Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it is Danny and Iffy here. We're still
Speaker 1: on hiatus. I hope that everyone out there is being
Speaker 1: loud and it's being safe. Um. If you this is
Speaker 1: the first time I've seen you across from me in
Speaker 1: a in a bit. Yeah, I know, Yeah, it's been
Speaker 1: a it's been a time, you know, just trying to
Speaker 1: stay active, stay positive, get out. You know. They went
Speaker 1: to a protest yesterday. It was great. It's a good
Speaker 1: time and still all the while doing super punched stuff. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: so this week we wanted to re air an episode
Speaker 1: we did on queer characters and gaming. As you may
Speaker 1: or may not know, June is Pride month, and we've
Speaker 1: actually had some great advancements as far as queer representation
Speaker 1: and gaming. On this particular episode that we're re airing,
Speaker 1: we had Cannon's Bachman from Sony and our friend comedian
Speaker 1: Christopher Smith Bryant, who's the head of the l A
Speaker 1: Gaming Society here to talk about iconic gay characters in
Speaker 1: this community. Something that we wanted to remind everyone is
Speaker 1: that black and brown trans women are why we have pride. Uh.
Speaker 1: They were the ones fighting at Stonewall Um and protesting
Speaker 1: against police brutality. It is because of them that people
Speaker 1: like me get to come out as openly by They
Speaker 1: have done so much work in this community. So we
Speaker 1: just wanted to remember them during Pride. Uh And hopefully
Speaker 1: you guys are all tweeting and posting and showing up
Speaker 1: and stuff for this community. Yeah, definitely that, well do you.
Speaker 1: I'd second all of those things, But I also wanna
Speaker 1: also wanna do uh say a resounding yeah you can't
Speaker 1: all black lives matter, which is always a scary phrase
Speaker 1: to say because it seems like you're about to say
Speaker 1: all lives matter, but no, just me, all black lives matter.
Speaker 1: If you didn't know, Uh, twenty black men ganged up
Speaker 1: on a trans women a couple of days ago, and
Speaker 1: we were recording this June fourth at a at a
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter rally, which is disgusting, despicable, and I
Speaker 1: hope all twenty of those men get caught and dealt
Speaker 1: with because you can't. You can't sit there in a
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter rally and then attack another Black life.
Speaker 1: You get over, get over whatever BS ideals. I have
Speaker 1: to remember, we don't curse on this show. Had to
Speaker 1: stop myself and and really stand up for one another
Speaker 1: out there, because if if you're not for all black lives,
Speaker 1: then you're not for black lives period. Yes, all black
Speaker 1: lives matter, Black trans lives matter. We hope you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode on queer Characters and gaming. Stay loud, Stay strong,
Speaker 1: Stay nerdy. Yeah, yes, stay nerdy, Stay nerdy. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to another episode of Nerdificent. I'm if you and
Speaker 1: sitting in the new corner of the table. I've been
Speaker 1: kicked out. Yeah, it is I your other co host,
Speaker 1: Danny Fernandez, and today we are joined up top by
Speaker 1: comedian executive producer at Enemies of Dorothy, an event coordinator
Speaker 1: at LAGS, which is the l A Gaming Society, Christopher
Speaker 1: Smith Bryant. Yeah, this is where I talk. Yes, I
Speaker 1: am sitting in my spot. It feels weird. I feel
Speaker 1: weird and I've never been here before. No, I'm a
Speaker 1: in incordinator at LAGS, l A Gaming Society, So I'm
Speaker 1: super excited to be on your show and talk about
Speaker 1: gay stuff. Yes, so we have another I know spoiler.
