PRIDE 2020 ..... Boolprop's Picks

[Heather]

Use this thread to leave a recommendation for your favourite show, book, movie, song, or any form of media that you think has some great LGBTQIA+ representation! Please try to include a little blurb about your chosen media - it doesn't have to be long, but you should share with us why you like it and want to recommend it!

Participating in all 3 pride events* will earn you a winner's choice medal! Please send me a PM with a link to each of your posts to claim it.
* Let's Build It does not count towards these three.

[itsjulie]

of course I am going to bring my favourite obsession to this thread

King .... Years & Years .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLHtvLyFns8
All for You .. Years & Years ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj3NY2CsZCc

Olly Alexander from Years & Years
Not only is he super cute and has a killer smile,
he is an LGBT advocate ... very out and proud, and in these two music video's he is flying the flag, wearing the rainbow.

[graymondaysleep]

*cracks fingers*
OKAY!

So, for TV shows, I'd probably go with She-Ra atm, I've just started the thing, it's on Netflix, but the two female protags are lesbians, and have been confirmed as lesbians by the showrunners.
It's a reboot of the old 80's series. Adora discovers she's a princess of power, She-Ra, and joins the resistance, led by other princesses to take down the evil army, Hoarde. Her child hood best friend, Catra ends up becoming her arch nemesis because of this.
My little blurb is kinda all over the place, I'm not good with this kind of fantasy/sci-fi thing but honestly, if this show had been around when I was a kid, I would have known I was a lesbian a lot sooner, so props to that for all the young little lesbians who will discover themselves because of this show.

Books!

Anythiiiing by Sarah Waters. Nearly all of her femlae protagonists are lesbians and her stories are both interlaced with romance, sexuality, and amazing plot devices. I finished Fingersmith back in January and I still think about it sometimes.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin is a tragic love story between an Italian gay man and an American bisexual man in Paris but it's so amazingly beautiful that I didn't mind the ending. I am gonna put a spoiler in here with the ending because some people might be sensitive to what the ending actually is:

Spoiler:

Giovanni is executed

.

This one is a difficult read on it's own but when I read it the second time, I fell completely in love with the story -
The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman. Ryman is a gay man himself and his main character is a lesbian, Milena, who falls in love with an outsider, but their love is destined to be tragic when things begin to go awry in Melina's world. There are a lot of sci-fi elements and tropes so if sci-fi is something you love, I highly recommend this book.

So far these are the only things I can think of atm...

[Trip]

So one of my favorite albums of 2018 (time flies!) was Courtney Barnett's Tell Me How You Really Feel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWgAePYIEp8), which is an LGBT album pretty much only on the notion that Barnett is an out lesbian in the real world. But it does touch on a lot of themes about being lonely, disappointed, and apathetic, which feels like the most lesbian thing that doesn't have to do with loving women. Anyways the real appeal is that Tell Me How You Really Feel is just song after song of riffs and hooks and it'll never leave your head!

Also here is a short live duet with Courtney and her wife, Jen Cloher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbZIQbCWYVA

[peachy123uk]

I have watched a few show that had very small part for gay characters but not the main characters until I actually watched Will and Grace.

But I think when I was about eleven or twelve, I actually really found out what gay really meant for men and women. My parents used to run a pub, and the barman was gorgeous, my heart went a flutter every time I saw him. And we were having a conversation about relationships and he said he was gay (and I though he meant happy) I didn't actually know what it meant at the time so I asked him. And that's how I found out about different sexualities. I know there is a lot more now days ( and I do still get confused about some of them so I apologized if I either get it wrong) As long as your people are happy that the main thing. Not sure if that's actually what you wanted but I hope that is ok.

[108sims]

So I was struggling a bit here because I'm really out of the loop with LGBTQ+ media unfortunately. I have plenty of shows and books I like that feature characters and couples, but they tend to be side characters. However, I remember a book I read last summer.

The Shadowhunter books and TV show have featured various couples, though the first I read was Alec and Magnus. They were the first gay couple I read about, and this was in high school when I had no idea what my sexuality was. I got quite attached to them. When I watched the TV series, I enjoyed the portrayal of their relationship much better than I did in the book. They got quite a bit of screen time, and their relationship seemed more caring and thoughtfully done.

After the TV series ended, I discovered that there was going to be a trilogy written focusing solely on their relationship and have Alec and Magnus as main characters. The trilogy is called The Eldest Curses. So far, only the first book has been released, The Red Scrolls of Magic. I really enjoyed this book and finished it in just over a day. There's mystery, action, romance. There's several sweet moments between the two, and they are a lot more open with each other. This book also features the beginning of the relationship of Helen and Aline, another couple, and I liked seeing how that relationship started. There a couple of other LGBTQ+ characters introduced as well, though they were minor. The final "big" action scene featured Helen and Aline helping Alec and Magnus, so I really liked that the main protagonists there were all members of the LGBTQ+ community. Honestly I feel like even if you didn't read the main series this book would still be enjoyable because there is a lot of exploring the world in general, so I don't think a new reader would be too lost. I look forward to what the other two books have in store, and it's nice to have a series that focuses on these two.

