aside from this comic being really cute and honest, it also points out this really huge glaring problem in the gay community in relation to trans-men.
in my experience with a lot of gay men, they have this extremely purist view when it comes to what being a “real man” is, which is bad enough when you have different gay subcultures (bears, gymrats, etc) who have different specific definitions of what a “real man” is.
however for the most part, many gay men seem to agree upon a point of leaving trans-men not only out of their gender, but out of their sexuality as well and I have a real fucking problem with that.
i’m pretty open about things that relate to my sexuality, and i myself identify more or less as a homosexual, but i’ve found the worst part in the gay community is dealing with this bullshit. eventually i found that i at least have the luxury of telling guys to fuck off if i don’t meet their standards, but i know that’s a lot harder for folk when they seem to have the entire population of homosexuals more or less invalidating not only their gender, but their orientation as well.
with all of that said, i just ask this. if you happen to be a cisgender homosexual, like myself, don’t tell other gay men that they aren’t actually gay if they’re dating or have had relations with a trans-man because that’s a load of fucking bullshit.
more important, under any circumstance do not tell a trans-man they’re not a man or that they aren’t allowed to like other men who are homosexual, be they cis or trans.
that’s all i really wanted to say.
This entire response is gold.
Also, this same thing applies to trans women and their lesbian partners as well.
A cis lesbian with a trans partner is still lesbian, same as a cis gay with one is.
Neither of them are straight regardless of what they do with their partner’s junk.
THIS COMIC IS BEAUTIFUL AND BRILLIANT AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH
friendship ended with the creative process, now gay sex is my best friend
i hate the way they framed it as “oh he had sex and then stopped writing” when what happened was he carried right the fuck on writing (and the works are now available) he just stopped publishing because he was writing explicitly gay shit because he was tired of writing about things he didn’t care about and felt like he didn’t have to any more
“India’s Supreme Court has issued a historic ruling confirming the right of the country’s LGBT people to express their sexuality without discrimination.
Judges ruled that sexual orientation is covered under clauses in the Indian Constitution that relate to liberty, despite the Government claiming there was no legal right to privacy.
The ruling paves the way for discriminatory practices against LGBT people to be challenged in the courts.”
The next time I see the “it wasn’t canon argument,” I’m going to run screaming at you with copies of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 and news articles detailing the treatment of convicted homosexuals in 19th Century England, and then continue screaming until you understand exactly what would have happened to Arthur Conan Doyle had he explicitly written Sherlock Holmes and John Watson as gay lovers.
So, I wrote this a bit cheekily last night, but now I want to expand on it with some actual facts. I see a lot of people saying, “Oh, back in the 19th century, Sherlock and John couldn’t openly be together.” And that’s true, but what’s at the heart of that sentiment is this one, “Arthur Conan Doyle couldn’t have written them openly together, because the general public would assume he was encouraging homosexuality, perhaps was even homosexual himself, and that would have been dangerous.” Here’s why.
In 1885, the British Parliament enacted section 11 of the he Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, known as the Labouchere Amendment which prohibited gross indecency between males. It thus became possible to prosecute homosexuals for engaging in sexual acts where buggery or attempted buggery could not be proven. Note that they didn’t have to actually catch you in the act, they just had to suspect that you did it. During this time period, many notable men were prosecuted with disastrous results; Lord Arthur Chilton committed suicide after being implicated in Boulton and Park trial involving two transvestites and Oscar Wilde was sentenced to prison and hard labour after being found guilty.
Was there still a homosexual culture in England at the time? Yes, it was around this time that the movement began to flourish, with clandestine gatherings preceding the opening of the first gay pub, The Cave of the Golden Calf in 1912. There was even the beginnings of gay erotica and publishing, but it was still very much subversive and not openly distributed among the public.
The opposite of who Arthur Conan Doyle was; Sherlock Holmes increased subscriptions to The Strand magazine by 30,000. While Oscar Wilde, if not embraced, accepted, the consequences of his actions, Arthur Conan Doyle was not in a position to do that. He received a knighthood in 1902, he was involved in political campaigns and other civic work throughout his lifetime, and he had 5 children to support. He was not in a position to risk what an accusation of buggery would bring.
So, when you look at the situation, Arthur Conan Doyle was unable to go any farther than he had with Holmes and Watson in his original stories. Even if he wanted to. Even if he tried to fill it with as much subtext as possible, he would always have to be mindful of what would happen if he went to far.
This is why this argument bothers me so much. Were Sherlock Holmes in John Watson explicitly in a romantic relationship in the original stories? No, and no one is arguing that they were. Are we intended to imply, with the clues that were safe to include given the environment at the time, that it’s a possibility? That’s up to you to decide. But demanding that the only way a relationship could be legitimate is if it had been clearly stated by Arthur Conan Doyle is frustrating because it’s imposing today’s standards on a time period where they do not fit.