Speaker 1: You already said, what are our episode is? I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: They can see it in the title And sitting next
Speaker 1: to him is the technical program manager at PlayStation, A
Speaker 1: gaming enthusiast and lgbt Q activist Cannon's backman. Hey, thanks
Speaker 1: for joe us. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: W how did y'all meet? How do you two know
Speaker 1: each other? Oh? My god? We okay, well we did
Speaker 1: go on one day. Okay, I'm sorry, I did not
Speaker 1: know this. No, it's it's okay. It didn't go well. Um,
Speaker 1: but we're friends now, so it went well enough. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I think sometimes you meet people, especially being LGBT,
Speaker 1: you meet someone that you have an attraction for, but
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm not sexually but I'm so attracted to
Speaker 1: this person, and you're like, oh, it's just because our
Speaker 1: souls are like friends souls. We um. We run the
Speaker 1: l A Gaming Society together, which is one of the
Speaker 1: largest gay video game groups in America, where we create
Speaker 1: these giant parties and programs for LGBT nerds that live
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles to kind of meet up um, and
Speaker 1: it's just been a really cool way. I mean I
Speaker 1: met Cannon through that, and we've met multiple friends through
Speaker 1: that as well. Yeah. You guys actually had the Dragon
Speaker 1: Ball Fighters tournament that I is that that? Yeah? We
Speaker 1: had a great time with Funimation, uh doing Dragon Ball
Speaker 1: Fighters tournament. It's a really great way because I feel like,
Speaker 1: especially LGBT people who moved to l A, they feel lost,
Speaker 1: and especially if they're nerds and they might have, you know,
Speaker 1: some sort of social issues like you know, aspergers or whatever,
Speaker 1: it's a great way for them too. I said that, right, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a great way for them to meet with other nerds.
Speaker 1: I did it to other nerds who can't socialize, like
Speaker 1: I can't socialize Christianize. The extent of our friendship is
Speaker 1: sending memes to each other like four times a day.
Speaker 1: That's how we communicate. That's all of my friendships. And
Speaker 1: then that's it. And I'll see Danny like once every
Speaker 1: six months. But I feel closer to her because of
Speaker 1: our memes. That's a millennial friendship. And I need up
Speaker 1: our meme game. We send them here and there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we are meme light usually. It's just it's true. We
Speaker 1: spill a lot of tea in our in our chat.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to talk about a little bit canon
Speaker 1: about you work with WITS. Is that what it's called
Speaker 1: Women in Technology? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, can you tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about that group. Sure. So one
Speaker 1: of the really cool things about being at PlayStation now
Speaker 1: is we're experiencing a lot of change for the better.
Speaker 1: We've we weren't from two different companies at Sony that
Speaker 1: we're considered kind of the redheaded stepchild. We were the
Speaker 1: gaming division UM and now since the PlayStation four is launched,
Speaker 1: we've kind of become the crown jewel of the Sony companies,
Speaker 1: and that's ushered in a lot of really positive change.
Speaker 1: So our headquarters moved from Tokyo to san Mateo, and
Speaker 1: we're kind of embracing a lot of modern um culture
Speaker 1: things and culture changes UM to kind of, I guess,
Speaker 1: invite more people to be a part of what it
Speaker 1: is that we do at Sony. So what has come
Speaker 1: with that has been a lot of diversity initiatives, and
Speaker 1: one of them was making what we call employee resource groups.
Speaker 1: And we haven't played resource groups. There's five at Sony currently.
Speaker 1: There's Women in Technology at Sony, which is our women's group.
Speaker 1: There's Proud at Sony, which is our LGBT group. There's PAN,
Speaker 1: which is PlayStation African American Network at Sony. I think
Speaker 1: it's PANS and then there's a fourth and fifth one.
