You've made some really good points here; only, I'm gay -- I've experienced homophobia and still do, nearly every day -- and yet I felt that some of CoE was most definitely verging on homophobic. The "smells queer" comment is the one that sticks out in my head the most, tbh -- it definitely gave off the wrong message as then I had people sniffing me and saying "ew, smells queer" for days afterwards. :-/ The comment from Johnny didn't come across as homophobic to me, just affectionate. And the "and who's the queer?" from Clem wasn't really homophobic, just reflecting the times he came from.
Also, there were people who had watched CoE then explaining to non-watchers "yeah, the gay guy gets killed off and the other kills his grandson" -- which is totally the wrong message, if you ask me. I think that sometimes fandom forgets that people who don't have much to do with LGBT issues or fandom don't actually think "Oh, that's homophobic...that's bad"; they take it as fact that gay characters deserve to be killed. Which isn't what CoE was about. :-(
(Sorry if this is jumbly and rushed -- I've gotta rush to catch a train.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 07:16 am (UTC)Also, there were people who had watched CoE then explaining to non-watchers "yeah, the gay guy gets killed off and the other kills his grandson" -- which is totally the wrong message, if you ask me. I think that sometimes fandom forgets that people who don't have much to do with LGBT issues or fandom don't actually think "Oh, that's homophobic...that's bad"; they take it as fact that gay characters deserve to be killed. Which isn't what CoE was about. :-(
(Sorry if this is jumbly and rushed -- I've gotta rush to catch a train.)