Daily Forty-Niner; October 11, 2021

biweekly digital print edition

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Vol. LXXIV, Issue 35

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Monday, October 11, 2021

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Jonny Sweets waiting for the subway in New York.

Photo courtesy of Jonny Sweets

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Catholic parents learn to love their queer child A family grows closer after their son’s coming out.

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By Cindy Aguilera Contributor

J

onny Sweets is a 24-year-old, nonbinary, queer, Latinx from Los Angeles. Growing up Catholic, his Mexican parents taught him modesty and chastity. However, today Sweets prioritizes his own happiness.

“As a queer nonbinary Latino, it throws off your parents when you start wearing makeup and acrylic nails to go out with your friends,” he said. ”It’s taken them a while to realize being queer is not a phase.”

Sweets came out to his parents for the first time when he was 16 and they responded with acceptance, but their acceptance came with conditions.

Once, after a trip to New York, Sweets tried giving his father a keychain he’d bought as a souvenir.

“He refused my gift because I was handing it to him with long, blue, acrylic nails,” he shared.

“This was last year.” Femininity, make-up and overt gayness offended his parents while he was under their roof, so Sweets obeyed.

One Sunday, his First Communion teacher inadvertently eased Sweets’ anxiety about coming out.

She told their class, “No matter what anyone else tells you, even if the Bible may say one thing, there is no reason to treat certain people badly for who they are.”

Sweets said he felt comforted then. “I knew

I wasn’t stealing, killing or being a bad human, so why would I go to hell if I’m being the kindest person I can be?” Sweets said. “Some straight people are terrible, why do they get guaranteed into heaven?”

When he was 16, his Catholic godparents counseled Sweets’ parents to ease the news of his coming out.

“They asked my parents if they had ever thought about how I felt or what I was going through,” he said. “Just because my godparents are religious it didn’t mean they were going to spread hate.”

This eased tension in the family and set a new rule: “The whole family knew by then and so my parents made it clear to them: if they said anything offensive, my parents would defend me in an instant,” he said. “Everyone’s been accepting so far.”

Sweets acknowledged his privilege of having a loving, accepting family, for a lot of LGBTQ+ youth does not. But times are changing, and so is the Latinx culture.

“As homosexuality is normalized in Latin America, a lot of Latinos feel more at ease with gay people. You have influencers, celebrities and even famous actors who have come out.”

Sweets said. “Being gay isn’t such a strange thing anymore.”

He’s hopeful that him blossoming and flourishing as a person will continue to inspire his family.

“I broke some generational curse, like a pattern of homophobia in my family and now they’re accepting and slowly leaving behind their old ways of thinking,” he said. “They know I’m the same person I’ve always been, I’m just attracted to men.”

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KELSEY BROWN | Daily Forty-Niner

Two-spirit is an umbrella term for Indigenous LGBTQ people.

Two-spirit people precede the gender binary How Indigenous people’s perspective on gender was tainted by colonization.

By Kelsey Brown Contributor

B

efore colonization, Indigenous p e o p l e lived free from the limiting binary restrictions, imposed by Europeans, that modern America is used to.

Europeans took Indigenous people’s land, forced them to convert to their religion and stripped them of their language.

Europe’s suffocating grasp on Indigenous life smothered every aspect of their existence, including gender.

Gabriel Estrada, a professor of religious studies at Long Beach State, is a tribes member of Caxcan and Rarámuri, two northern tribes in Mexico. Ze explained that prior to colonization, there was gender variance amongst Indigenous people,

and went on to explain how the gender binary is part of a political system that persecutes gender.

“The gender that comes is imposed,” Estrada said. “It’s part of the colonial system—the way of controlling the Indigenous population to force them to change genders, with a preference for male power.”

For Indigenous people, there were no limitations of oppositional genders. Though Estrada explained there may have been concepts like masculine and feminine, the idea of strictly grouping individuals to either or wasn’t natural to them. Instead, they recognize two-spirit people, which Estrada explained is an umbrella term for Indigenous LGBTQ+ people in contemporary times, although individuals may have their own language to describe their gender.

Although perspectives on gender and sexuality differs with each tribe, two-spirit people have been honored and respected, Estrada said, just like every gender. Two-spirit people have the ability to bridge the

masculine and feminine worlds, a connective concept that is omitted from the European gender binary.

Historically, two-spirit people have held significant roles in society. They have been healers or held ceremonial roles. Since they didn’t have biological children of their own, in some cases they would help out as extra parents, Estrada said.

“People don’t judge you based upon your gender, but what you do for your people,” Estrada said. “How helpful are you? That’s what’s important...

All these phobia that we have today were not prevalent, historically, before colonization.

There are no wasted people by gender. Everyone can contribute to the society.”

But colonization changed that. At forced Indian Boarding Schools, Indigenous children were separated into male and female. Suddenly, two-spirit people had no place in society.

Although Indigenous people have returned home post-colonization, it’s difficult for many indigenous people to reclaim their gender identities. Many

elders have forgotten these identities due to the trauma of being “forced to assimilate… into white American culture,” Estrada said.