Extremely well written and accurate, thank you. I wish more of the ‘Doyle would have written them gay if he’d wanted them gay’ brigade actually bothered to understand this. But no, they impose today’s situation on Doyle’s writing. ‘Dorian Gray’ was cited as evidence in Wilde’s trial in 1895: the first openly ‘lesbian’ novel, Radclyffe Hall’ ‘The Well of Loneliness’ was prosecuted as obscene. And that was in 1928. All it takes is a little research. Thanks again 🙂
Anyway, I bring up Wilde because Doyle makes a somewhat ambigious statement in one of his stories, The Adventure of the Three Students, that may relate to Wilde:
“It was in the year ’95 that a combination
of events, into which I need not enter,
caused Mr. Sherlock Holmes and myself
to spend some weeks in one of our great
University towns, and it was during this time that
the small but instructive adventure which I am
about to relate befell us.”
What is the combination of events into which he “need not enter” that would lead Holmes and Watson to spend some weeks away from home? Possibly nothing, but also possibly the trial & conviction of Oscar Wilde, which occured that year and brought public attention to the issue, making London a very unsafe place for men who may be suspected of homosexuality. (Here is an informative post that also mentions this, among other things.) I’m not sure that a month is actually given in the story, but Sherlockians tend to place it in spring based on context in the story itself. Spring of 1895 also is when Wilde’s trials and conviction occured.
Aside from being friends with Wilde, according to Doyle’s official biography, Doyle had liberal views on homosexuality for his time. During his life, Doyle on a few occasions had gotten involved with legal cases in attempts to help people. One example involved a man he knew, Sir Roger Casement, whose life Doyle almost managed to succeed in having spared, but failed due to “the discovery of Casement’s diary. It chronicled in detail his homosexuality, which at the time was also a criminal offense.” (this is also taken from the official biography of Doyle)
None of this is hard evidence that Holmes and Watson were intended to come across as a gay couple; all I am intending to suggest is that Doyle would not necessarily have been against the idea, and that at any rate he had lost real life friends and acquaintances thanks to laws against homosexuality that Doyle considered too harsh.
This is getting more than a bit long, but I have one more point to bring up: the Turkish baths. The Adventure of the Illustrious Client begins with Holmes and Watson relaxing together at a Turkish bath.
By the time that Doyle wrote that story (1924), public baths had already been known as a meeting place for gay men. Even around the time the story takes place (1902), the first recorded police raids on public bath houses (in the US) had occured (1903). As I don’t want to add any more to the length of this post, I will just link to a page that talks about this story specifically and a bit of info from this page of Wikipedia:
i found the most awesome supportive show on german TV by pure accident. (I have been watching it for a while now, but no matter)- this show has (CANON) homosexual and bisexual characters, also characters with PTSD, depression, issues with reading/understanding other people’s emotion and responding to them… and none of them are played as jokes. None. No harmful comments, no sarcastic undertone happening. I am so happy about this.
It’s called „Betty’s Diagnose“ (engl.: Betty’s Diagnosis), a show about 3 female nurses working at a clinic, dealing with their own lives and problems… and the problems and illnesses of their patients.
For example:
They had a male cancer patient who was at the clinic for chemotherapy who didn’t actually wanted to get said treatment, even though his partner insisted he should. The episode didn’t focus on the fact that he was homosexual, but on how he and his partner weren’t communicating as they should in this situation. (He did agree on the treatment in the end and he and his partner talked stuff out)
And something that made me personally really happy was the episode that featured a trans boy, who would possibly face the horror of stopping to take T because of a possible treatment for a sickness he had. The nurses and doctors all respected his preferred pronouns and were very gentle with him. This episode also featured his unsupportive father (who kept misgendering him in front of the doctors, nurses and his wife), who in the end got a stern talking to from one of the main characters and apologized to his child and showed a start of support. (He didn’t have to stop taking T in the end, I was so happy! ;v;)
WHERE WAS THIS SHOW ALL MY LIFE??? ❤
Note: You can watch all the episodes on this youtube channel (in German, sadly no English subtitles) and you should totally check it out! 😀
Edit: And don’t forget the reoccurring moment of the one really hot male nurse walking by (in slow-mo and with music in the background) and everyone, of any gender or sexual orientation, close by watches them with a dreamy expression on their faces until they are out of view. One of the nurses has given him the nickname “Dr. Love”. ;D
‘85% of homosexuals sleep with more than 500 ppl in their lifetime’ factoid is a statistical error. Gay Georg, who sleeps with 500 people per night is an outlier and should not habe been counted.
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 