Queer Cinema has been a staple in queer culture that allows more positive representations of queer people and their lifestyles. “Queer” was/is a slur against LGBTQ people that was later reclaimed by the community as an umbrella term for different parts of the community. I have met people who identify their sexuality or sometimes gender as queer because they don’t feel they identify with straight-forward terms like gay or lesbian. Queer cinema itself and being queer is all identity-based. It’s about which parts of the “gay” experience you identify yourself with. For example, gay men are expected to be more feminine, involved in the arts, and more in touch with their emotions. My experience as a gay man is a bit warped since I spent the first 18 years of my life as a woman, however, stereotypes exist for a reason, and I met far more queer people in theater and band class than I did when I was on a varsity sports team. Being involved in the popular queer culture makes you feel like you are truly part of something bigger than yourself. I mean I have old Rupaul’s Drag Race episodes playing in the background right now even though Rupaul is hated pretty vehemently by the trans community because of her transphobia. I don’t like Rupaul but I still watch her show because I genuinely have not found another tv show by queer people for queer people.

More recently queer representations have been increasingly more benevolent and non-normative lifestyles aren’t depicted as a threatening “other” nearly as often as they once were. Originally queer characters were often comedy relief and kept around as a spectacle for the viewer. There is a trope the internet has dubbed “bury your gays” because it was/is so common for any gay characters in a film or show to die before the end credits. I’d compare it to how in the early censorship laws for films in America antagonists were allowed to shoot people, drink and do whatever they wanted in films as long as they were punished for their actions in the end. Whatever the reason until the last decade it was very hard to come across any queer film in which none of the gay or trans characters were killed. But insane, dead, or just present for comic relief these characters were some of the only things a young queer person could see themselves within.

            Just by being visible queer characters gave young queer people the knowledge that maybe they weren’t so alone in the world. The LGBTQ community has been silenced so often and for so long that being present and visible is a political statement in itself. I have been to pride and seen the protestors carrying signs proclaiming we’re all going to hell. When I worked with the Rocky Horror cast on campus, I remember having to watch the audience for anyone we thought might be a threat. Sitting in the QA3 on-campus broadcasts your identity even if you’re just looking at memes on your phone. I am a very visibly queer person; I am loud and upfront about my identity and I know the safety of a liberal college campus is a cushion for that behavior. I don’t “limp wrist” my way through Home Depot if that makes any sense. Being visibly gay or any other alternative to the accepted norms of society is a statement and it puts a target on your chest.