This “imposition of law and culture,” Estrada explained, was also an attack on Indigenous women, 84% of whom already experience violence in their lifetime, according to the Office of Justice Programs.

“You only allow males to own most land,” Estrada said. “You make the religion patriarchal; it’s the male God. Femininity becomes demonized and is seen as wicked; it’s seen as part of Eve’s fall. It divides the people themselves.”

Now, Indigenous people like Estrada, who co-founded the City of Angels Two-Spirit Society, are creating the space and the conversation for people to reclaim their identities.

Through Indigenous LGBTQ+ organizations, Estrada is aiming to educate and support the community.

“We’re still recovering and still restoring who we are,” Estrada said.

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CSULB Queers & Allies Club brings members together amid ongoing pandemic

By Kaitlyn Rowell Contributor

T

he CSULB Queers and Allies Club is an organization on campus that provides a safe and inclusive space for all individuals to promote and encourage acceptance of those in the LGBTQ+ community.

The organization strives to ensure that all members feel comfortable to confide in one another and that they don’t have a fear of private information being shared or being outed, members said.

“We try to make it a safe community space, we are open to all identities, and anyone can come,” Sky Na, Vice President of the club, said.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the club had to meet virtually and has continued to do so during this fall semester.

This semester they have continued to hold bi-weekly online meetings on alternating days, from 4 to 5 p.m.

Board members wanted to make sure that they were considerate of club members’ concerns with meeting in person, especially in a large group setting.

At their meetings, members participate in game night activities to connect and create a bond over recreational fun. Such games include Jackbox, a party game where players join on their phones, computers or other devices to play games, including charades or “Trivia Murder Party”.

Na started weekly game nights with the club last school year as a way to connect with other people during their first year at

GISELE ROBINETT | Daily Forty-Niner

Queers and Allies at CSULB welcomes students of all identities to become part of their community.

CSULB. “The Discord server for the club was very helpful for me to meet other students who identify similarly,” they said. “It’s where I found most of my friends that I have now.”

Future plans for the club are to hold more meetings and panels where CSULB students can hold healthy discussions that further explore LGBTQ+ experiences

or issues. For example, the club participated in a discussion about coming out to friends and family, and how to navigate and set boundaries for yourself in that situation. They would also like to hold other casual events like movie nights, where people can connect and bond more.

All of these activities are the club’s way of continuing to build connections and

cultivate an inclusive community for LGBTQ+ members and allies amid a pandemic. Connecting virtually has been a way to accomplish this.

“I think it’s really awesome that those of us who talked a lot in the server didn’t know each other, but we just connected and spent a lot of time together,” Na said. “Depending on each other even though we

were living through a very alienating point in our life.”

To learn more about the CSULB Queers and Allies club, visit their Instagram @csulb.qanda.

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Meet Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles This LGBTQ+ Mariachi Band strives to represent its community, while also continuously delivering the highest quality of music.

By Isaiah Zuniga Contributor

M

ariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles is the first LGBTQ+ Mariachi band in the world.

They have performed at Los Angeles and Long Beach Pride every year since their reformation in 2016. They have also performed at Transgender Pride at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, at same-sex and traditional weddings, among other venues.

Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles -- which translates to The Rainbow Mariachi of Los Angeles -- was formed in 2000 by Carlos Samaniego.

He was a sophomore at Cal State Los Angeles when creating the group and is now the manager and lead singer of the band.

Samaniego said that he came out in 2000 and joined the Gay and Lesbian Alliance at CSULA. Since Samaniego performed Mariachi professionally, the club offered him the opportunity to perform at mock weddings for gay and lesbian couples during a time where same-sex marriages weren’t legal. This would bring a sense of Mexican tradition to weddings that wouldn’t be able to otherwise experience it.

He suggested the idea of creating an LGBTQ+ Mariachi band which was met with nothing but encouragement. After putting together musicians comprised of artists in the LGBTQ+ community, Mariachi Acroiris performed for the first time at a same-sex wedding at CSULA. Samaniego explained that their performance during “Pride week” at CSULA opened many doors for him and Mariachi Acroiris.

“After that one performance, we were offered work,” he said. “But I was really young and inexperienced, so after a few months it fizzled out.”

Samaniego said that the performances with Mariachi Arcoiris remained with him, while he went on to perform with other mariachi bands.

In February 2016, Samaniego decided to restart Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles after he heard a homophobic remark that made him want to create a space for LGBTQ+ mariachi members.

“I needed to start Mariachi Arcoiris again,” he said. “I wanted to have that safe space where I didn’t have to face discrimination and toxic masculinity.”

Samaniego said the band faces many challenges, one of them being toxic masculinity, especially within the Mariachi culture.

“When people hear of the group, without experiencing the music, or they may see an image of the group, the tendency is to create these negative opinions,” he said. “Machismo is embedded in our Latino and Mexican culture.”

Samaniego added that the perception around the band changes once people see them perform or listen to one of their albums, such as Los Arcoiris.

Apart from their influence in the LGBTQ+ community, Samaniego said that Mariachi Arcoiris wants to teach others the meaning of Mariachi music.