[ciyrose]

So I wasn't sure what I would use for this. There are a few shows or things I have read that have some fun characters, but mostly they aren't either main characters or are so well known it's unlikely they are not already well known. Then I remembered a book trilogy (it's actually a trilogy in a set of trilogies and stand-alone books) that I read a long time ago that had an LGBTQ+ character it in. I went and re-looked at it to make sure I wasn't misremembering somehow, and soo my pick will be:

The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey

This whole series is well done and has a ton of books in it, and there were other side or background characters through all the books that are either celibate or in other various relationship configurations, but this trilogy, in particular, focuses on Vanyel Ashkevron. To high school me this was probably a very important book as it dealt with a lot of the homophobia of the day, being unsure of who you are, loss of loved ones, and a lot of magic. It's a fairly tragic story, but one in which they deal with so many things, and was so important in bringing things like about the turmoil or deep love that can happen in a young person dealing with finding himself, especially amongst those who are not ok with it, or view it as unacceptable or weird. So if you want a fantasy type setting with characters that are well written, this entire series is great, but Vanyel's story stuck with me, and so it's my pick to bring to the group.

[Faye Silver]

I'm kind of out of the loop with a lot of LGBT Media as of late, but I do have to say that I enjoy RWBY and the representation that they have in several of the characters. (I'll admit to not being caught up, but I follow some of the voice actors and I learned through one that she was going to be playing a trans character in the show and she's trans irl). On top of that, the representation of Yang and Blake's relationship is a great piece to see as well. RWBY is a show from Rooster Teeth, following teams of hunters that are fighting Grimms, shadow creatures, that are considered to be evil. It's got a lot of good content and it's a fun show to watch, as well as having great music.

Another piece of media I highly recommend is actually a webcomic called Check, Please! It's about a figure skater turned hockey player in college, and he bakes. A secret he holds close to his chest for half of his freshman year is that he's gay. The main character, Bitty, is absolutely adorable. It's highly worth a read if you like hockey or baking or both! It just finished this past April!

[Bouncer]

I was going to list a bunch of streaming, but I realized I had a representation I liked on youtube that I started watching sometime this last year (think COVID brought them to me in my youtube watching).

Where Eugene from "Try Guys" on Youtube. Where he's known as the "moody" one but also brings up many conversations and awareness to the whole group to be aware. And of course, his coming out video. I feel like especially in a group of male business owners he keeps them grounded to be aware especially in political times and does bring up his motives.


My other favorite show "Sex Education" that I ended up finding way more interesting than I thought, and enjoyed their play with representation and coming of age stories.



Will look into others for this Pride!

[Sam]

Alice Oseman writes and illustrates a webcomic named Heartstopper (tumblr / tapas) about a relationship between two teenage boys, and many of the side characters are also LGBT+. The artwork is gorgeous, I absolutely love the style, and the story itself is really good - it covers several serious topics, but without them becoming too overwhelming. It's just really nice, I don't know how else to describe it It's also currently being published in physical volumes, too.

[MeadowThayerr]

How to Get Away With Murder: Oliver & Connor

Pretty Little Liars I felt had good representation at times.

[FunkyFresh]

This is a tough one! There are some Dutch/Flemish LGBT-friendly shows which I love, but that's not very interesting for you guys. More internationally oriented, though it might be a boring choice: Glee (I really love Blaine, still, after all these years, lol), How to get away with murder (Connor + Oliver), and of course Eric (Sex Education).

[heatherfeather]

I watched I Am Not Ok With This on Netflix this spring. It's about a teenager who finds out she has magical/supernatural powers and at the same time discovers that she really likes her best friend as more than a friend. It's a pretty good coming of age story.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which is one of my favorite shows of all time, has a bisexual supporting character. It's really cool to see a bisexual character, which I think rarely has representation in media, and it's also a male character, which is even rarer.

[snazzle]

I've been watching Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist lately, and at very least Mo is fantastic (and fairly central) character on there that gives good representation.. and has an amazing voice. (If anyone watched Glee, it's the same actor that portrayed Wade/Unique).

[Thaitanic]

I actually have written countless essays on queer media so I'm super excited to jump in!

My top recommendations for queer media:

• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an amazing YA novel about two young Mexican-American guys who discover and explore their sexuality together over accidents, violence, separation - it's an amazing book and I recommend it to everyone!!
  
  If you're interested in poetry, the Youtube channel Button Poetry often platforms queer poets, and their poems are always so moving and lovely.
  
  Oh! And if you like musical theatre, pleaaase listen to the soundtrack (or try and find a bootleg video) of Fun Home - I think it won a few Tonies! It's based on the graphic novel Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (invented the Bechdel Test!), about her coming to terms with being a lesbian and also with the revelation that her dad was also gay. It's really stunning.
  
  If you want to listen to more LGBTQ+ musicians, I heaaaavily recommend Quay Dash if you like rap, Shamir if you like bedroom pop, Janelle Monae as well! I also like a couple of LGBTQ+ punk bands, so if anyone wants those details hit me up
  
  Anyway, these are just the immediate ones that come to mind! There are tonnes out there.