Tag: lgbt

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#PutDrewInStarWars petition asks for Star Wars’ first LGBT movie character named after Orlando shooting victim


Star Wars fan Christopher Andrew “Drew” Leinonen and boyfriend Juan Ramon Guerrero were among the 49 people who died in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando earlier this month. Drew’s best friend Joshua Yehl has started a petition asking Lucasfilm to use him “as inspiration for the first-ever LGBT Star Wars character to appear in a movie.”

The petition has over 6000 supporters as of Thursday morning, gaining widespread support (including a retweet from Mark Hamill) in the past few days. You can sign it here.

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GLAAD: Star Wars movies need gay, lesbian characters

tfa-finn-poe

As part of their annual report on LGBT characters in movies, the anti-defamation group GLAAD is pushing Star Wars to introduce gay and lesbian characters into the films. Per Variety:

“As sci-fi projects have the special opportunity to create unique worlds whose advanced societies can serve as a commentary on our own, the most obvious place where Disney could include LGBT characters is in the upcoming eighth ‘Star Wars’ film,” the report reads. “2015’s ‘The Force Awakens’ has introduced a new and diverse central trio, which allows the creators opportunity to tell fresh stories as they develop their backstory. Recent official novels in the franchise featured lesbian and gay characters that could also be easily written into the stories.”

The introduction of gay and lesbian characters into the canon Star Wars novels has been controversial, but really, what isn’t?

Also at Variety, Brent Lang looks at why major blockbusters like Star Wars and Marvel have been reluctant to add LGBT characters.

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Star Wars canon’s first LGBT character to appear in an upcoming novel

kemp-sithIt’s not the first time Star Wars has featured LGBT characters, but an upcoming novel will be the first to introduce one into Star Wars canon as it now stands.

Paul S. Kemp’s Lords of the Sith, out in April, features Moff Mors, a lesbian and “Imperial who has made some very serious mistakes but is an incredibly capable leader and spends much of the book working hard to prevent absolute failure,” Bryan Young at Big Shiny Robot reports.

“There should be diversity in Star Wars,” Del Rey editor Shelly Shapiro told Young for Full of Sith. And what more is there to say than that?

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Same-sex romances will be “post-launch feature” in The Old Republic

Remember the message board kerfuffle in ’09 about gay and lesbian relationships in The Old Republic MMO? Well, it looks like they will be an option – eventually – in The Old Republic after all. Here’s the official statement:

Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.

Given Bioware’s track record, this isn’t a huge surprise, but it’s good to know it is a consideration.

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Star Wars in the news: Steve Sansweet, gays in gaming, helmetage, Matt Lanter

banthaSteve Sansweet in the news. Forbes sits down with the ultimate Star Wars collector – with a bonus peek at 12 items in his collection.

Consequences. The Bioware censorship firestorm prompts Kotaku to take a look at past issues with homosexuality in gaming.

Well… I guess… There’s a touch of Star Wars in these new British fire helmets. But my first impression is some other movie… That I can’t quite identify…

People. Matt Lanter on The Clone Wars and 90210.

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There are no gay people in Star Wars, except for the part where there totally are

UPDATE: Bioware has lifted the topic ban and Dahlberg has apologized. And Penny Arcade weighs in.

So, the latest kerfuffle in the saga of gays in Star Wars comes out of Bioware’s forums, where community manager Sean Dahlberg shut down a discussion of possible gay and lesbian relationships in The Old Republic with the phrase:

As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars.

Thread closed.

Well, as any crazy obsessed EU fan will tell you… He’s half right. In recent years, Star Wars has played host to a single gay couple – Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur in Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice – but they’re fairly easy to overlook if your eyes glaze over at the very mention of Mandalorians. And the terminology ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’ is never used: One point for Dahlberg. They’re just there, without comment, just like any other couple. (Which is as it should be, IMO.) Though as subtle as it was, the inclusion still proved controversial in the fandom.

Of course, the real issue here: Will this message board mishap continue to get play in the blogs? Will that prompt Lucasfilm to finally up and address the issue of homosexuality in the GFFA? It’s not going to be a fun time for the message board moderators either way.

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Gate Geek – Get over it, people

Gate fans are a notoriously picky bunch with (let’s face it) a lot of drahmah and gnashing of teeth about where they want to see the story go and what they want for “their” characters.

Now that Atlantis is coming to a close, the writers appear to be speaking out a bit about the fan complaints; explaining the twists and turns that plot lines and characters can take in a show’s development.  And, basically, telling people to get over it.

Martin Gero (who seems to get the most love-it-or-hate-it reactions to his episodes) talks to GateWorld about the reactions people have to his stories.  (You need to get past the discussion of YPF, first, though.)  And takes the fans to task for their treatment of Keller.

And Joe Mallozzi talks about everyone’s ships, the gay storyline that would have happened if only the episode hadn’t run long, and why things have gone the way they have.

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The Outing That Shook the World

This is usually Yav’s beat, but she’s all busy doing something silly, like actual work. ::snort:: At any rate, the insanity of the Dumbledore outing continues.

– Giving validation to all the slash-fic’ers out there, David Thewlis (aka Remus Lupin) reports that he and director Alfonso Cuaron missed the mark a bit where his own character’s sexuality was concerned. (Plus, a nice story about David’s new book.)

– Jo, herself, got grilled a bit in Toronto, afterwards. And gives hope that a bit more of the Harry Potter universe might appear after a bit of a break.

– And GLAAD reminds us to play nice.