“Here comes Mariachi Arcoiris, representing the LGBTQ+ community, but also representing a folk tradition of Mexico and we get to show how beautiful Mariachi music is,” he said.

Their growth in popularity became apparent when the band got invited to be a part of Pride events in different cities.

“Nowadays, Pride events are popping up all over the place in small towns that you’ve never heard of,” Samaniego said. “Someone from the Mayor’s office of Las Vegas, New Mexico called me because they want to do their first Pride in 2022 and they want to bring us.”

Success continues as the group was part of a Hulu Docuseries titled “Acentos Bienvenidos” that was released in September during Hispanic Heritage Month. The group was able to be in the docuseries after the producer, Marie Alyse Rodriguez, reached out to them.

“One of the producers had been following us and has been a fan of Mariachi Arcoiris, so when the opportunity for this Hulu docuseries to celebrate Latinx heritage, they thought a series about Mariachi Arcoiris would be fitting,” Samaniego said.

Mariachi Arcoiris will be performing at the Citadel Outlets on Oct. 9 and 10 to promote the Hulu documentary.

To support Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles, visit their Instagram and website.

Photo courtesy of Studio 76 Photography

Carlos Samaniego, singer of Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles performs at many different events with his band, from same-sex marriages to Farmer’s Market.

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Photo illustration by The Daily Beast

The Hollywood sign with a rainbow pride flag background.

Positive LGBTQ+ representation grows within the indie film industry Indie films have given LGBTQ+ filmmakers and actors the opportunity to have more representation in the industry, on and off screen.

“Since 2000, representation of LGBTQ+ people has obviously changed for the better. It was a difficult time to be gay… so it definitely has changed to a more positive image of us.”

- Robert Cano

LGBTQ+ film instructor, founder of Q Films

By Christian Lopez Contributor

W

hen it comes to representation in the film industry, independent films have proven to be a stepping stone for the LGBTQ+ community to be included in more films over the last few years.

Films like the “Miseducation of Cameron Post”, “Call Me By Your Name’’, or “The Lighthouse” stand as an example of the progress that this movement has had since the start of the century.

“Since 2000, representation of LGBTQ+ people has obviously changed for the better,” said LGBTQ+ film Instructor and founder of the 28th annual LGBTQ+ Film Festival, (Q Films) Robert Cano. “It was a difficult time to be gay… so it definitely has changed to a more positive image of us.”

In the film, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019) the depth the difficulties that LGBTQ+ members have faced in a historical context is depicted.

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” takes place in the 18th century, and is centered around artist Marianne (Noémie Merlant), painting a portrait of reluctant arranged marriage bride Héloïse (Adèle Haenel).

As the film goes on, a love between the two women continues to grow, but seems unattainable due to several factors, such as time period, station, and gender. The film has received

wide praise in its story and its themes, standing at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and 95% on Metacritic.

“Gigli” (2003) stands in contrast to the themes of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”, such as acceptance and discrimination. Based on it’s 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and 18% on Metacritic shows its reception among people.

The film is about inept hitman “Gigli” (Ben Affleck) falling in love with lesbian assassin Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) while on a kidnapping mission together. As far as themes go, this movie portrays the unrealistic message that lesbians are just straight women who haven’t found the right guy yet.

What makes “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” different from other LGBTQ+ indie films like “The Lighthouse” for example, is the films cast includes several gay staff members, including the director of the movie Céline Sciamma and one of the lead actresses Adèle Haenel, the latter of whom came out by declaring her love to the director on stage of the Cesar Awards. The representation indie films offer is a huge stepping stone for the LGBTQ+ community, and differs when compared to big Hollywood movies like Gigli.

An article from the Observer written by Noah Berlatsky states just 2% of recent films hire explicit LGBTQ+ representation. As a result, the stories that members of the LGBTQ+ community want to tell and aren’t being told. That is a job that has been left to indie films.

Although indie films hire more LGBTQ+ employees than Hollywood, this trend of representation needs to continue.

Every day, more and more people from the LGBTQ+ are entering the filmmaking industry. Because of this, more stories, both indie and blockbuster, are becoming as diverse as the people who make them.

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Long Beach LGBTQ+ artists create meaningful works of art LGBTQ+ artists take inspiration from their life experiences to depict personal topics in their work.

A

By Christal Gaines Emory Arts & Life Editor

rt has become an integral part of raising social awareness and acceptance towards the LGBTQ+ community. Due to infamous, historical works such as Frida Kahlo’s “Two Nudes in the Forest” and Charles Demuth’s “Dancing Sailors,” the world of LGBTQ+ art has become more accepted into mainstream society. Today, LGBTQ+ artists use this medium to raise awareness for the community and work towards their own personal self acceptance.

Many LGBTQ+ artists attending CSULB draw inspiration from their life experiences to create powerful pieces of art. Through drawing, sculpting, poetry and more, artists are able to fully express themselves and experiment with their identities while also depicting their sexualities in a positive light.

Third-year English literature major Westley Finney said his art is an important outlet that allows him to express himself as a gay, intersex and genderfluid man.

