Queer Inspiration – It’s Okay To Be You
Growing up gay when you don’t even know what gay means, is really strange! You don’t for a second think you’re any different from other people around you until they start talking about who they ‘like like’ and it turns out that you don’t like like any of the girls the boys do or the boys that the girls do!
My first experiences with queer culture and community came from television and it showed me some amazing people! They weren’t sad, they weren’t lonely, they weren’t wrong, all the things I’d heard or been told gay people were! They were just people! These characters inspired me to be me, to be comfortable about who I am and more importantly they gave me a window into a wonderful, diverse and amazing community.
Jack MacFarland
I had a teenage crush on Jack and a man crush on Sean Hayes. He was gay, camp and not a bit ashamed of himself. It was Will & Grace but he made every episode, every scene about him. Jack was all about life, fun and hanging out with his friends and doing his own thing.
Everything Rocky Horror
If you haven’t watched it, listened to the soundtrack or even experience the watered down Glee version then your life isn’t complete! I don’t care if you’re gay, straight, bi, questioning or asexual, your life is not complete if you haven’t experienced The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Music, muscles, mayhem and murder, it’s just one big camp blast and no one walks away from it without crushing on Frank-N;
Karl & John – The Simpsons
Before I knew what gay meant, there were Karl and John from The Simpsons. Karl voiced by the great Harvey Fierstein was Homer’s personal assistant in the episode ‘Simpson and Delilah’. While Karl’s character is never outed, his passionate kiss with and devotion to Homer was compelling. A few years later John would appear in ‘Homer’s Phobia’, voiced by renowned filmmaker and icon John Waters. John was an out gay man that made Homer feel uneasy, it’s one of the best episodes of the show. I remember watching it with my family and laughing, not at John but at Homer and his awkwardness around John, it was a strangely uplifting moment and I didn’t know why at the time!
Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn
They don’t come campier or cookier than Harley Quinn and in Batman: The Animated Series episode ‘Harley and Ivy’ we see a whole new side to her. Out on her own, the clutz villain finds a friend and partner in the deadly Poison Ivy. It’s a relationship that never calls itself one but seeing Harley find a place and a person who loves her, for herself still makes me smile.
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