Speaker 1: I don't remember what the other ones are. But having
Speaker 1: all those groups that sony has been a really really
Speaker 1: good experience because it's been able to bring people I
Speaker 1: work with together in a really different way, in a
Speaker 1: really interesting way, and it's had a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting effects on our work culture and on the projects
Speaker 1: we do and pretty much everything. It's been really great
Speaker 1: well with Cannon and I, especially especially because we're running
Speaker 1: events with the l A Gaming Society UM PlayStation let
Speaker 1: us hold their first LGBT E three party. Oh that's
Speaker 1: so cool, which was really amazing because we we just
Speaker 1: like put up an event, like Okay, this will be fine,
Speaker 1: and luckily we put up an event on Facebook because
Speaker 1: like within a week, I think there are two thousand
Speaker 1: people that clicked interested in it, and we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: are were you having this at your house? Because we
Speaker 1: lovely had in an event space for it. But I
Speaker 1: remember Cannon's like, I don't know how we're gonna fill this,
Speaker 1: and we're like, oh, we're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to get everyone in. But it was kind of a
Speaker 1: cool moment, especially because I don't think anyone realized how
Speaker 1: many LGBT nerds there are and how underrepresented they are
Speaker 1: as a group, And it was an amazing way, especially
Speaker 1: to get a lot of people who worked for PlayStation
Speaker 1: to kind of be like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: a huge, huge, huge group. And especially it was awesome
Speaker 1: because they had the E three presentation from PlayStation actually
Speaker 1: opened up with a lesbian moment, a lesbian kiss between
Speaker 1: two characters for the last of us two. Uh So
Speaker 1: it's just a really powerful moment for all of us. Also,
Speaker 1: what it was really cool too, was because Ellie being
Speaker 1: lesbian was alluded to in the DLC but not confirmed,
Speaker 1: and I feel like a lot of lgb characters or
Speaker 1: has to have to deal with that with the off
Speaker 1: screen you know representation where it's like we're supposed to
Speaker 1: assume that, or even like you know, uh, to take
Speaker 1: it back to Nickelodeon, Like a few people were wishy
Speaker 1: washy with the end of Legend of Cora because it
Speaker 1: wasn't as strong of it ending to really confirm everything.
Speaker 1: So to kind of just have that kiss there and
Speaker 1: like yep, we're here, it was I even thought it
Speaker 1: was like really cool because you know, I think just
Speaker 1: from the perspective of being like a black person and
Speaker 1: wanting to see you know, representation. It's cool, Like it's
Speaker 1: it's funny how like we can cheer each other on,
Speaker 1: like everyone something. I feel like some people in our
Speaker 1: respective like you know, groups, think that it's a contest
Speaker 1: when it really is just we want everybody winning. Like
Speaker 1: I was hyped to see crazy rich agents do well.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, get it, get it, you know, and
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, it's just like there's room
Speaker 1: for everyone, and it is funny because you know when
Speaker 1: you do have like so many I think white dude
Speaker 1: bros think like, oh man, this is dumb and trying
Speaker 1: to you know, s j W and all this when
Speaker 1: they don't even know. Like I think it's crazier because
Speaker 1: I feel like lgbt Q is a little more invisible,
Speaker 1: Like you can, like someone can be Chris's homeboy and
Speaker 1: not know that he is gay and then be like,
Speaker 1: what do you think of this lgbt You know s
Speaker 1: j W always clogging up trying to ruin my games.
Speaker 1: You know, they would have to be blind to not
Speaker 1: know that I'm gay, but you would actually be surprised
Speaker 1: though you are, sorry, go ahead, No, they just don't
Speaker 1: sometimes they don't think of it, like they just don't
Speaker 1: what we're gonna say. You are wearing a sailor moon
Speaker 1: necklace with sailor moon nelace another very LGBT pro you know,
Speaker 1: I mean all of the sailors I feel like in general,
Speaker 1: but specifically Neptune in Urinous are so And I saw
Speaker 1: that you were posting that you were watching it this
Speaker 1: past weekend. You know what was amazing is for a
Speaker 1: show that was in the nineties, there was a character
Speaker 1: that said that they had they admitted of having a
Speaker 1: crush on Usagi and most animals at the time, the
Speaker 1: main character, if it's someone of the same sex, admitted
Speaker 1: that they were attracted to him, they would be like
Speaker 1: whoa gross, So like try to make a comedic moment
Speaker 1: out of it. And the weird thing was Usagi, which
Speaker 1: is like she took care of the person's feelings. She said,
Speaker 1: I don't have the same you know, emotions that you
Speaker 1: feel towards me. But it was just like really sweet
Speaker 1: about it. And it was such a progressive show in
Speaker 1: that way for its time that it means so much
Speaker 1: to you know, ALGBT nerds for that reason. Well, I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you guys, Like, what were some of
Speaker 1: the characters and shows that you latched onto as a child,
Speaker 1: or when did you first feel like you saw yourself
Speaker 1: in media were represented. Oh that's a tough one. Um,
Speaker 1: this is going to be horrible to say, but I
Speaker 1: think it started with fan fiction. Yeah. I really started
Speaker 1: with like fan web comics, like even just seeing uh
Speaker 1: because I I mean I remember as far as like,
Speaker 1: I'm really into comic books, the as a Marvel fan.