“My art is important to me because it allows for self expression. It allows for me to be reverential and honor aspects of myself, in a form of self love,” Finney said.

“I’m able to depict my body and transness,

as well as my sexuality, in a flattering way, thereby helping me accept myself.”

Finney hopes his art serves as a catharsis for other members of the LGBTQ+ community, but he also wants to teach the public about the importance of inclusivity and representation in the arts.

“I want everyone to see gay love and transness as a beautiful thing,” he said. “It presents LGBTQ+ identities as something reverential and beautiful, and it is lifesaving to share this type of art because it shows we have lived and loved.”

Another CSULB student who expresses himself through art is third year fashion design major Ansel Sriphet. Sriphet has been using his art to express himself and his gender identity for eight years, and his graphic designs have helped him love and accept himself.

“Growing up, I couldn’t always relate to other cisgender, straight girls that I knew. At the same time though, I didn’t always feel like ‘one of the guys’ either, ” Sriphet said. “Since my art is an expression of how I feel, I also used it as a way of exploring my identity in a safe, controlled environment. I drew clothes that I wish I had, wrote characters that reflected my experiences. Over time, I think this really helped me figure out how I saw myself.”

As an LGBTQ+ artist who struggled to find his identity growing up, Sriphet wants to encourage self-acceptance for members of the LGBTQ+ community through his art and fashion designs.

By creating visible, representational pieces of art for the LGBTQ+ community, artists are changing the narrative for future generations of LGBTQ+ people and encouraging self-love and acceptance.

Future generations will have the opportunity to consume positive LGBTQ+ works publicly and proudly, encouraging them to love and accept others as well as themselves.

“If we can get more visible LGBTQ+ artists out there sharing their work and their stories, then the next generation can have more examples to look up to,” Sriphet said. “They will have an easier time finding others who share their experiences and will feel less alone.”

Westley Finney’s artwork, above, gives him an opportunity to express himself as a gay, transgender man. Third year fashion design major Ansel Sriphet expresses himself and his experience as a transgender man through his designs, right.

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Artist Westley Finney uses his passion for ceramics and design, above, as a creative outlet. He also hopes to share the beauty of transgender people with the public through his art, below.

“I drew clothes that I wish I had, wrote characters that reflected my experiences. Over time, I think this really helped me figure out how I saw myself.”

- Ansel Sriphet

third-year fashion design major

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LGBTQ+ designers influence everyday fashion Fashion trends can be easy to follow but people may not know where they come from. Many signature styles and looks on the streets today are influenced by LGBTQ+ designers.

F

By Sebastian Perez Contributor

rom Balenciaga to Dior, many high fashion designers influence what is trendy to wear. Many of these famous designers are part of the LGBTQ+

community.

High fashion is often regarded as a privilege to wear but soon after the runway, designs are adopted into everyday clothes in different ways. Throughout the history of fashion, LGBTQ+ designers have had a great influence on style trends that people may not know did.

French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier is an example of how fashion never has to fit in a single box for anyone and that people should challenge standard views of fashion. In 1985, Gaultier debuted his show “Et Dieu créa l’Homme” -- which translates to “And God created Man.” The show played with the idea of masculinity, as he introduced his men’s skirt suit, causing controversy at the time.

Gaultier used male skirts as a rejection of previous generations that reinforce the gender binary through clothing.

Early in his 50-year long career, Gaultier would draw inspiration from his sexuality to make designs. His first mens’ ready to wear 1983 collection, “Boy Toy” Gaultier was inspired by the 1982 film Querelle, whose lead Gaultier described as a “hypersexualized gay symbol”. The collection uses stripes in tops for men and women and sailor hats that revived the marinière aesthetic.

Designing skirts for all and creating feminine looks from concepts thought only as masculine are just a few of the style influences that Gaultier has had on fashion today.

Designer Walter Van Beirendonck, whose exploration with his sexuality and expression has created a world of eccentric fashion that accentuates bodily proportions. Beirendonck is a member of the Antwerp Six, one of the most influential groups in fashion because of their unique aesthetics in designs.

The 64-year-old Belgian designer describes being part of the LGBTQ+ community as something very natural. In a 2020 interview with Your Fashion Archive, he said, “Being gay and being part of the LGBT subculture always felt very natural, very normal always felt welcome in this world.”

Beirendonck’s designs make a bold statement about being gay and feature pastel colors and bold patterns with underlying sexual imagery. In his 1996 show “Wild Lethal Trash,” one of his

most notable looks was the He-Man inflatable jacket. The jacket, which was modeled to give the wearer big arms reminiscent of action figures, was made from a latex material symbolizing condoms, a stark contrast between childhood and the Aids epidemic.

Beirendonck uses his designs to create something meaningful and fashionable. He created a jacket that can be seen modeled by the puffer-jackets that have become popular in streetwear again.

Jil Sander, a lesbian designer renowned for her minimalistic androgynous clothing, is another influence in fashion today. She launched her self-titled fashion house, in 1968 and changed the way consumers viewed gendered clothing. She combined the simplicity and utilitarianism of male garments with the delicacy and luxury of female garments.

