to be cis there are only two identities that you have to be with so it's kind of like just saying math also another one that people ask is why you need to see yourself in media and that question is always being asked by the people who are over-represented who always see themselves in media so like straight white guys where there are so many versions and so many people that you could connect with where it's like we need to see yourself in media too so we can remain sane also and you hear a lot is forcing the gay agenda on children where is the straight agenda on children true, sorry that was a bit aggressive I think it would be kind of cool if everyone had to come out not only the queer kids you reach a you'll get to a point in your life where you're just kind of expected to identify yourself to your parents that'd be kind of cool whether you're straight oh my god whoa I don't know I think that'd be that'd be really really cool I feel I would love that but I don't think it's ever going to be a possibility I know, exactly but it's that whole thing where heteronormativity and cisnormativity like the idea that everyone or the idea that you assume someone is cisgender or heterosexual or both and less proven but rep can fix that exactly that's why we need it we need it we're just going to keep repeating we need it to each other okay so to end this what have you taken away and what do you want people to take away just like one sentence one sentence, I'm limiting you you go first rep matters um expose yourself to representation that you may not identify under alright this has been all things LGBTQ plus youth division and we will see you soon