Speaker 1: The Young Adventures was kind of like and is it
Speaker 1: north Star as well from X Men. Yeah, that were
Speaker 1: the first, like big Ones from Marvel and then Batwoman,
Speaker 1: But it kind of started before then, seeing like web
Speaker 1: comics on the Internet. Some of them were very racy,
Speaker 1: um of different, like characters that I would ship together
Speaker 1: like people you know are like fan fiction and sometimes
Speaker 1: it's just sweet to see people that I like shipped together.
Speaker 1: I think that was actually the first thing I had
Speaker 1: because there really as a kid, there wasn't there wasn't
Speaker 1: really that much representation as someone who's you know, turning
Speaker 1: thirty soon. There really wasn't as a kid any representation,
Speaker 1: especially in video games. They're Birdel like that was a
Speaker 1: transgender bird from in Sailor Moon. That was in Sailor Moon.
Speaker 1: They changed in the American version they changed the lesbian
Speaker 1: scouts to be cousins. And I think all of us
Speaker 1: at the time, we're like, what type of relationship, like
Speaker 1: are you having with your cousin? I mean, my is
Speaker 1: just weird. I don't know if I split my tongue
Speaker 1: into my cousin's mouth. But sometimes how people get Cannon?
Speaker 1: What about you? Like? What were if not like that
Speaker 1: you felt represented? What were some of the characters and
Speaker 1: shows that you at least latched onto as a as
Speaker 1: a kid? Like? What characters did you like? So that's
Speaker 1: a good question. I grew up watching He Man, which
Speaker 1: I think is why I'm gay. No, I'm just sense
Speaker 1: makes sense. Um. I think the earliest video game reference
Speaker 1: that I can think it actually comes from Dragon Age.
Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone ever played Dragon Age, but
Speaker 1: it was the first game I played that had gay
Speaker 1: optional romances, which I played that game every which way
Speaker 1: to get all of the gay romances because I wanted
Speaker 1: because it was like my first exposure to that, and
Speaker 1: I was like, holy crap, Like even replayed it as
Speaker 1: a female character in romance all the female characters that
Speaker 1: you can romance and it was just cool to have
Speaker 1: that option because I've never had that option before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: speaking of that, that actually reminds I now can think
Speaker 1: the very first video game for me was The Sims.
Speaker 1: The Sims because I think I remember them adding like
Speaker 1: LGBT relationship and there's a huge controversy around it, but
Speaker 1: when you could add when you could woo hoo and
Speaker 1: the bed like that was my first gay porn was
Speaker 1: pixelated woo hoo. And I was wild too, just just
Speaker 1: the pixelated like wo who and then it would have
Speaker 1: like almost the fighting smoke, like okay, I'll going crazy
Speaker 1: Simsy's I was like, is this what it's supposed to be?
Speaker 1: Right when you see it's not pixelated? Um. I I
Speaker 1: would say fan fiction was how I explored my sexuality
Speaker 1: as well. Um and also just like anime what is it?