The German designer has managed to keep her direct influence on androgynous fashion through a long career.

From 1999 until 2005 she worked in collaboration with Prada after the fashion house purchased her brand. Sander has also worked with Uniqlo, a popular Japanese fast-fashion company, to create her +J collections.

Having more designers like Sander that create collections of androgynous looks not only is a fashion trend other designers should include in their work, but it also creates a platform for members of the LGBTQ+ community to be recognized in the fashion industry.

Designers not only influence others but inspire each other as well. Rick Owens, American fashion designer, released his Spring 2014 Ready-to-Wear collection that featured his own take on male skirts.

Owens was not able to freely express himself growing up in a conservative household. In an article Owens wrote for Business of Fashion in 2016, he shared when he moved to Los Angeles in 1994, he unleashed his creativity and the young bisexual relished in his freedom by wearing makeup, platform boots, and cloaks.

The designer has gone on to create his own grunge, glamorous gender-defying aesthetic, earning the nickname “The Darklord of Fashion.” His designs feature long shirts, cloaks, skirts, and leather boots with massive heels. All of which have become more popular within the last few years.

Owens is more popular than he has ever been and his clothes are worn by people like Michelle Obama, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber. Having influential people wear clothes from designers like Owens creates popularity in trends and many may not know that these trends were created by LGBTQ+ designers.

Christina Merino contributed to this story.

CHRISTAL GAINES EMORY | Daily Forty-Niner

CSULB student Zoe White enjoys expressing herself through pastel colors such as pink, purple and blue.

CHRISTAL GAINES EMORY | Daily Forty-Niner

LGBTQ+ students attending CSULB enjoy expressing themselves through their unique styles and referencing LGBTQ+ designers in their styles.

ALEX MCLEMORE | Daily Forty-Niner

CSULB second year student Lu Light expresses himself and his personality through his fashion choices.

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In recent years, LGBTQ+ representation has grown exponentially throughout media.

HIKARU TAMASHIRO | Daily Forty-Niner

Coming out stories in media: harmful, overdone and outdated While oftentimes a celebration of freedom and identity, coming out stories can often oversaturate LGBTQ+ media to the point of damaging the community at large.

By Lillian Li Special Projects Editor

A

s attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community have changed over the past few decades, LGBTQ+ representation in media has soared to new heights. LGBTQ+ characters are now present in our books, our movies, our TV shows; the entertainment industry is slowly shifting from the cis-gender, hetero-normative nightmare it once was.

This change was certainly welcome among members of the LGBTQ+ community—there is something wholly gratifying and validating about seeing yourself represented in the media you consume. However, the increasing number of LGBTQ+ characters comes with a number of pitfalls. A laundry list of harmful tropes regarding LGBTQ+ stories can describe many of these pitfalls, such as the “bury your gays” trope and “the gay best friend” trope. Not to mention, LGBTQ+ characters can easily fall under a variety of damaging stereotypes, like Kurt Hummel from “Glee,” who is portrayed

as an overly feminine gay man.

Of all those pitfalls, the coming out story is fallen into the most when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation. While not always completely inadequate, the problems with the coming out story tend to eclipse its merits. Clumsy, poorly executed coming out stories, such as Cheryl Blossom’s coming out in “Riverdale,” are bad enough simply because they aren’t implemented well. The more subtle threat, however, comes from the sheer amount of coming out stories in general.

The greater public cognition surrounding LGBTQ+ people is already overly obsessed with “coming out”—a concept that “is embraced only as otherness, a kind of queerientalism,” as described in an article by The Washington Post.

In society, coming out is consistently designated as the most important (and oftentimes final) step in embracing one’s sexuality/ gender and finding acceptance.

Entertainment media further contributes to the strength of this idea in the social narrative, completely flooding many LGBTQ+ characters’ story arcs with shamefilled closeted life, dramatic declarations, homophobic families and the like. The overly contrived coming out story of the 2015 film “Jenny’s Wedding” exemplifies this idea, and its poor Rotten Tomatoes reviews reflect the changing public opinion of stories singularly focused around coming

out.

It is also worth mentioning that in this context, “coming out” includes declarations of gender, as well as sexual orientation.

However, while the coming out story is both relevant and true to a vast number of LGBTQ+ people’s experiences, it is not the only story LGBTQ+ people belong to.

When LGBTQ+ characters are only shown overcoming adversity at the hands of homophobic people and navigating finding acceptance within society, it suddenly becomes the only thing they are valued for and capable of.

This implication creates a very hetero-centric narrative—one that is exploitative and altogether dangerous. It states LGBTQ+ people are not allowed to simply exist; they are not allowed to express their identity on their own terms; they are not allowed to live a life separate from their oppression.

Therefore, coming out in media, while oftentimes a happy moment of freedom, ultimately becomes about chaining LGBTQ+ characters to the community’s cultural, historical trauma—an ironic twist to a well-meaning story. It creates characters that are flat and one-dimensional; characters that exist without nuance and without vitality in the name of “diversity.”

When restricted to one narrative, they cannot become actualized human beings.

