Quickies: 03/07/2012
By WikiQueer, a wiki for all things QUILTBAG (I will never stop enjoying using that acronym), is now live. Drinks all around!
Michelle Farrell, a graduate student in clinical psychology at Sam Houston State University, is conducting a survey on risk-taking behaviors, stress, and sexual orientation for her thesis. If you are college-aged and have ten minutes or so, please consider helping her out.
Last week on Pink Shirt Day, a group of Vancouver schoolchildren performed an absolutely charming “Born This Way” dance.
Did you guys know that Lucy Liu has been cast as Watson in an upcoming CBS Sherlock Holmes pilot? Neither did I, but I am intrigued, and so is Dorothy Surrenders.
Lots more after the jump. What can I say, I’m a giver.
Queerty hosts a discussion on crossover primary voting and the prospect of an Obama-Santorum general election.
LA single dad Matt Logelin has my vote for Father of the Year after this stupidly adorable account of learning about comics for his little girl. [Note: linked to TMS post because his blog is formatted oddly.]
In case you have been living under a rock, BioWare released Mass Effect 3 yesterday. The first two games both had options for lady-on-lady romance, but no dude-on-dude; the third installment has rectified this oversight. Predictably, there are a lot of angry homophobic nerds on the internet.
Huffington Post has a thought-provoking interview with 8 playwright Dustin Lance Black.
Asante Cotman, a brave queer kid in Virginia, was suspended from school for wearing a tasteful pair of beige heels, and then talked to the news about it. Did I mention that he is hella brave?
Some Catholic dude says some pretty awful things about marriage equality, dog bites man, etc. However, this quote from Queerty rules: “Damn, he sounds desperate. Good.”
It’s not just Shepard that can have those relationships. For the first time I ran into someone that references a queer relationship. Just matter of factly.
I won’t spoil anything, but with the Earth being attack, lots of characters are worried about people they know. you can, as a result, ask most people you run into about their family.
For the first few hours, I met several hetro people, one guy with an ex he lost track of, some people that didn’t have any family (career military and whatnot). But one guy I ran into said he had a husband on Earth. No follow up dialogue, no question, just matter of fact.
So it’s not just your character, but there’s an general incorporation of that fact into the world. It’s not in your face, it’s not everywhere, but it is present. At least so far. I’ve only spent 3 hours with the game so far, but I’m loving it!
I’m so over people getting so up in arms over gay people in games. The thing is Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Dragon Age, (presumably Dragon Age 2, haven’t played it), and Mass Effect are all okay with teh gay. For the average gamer it is pretty damn unlikely this is the first time they’ve come across games with gay characters. The number of games with gay characters is increasing and given that the developers haven’t backed down yet it’s unlikely they’re going to in the future. I wonder how many more fucking times they’re going to be able to get up in arms about it. Seriously, don’t they have anything better to do, like, I don’t know, playing the game?
In my day we complained about the striking lack of male homosexuality in Mass Effect 1. Simpler times.
Counterpoint: Liara is extremely dreamy.
I’ve become quite interested in the CBS Sherlock Holmes adaptation and the decision to gender swap Watson is a large part of it, though I also think that they should just go all the way and gender swap Holmes as well. It does worry me that I’ve heard that in addition to the gender swap they’re modifying the backstory for Watson to make her a surgeon who lost her license due to malpractice. It seems to undercut the competence of the character and quite frankly bumbling Watson has never been an interpretation I’ve enjoyed.
Aw, come on, who doesn’t love Stupid Watson?
(as long as it’s Kate Beaton drawing him)
Well as long as Kate Beaton is drawing him I’ll admit to enjoying the character.