Success and failure go hand in hand

Ugh

I will be the first person to openly admit that bisexuals get a shit end of the stick when it comes to media portrayals. Especially when the writers and film makers seem to love making us be insane killers or just insane.

However, I get very uncomfortable when I hear gays and lesbians whining about bisexuals, because much of the time their main complaint boils down to them being unhappy that the bisexual winds up with an opposite sex partner.

Again, I can get it, media still has a mighty strong heteronormativity streak in it. There are many portrayals that end up with an opposite sexual partner, and some even make bisexuality a passing thing, sort of like college experimentation. I’m not debating any of that.

What I’m uncomfortable with is the underlying implication that the bisexual character winding up with an opposite sex partner is not good. I will be on board, full stop, with a bisexual character going for a healthy relationship. Regardless of the gender of the other person. But it’s getting really old to hear “Ew, she’s going to wind up with a man.”

Well, yes, that’s a good possibility. BECAUSE SHE’S BISEXUAL.

Say ew because they’re trying to put her with a shitty partner just to keep heteronormativity, say ew because they’re trying to put her with a shitty partner period and pass it off as normal and okay, and say ew because they made her or him a psychotic murderer.

But can we please stop saying “ew” over something that’s a natural part of bisexuality? 

PS - The next person I catch saying “ew” about a bisexual or pansexual dating a T man or woman, am I going to straight up verbally curb stomp. That shit ain’t cool period, but it’s vile when it comes from our own LGBT community.

MIT researchers develop LGBT-focused video game

gaywrites:

A group of researchers from MIT have developed a game that will seek to directly address LGBT issues, rather than putting them on the backburner. 

Even video games like the Sims and BioWare that do acknowledge same-sex relationships do little to bring light to the specific conditions and challenges of LGBT people. A new game called A Closed World will bring these issues front and center. From GamePro:

A Closed World is a JRPG-styled game in which players take on the role of a young resident of a village whose beloved has disappeared into a forest, which local lore claims is a place of no return. The game seeks to explore ways in which games can present LGBT content as well as the challenges a development team faces when trying to sensitively handle material about someone regarded as different from the perceived “norm.”

“It’s not an easy topic,” explains Harper. “And people come into the situation with lots of different expectations and backgrounds. But they embraced it as a team.” He cites the example of his Singaporean student interns attending the Boston Pride Parade almost immediately after stepping off the plane and starting orientation. “Once I got over the moment of shock, I really felt a smile slowly spread across my face. They were a super close-knit team, which I think was a tremendous asset in terms of the progress of the project. Plus, it was reassuring to me to see them taking an interest in the ‘subject matter,’ as it were.”

Try the prototype of the game out here. What do you think of this project and its product?