Correspondingly, the problem isn’t coming out itself; the prob-

lem is its dominance over the majority of LGBTQ+ related stories.

“Stories matter,” novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explained in her TED Talk “The danger of a single story.” “Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.”

Coming out has become the definitive story of the LGBTQ+ community in the media. Well-intentioned or not, constantly making a spectacle of LGBTQ+ characters inherently “others,” and alienates them from their straight, cisgender peers, barring LGBTQ+ characters from becoming fully normalized and integrated into the world, story and cast.

Adichie expands on the idea of a “single story” throughout her talk, specifically regarding singular racial narratives, which philosophically aligns with the nuances of LGBTQ+ representation in media, as well as on an intersectional level.

There are numerous examples of LGBTQ+ media that over glorify and extol both an elaborate coming out process and superfluous homophobia, such as “Love, Simon” and “Happiest Season.”

Yes, their stories hold true to many people’s experiences—but are they the only experiences of the LGBTQ+ community?

According to Adichie, this is a primary example of a single story.

“Show a people as one thing ... over and over again, and that is what they become,” Adichie said.

“Gideon the Ninth” by Tamsyn Muir and “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller include unapologetic LGBTQ+ leads that both never explicitly come out and never feel as though their sexuality completely consumes the character. The protagonists of each book are homosexual characters, yet their sexuality does not solely define them, nor does the process of announcing it to the world.

The love stories the two ultimately fall into are not turned into some sort of disingenuous exhibition of pride, and therefore feel much more sincere than hollow reiterations of the same tired concept of coming out.

Similarly, “She-Ra and the Princess of Power” and “The Owl House” are TV shows that do not involve coming out whatsoever, creating a comforting sense of complete normalcy surrounding their LGBTQ+ casts.

LGBTQ+ representation in media can be powerful, beautiful and compelling if it can escape the static confines of the traditional coming out story. Coming out does not need to be completely erased from the LGBTQ+ media canon—however, more effort needs to be put forth to ensure LGBTQ+ characters are treated as fully realized people and not vessels for shallow generalizations of the LGBTQ+ experience.

Only then can we, as Adichie concludes, “regain a kind of paradise.”

OUTOBER 13

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Queer artists to add to your OUTober playlist

IDE PR

O

UTober is here, and that means a celebration of self-discovery, pride, love and music.

The month-long celebration of LGBTQ culture is primarily centered around National Coming Out day on Monday, Oct. 11, and there’s no better opportunity to have some queer artists on repeat for the next few weeks.

The music industry has seen its ups and downs regarding representation of LGBTQ artists. Often being riddled with negative stereotypes, queer artists have come a long way since Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Rita Ora’s “Girls.”

Although both songs may seem to represent the LGBTQ community, they were made in poor taste and hide a toxic mindset that hyper-sexualizes lesbians.

“The songs both fetishize lesbian romance for the sake of commodifying and capitalizing upon posturing with queer identities while escaping the real material consequences faced by the most marginalized of our community,” Sky Na, who serves as the Vice President of the Queers and Allies organization on campus, said.

Although representation of LGBTQ+ in the music industry has generally improved, Na says it has also gone backwards.

“Diversity for diversity’s sake has led to tokenization and problematic glorification in media,” Na said.

“This can be seen in musical artists such as Jeffree Star and Melanie Martinez.”

Artists and companies who view LGBTQ+ communities as an avenue for

H LOVE & T I W D

FILL E

By Timothy Wu Contributor

TIMOTHY WU | Daily Forty-Niner

What better way to celebrate OUTober than with some music from queer artists? business instead of representing a group of people does much more harm than good, as it simply reinforces negative stereotypes and panders to a group of people for the sake of pandering rather than caring about the issue.

Nevertheless, there are artists out there who speak about their sexuality and orientation with positivity, hoping to inspire someone who may be struggling with their identity to come out and love themself and whoever they wish.

Here are five of my personal favorites: Holland Holland is a South Korean artist who came out in an infamously homophobic country. Without a company willing to sign him due to his orientation, Holland was forced to crowdfund his mini-album.

Debuting with the single “Neverland,” Holland named himself after the country that first legalized same-sex marriage. As of

right now, “Neverland” has 14 million views. Despite that, Holland is still not signed to any entertainment company and is forced to release his music sporadically.

Holland’s music is characterized by slow, melodic beats with his soft but powerful voice. His tracks “Neverland” and “I’m So Afraid” are among my favorites.

Without many resources or the proper training expected of a K-pop idol, what Holland has already achieved is nothing short of amazing as is fighting hard to make sure his voice is heard in an otherwise silent country. mxmtoon An Asian American from California, mxmtoon and her signature ukulele are a duo you’d seldom forget after hearing her beautiful tracks. Slow and chill beats reminiscent of lo-fi combined with her poignant voice and simple vibes makes her a great

addition to any playlist.

Her songs “prom dress” and “unspoken words” are some of my favorites. mxmtoon is very down to earth and intimate with her fanbase, calling them her besties and even posts tutorials on her YouTube channel teaching them how to play her songs. She has an incredibly endearing girl-next-door energy and one of the best artists to listen to on a chill Sunday afternoon.

Hayley Kiyoko Hayley Kiyoko is an actress turned artist and LGBTQ advocate. Kiyoko’s music is focused around helping her fans find themselves and come to terms with their identity, and sings about the potential struggles and depression that others may face based on her experiences.

Kiyoko often posts fun little shorts on her YouTube channel and makes memes, and her personality combined with her beautiful heartfelt tracks

like “Chance” and “She” makes her hard not to love.

It’s no wonder she’s earned her nickname of “Lesbian Jesus.”

FLETCHER With tracks like “Healing” and “All Love,” it’s a mystery how she isn’t bigger than she is. Her mesmerizing music combined with the beautifully directed music videos she puts out are absolutely addicting.

Her album “you ruined new york city for me” is a phenomenal music experience and enough to make someone cry as she sings about heartbreak and love.

Her lyrics are deeply personal and her albums have an overarching message and theme. Fans of Taylor Swift or Lorde would be right at home in FLETCHER’s discography.

Steve Grand Similar to Holland, Grand is a queer artist in a genre that’s historically been known as homophobic: country. He shot to success with his track “All-American Boy” in 2013, but my personal favorites are “Disciple” and “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

His voice and heart-wrenching lyrics on tracks like “Disciple” which talks about his struggles with religion and his sex life makes him an artist not just to listen to, but to connect to. Grand is great for anyone into ballads as well as country.

These are just some of the best LGBTQ artists in the industry today, and a worthy addition to any playlist.

LGBTQ has come a long way, but it still has a long road ahead of itself. Artists such as Grand, Holland and Lil Nas X are working to break down barriers in homophobic countries and genres. Meanwhile, artists including Kiyoko, FLETCHER and mxmtoon are working to help people find their identity and to love themselves.

14 OUTOBER

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REYN OU | Daily Forty-Niner

COMMENTARY

Your Allyship Won’t Make You a Hero

By Reyn Ou Video Editor

I

can’t count just how many times I was asked for my pronouns since the beginning of the fall semester; they suddenly became a delicately caressed topic on social media sites, attendance rosters, Google forms, and every agonizing icebreaker at the start of the semester.

I would appreciate this formality more if I didn’t intrinsically know that cisgender heterosexual allies have little to no desire to understand anything beyond surface-level semantics and social gestures.

I mean, why would they? As far as everyone else is concerned, it’s easier to just say that I’m a woman who goes by a slightly different set of words than it is to individually deconstruct the postcolonial abstraction of the gender binary.

Most cisgender heterosexuals believe they have no stake in queer liberation. The mainstreaming of queer activism has, unfortunately, isolated queerness as an identity that exists independently from sociopolitical struggles like racism, poverty, and colonization.

I don’t care that you asked for my pronouns, stop legitimizing cis-heteronormativity to begin with.

Conceptualizing queer liberation as something that exclusively benefits queer lives frames activism as a gesture of individualistic benevolence rather than an interlaced network of global progress. Therefore, allyship is interpreted as an act of mercy to oppressed communities rather than a realization of social agency.

When allyship is offered to marginalized communities from a stance of mercy, it continues to legitimize the imbalanced power dynamic that exists between the privileged and the oppressed. For this reason, it’s all the more infuriating when cisgender heterosexuals treat their bare-minimum allyship as something that’s solicited and sacred towards queer activism.

The parasocial self-worship that comes with social media giving everyone a free platform has contributed to the entitled delusion that any user

capable of writing a 280 character message has an opinion worthy of recognition, which is rarely the case, especially regarding situations that people have no authority on.

The reality is, social media activism does little to actually effect change; the act of posting content on social media is in itself performative and largely determined by algorithmic success. In a space where branding, trends, and brevity are king and nuance, insurrection, and accuracy are not, what does this so-called activism actually do besides give allies a false semblance of progressivism? Who is this allyship really for?

To be frank, many mainstream methods of queer activism have been largely ineffective; queer rights in the modern day have been reduced down to a matter of Hollywood media representation and capitalist commodifi-

cation. Despite whatever progressive ideologies this generation seems to hold, there has yet to be an adequate amount of material change to offer the queer community the reparations they deserve.

Gay marriage legislation only had to happen because heterosexual marriage is the default. Coming out only had to happen because being cisgender and heterosexual is the default.

Normalizing pronouns only had to happen because gendered language is the default.

No matter how hard institutions will try to legalize queerness, nothing will fundamentally change if the institutions themselves continue to be modeled after a cis-hetero idealization of civilization.

True queer liberation comes from abolishing and rectifying the oppressive structures that establish queerness as the “other” to begin with. This can’t be done with efforts involving social media activism or representation in the media. They simply attempt to remedy microcosmic issues instead of acknowledging and dismantling the issue at large: cis-heteronormativity.

This is a process that obviously takes more time and energy to accomplish, but if you were the supportive ally that your shiny infographics and “she/her” bios claim you were, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

OUTOBER 15

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“Baseball is a game of statistics, and if you want to tell me that I’m the only queer person in baseball, I’m just not going to agree with you.”

- Kieran Lovegrove MLB Prospect

Rise in LGBTQ+ athletes proves sports culture is changing for the better Homophobia has plagued sports life, but a rise in openly out athletes shows that might not be the case anymore.

By Matthew Brown Sports Assistant

W

hen star tennis player Billie Jean King was outed by her former lover Marilyn Barnett in the spring of 1981, King’s lawyer and press representative advised her to deny the truth. They feared that King being outed as a lesbian would harm her reputation, and issued a statement of denial; a statement which, according to King in her autobiography, “Billie Jean,” was issued without her consultation.

Only 48 hours after being outed, King decided to go against her lawyer’s wishes and held a press conference admitting to her relationship with Barnett.

“I said ‘I’m going to do it.

I don’t care. This is important to me to tell the truth,’” King said in an interview with NBC News in 2017. “The one thing my mother always said, ‘To thine own self be true.’”

King had become of of the first prominent athletes to come out as gay. While she had many supporters on her side, King lost all of her endorsements in 24 hours. She didn’t know it at the time, but she was helping pave the way for hundreds “I don’t want others to go through what I did,” King said.

“Unless somebody’s ready, they shouldn’t be outed.”

King’s global reception in 1981 stands in stark contrast to athletes who publicly come out in 2021. More and more athletes feel comfortable being openly part of the LGBTQ+ community.

In a recent study published

MATTHEW BROWN | Daily Forty-Niner

Billie Jean King, lesbian American tennis player, helped pave the way for LGBTQ+ athletes like Megan Rapinoe, Kieran Lovegrove and Luke Prokop to feel comfortable being publicly out.

by Outsports called “Out In Sports Study: Out LGBTQ athletes report deep, widespread acceptance from teammates”

by Cyd Zeigler and Jim Buzinski, the University of Winchester and the Sports Equality Foundation found that more than 95% of the athletes surveyed said their teammates’ responses to them coming out were overall “neutral” to “perfect.”

“I don’t think I could have experienced a better response for what I needed,” Kentucky Wesleyan College men’s soccer goalie, Thomas Roth, said to Outsports about coming out to his teammates in 2018.

“They couldn’t have done any better. Camaraderie was always part of my team experience, and nothing about that changed at all.”

The widespread acceptance proves that there is much less discrimination today towards LGBTQ+ athletes than there was 40 years ago. This has allowed a record number of athletes to publicly come out.

At this year’s Tokyo Olympics, there were at least 185 publicly out gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and nonbinary athletes, which is triple the number of who participated at the 2016 Rio Games, according to Out-

sports.

This increase in publicly out athletes is indicative of society’s growing acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.

Younger athletes who are nervous about coming out can now look up to many successful athletes and feel connected to them.

While so many athletes feel comfortable publicly coming out, there is still a lot of progress to be made in men’s sports. Of the 185 publicly out athletes, women outnumbered the men by about nine to one margin, according to Outsports.

“Being able to compete with the best in the world as my most authentic self at the biggest international multisport games shows how far we’ve come on inclusion in sport,” Canadian swimmer Markus Thormeyer said in an interview with Outsports. “I’m hoping that by competing at these games I can show the LGBTQ+ community that we do belong and we can achieve anything we put our minds to.”

In July 2021, Nashville Predators prospect Luke Prokop came out as gay in an Instagram post, becoming the first active player under an NHL contract to ever publicly acknowledge their sexual-

ity. According to Outsports, Prokop’s coming out marks the first time a publicly out athlete from North America will play professionally in one of America’s big five men’s sports: baseball, basketball, football, hockey and soccer in the same year.

Cheryl Cooky, a professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University believes the reason women athletes are more likely to come out than men athletes is because of key differences between the two cultures.

“For women, historically participating in sport has meant challenging gendered expectations and gendered norms and behaviors,” Cookey said in an interview with NPR. “Whereas for men, participating in sport is demonstrating and reaffirming and embodying all of those characteristics we expect of men.”

Male athletes might fear retribution by fans and teammates if they come out. Professional men’s sports have always been dubbed the “last closet” due to its hypermasculinity and lack of LGBTQ+ representation.

Even with a publicly out athlete in the big five sports, Cookey is not convinced that

every male athlete will feel comfortable coming out publicly.

“It might be more of a trickle than an opening of the floodgates,” Cookey said.

The most recent pro athlete to publicly come out is MLB prospect, Kieran Lovegrove, who came out as bisexual in an interview with ESPN in September. Lovegrove joins Bryan Ruby as the only two publicly out LGBTQ+ players in professional baseball.

“Baseball is a game of statistics,” Lovegrove told ESPN. “And if you want to tell me that I’m the only queer person in baseball, I’m just not going to agree with you.”

Since there is less pressure to hide one’s sexuality, today’s athletes do not face the same adversity as King once did. King, now a gay rights activist, founded the Women’s Sports Foundation to fight for women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

Although there is more progress to be made, today’s LGBTQ+ athletes enjoy a level of acceptance made possible by trailblazers in the sports world, who have shown the world it is ok to be yourself.

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