Speaker 1: I forgot the name of it now when it's not
Speaker 1: the manga, but it's like fan made manga. I can't
Speaker 1: remember to um. Anyways, there's a lot of exploration in there.
Speaker 1: But I was able to be I guess the best
Speaker 1: way to describe it as a passenger in that experience
Speaker 1: because my best friend in high school came out to
Speaker 1: me in like like the summer between eighth grade and
Speaker 1: freshman year, and it was true, Yeah, I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: good guy. Guys, I'm one of the hashtag woke. Yeah no.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny because to me, that's also kind
Speaker 1: of been my frustration with bigotry because it was that simple.
Speaker 1: It's just like, you're still the same. Why would I
Speaker 1: care like who you love? It was so too for
Speaker 1: me to think back and as a like thirteen year old,
Speaker 1: no inhibitions and no like, oh man, this is that
Speaker 1: or whatever. It's it's like crazy to see how grown
Speaker 1: adults will like go back and forth on this with nothing.
Speaker 1: And also I'm like a strong proponent of like my
Speaker 1: own business, you know, and if it has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with you, why would you even have an opinion
Speaker 1: on it? But I'm side tracking a bit, but too,
Speaker 1: But like even him growing up, it was the same thing.
Speaker 1: He really kind of gravitated towards uh sailor moon because
Speaker 1: you know, it was that same thing because they're like
Speaker 1: the uncut version. They're lesbians. It's tight and beyond that,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think because we're both hyper nerds, like
Speaker 1: we watched DVZ together. He like DVZ has a lot
Speaker 1: of queers characters. I remember we I will bring this back.
Speaker 1: Every is the gay icon. We've talked about this. It's
Speaker 1: zarbon so so. Um, I remember that you posted like
Speaker 1: a picture. I think it was a dragon ball Z relating.
Speaker 1: I think I was in my underwear next to Freezer
Speaker 1: and we're both sticking our butts out as you do
Speaker 1: as you do on Instagram, and somebody was like, don't
Speaker 1: bring your homosexuality into dragon ball Z and i'ld be like,
Speaker 1: have you watched it? Well, my favorite is Danny. Then
Speaker 1: went off on this person and she's like, oh, you
Speaker 1: think you know about dragon ball Z? And I was
Speaker 1: like this comment, I should say, I thought like I
Speaker 1: brought the facts. Yeah. I used to post these like
Speaker 1: belfies on Instagram and I just put like, you know,
Speaker 1: hashtag butt or whatever. But I think people straight guys
Speaker 1: would just see a feminine figure and be turned on
Speaker 1: by it and then like then look at the picture
Speaker 1: and then realize that there's a guy, and um, I
Speaker 1: think that's yeah exactly. We've we've all been there, you know.
Speaker 1: Easually you're like, oh, I've done that with your post
Speaker 1: because so many booty models that like, I'll Chris come up,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm not reading the screen. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh nice, but I was like, oh look it's Chris again.
Speaker 1: But you're very supportive. Yeah, yeah, very supportive. But I
Speaker 1: think that's what happens is then he got angry and
Speaker 1: then try to school me on Dragon ball Z and
Speaker 1: Danny was not having it. She was like, no, well,
Speaker 1: it's so fascinating to me because anime they don't have
Speaker 1: necessarily the same weird religious, extremely structured like homophobia and
Speaker 1: stuff that seems to be over here where they made
Speaker 1: where a Cure to Rama made a lot of these
Speaker 1: characters kind of gender fluid for a reason and has
Speaker 1: commented on this. So it's just frustrating to me that
Speaker 1: people are like, no, it's this, when well, that's what's
Speaker 1: so funny is all the like super weeds you know,
Speaker 1: who want to copy everything about Japan will just skip
Speaker 1: over that part, which is the Japan's not having their
Speaker 1: huge obsession over masculinity where there is that kind of
Speaker 1: gender fluidity. There's so many anime characters that or androgynous
Speaker 1: that can go either way. I mean even like double
Speaker 1: Man cry Baby, like you know, spoilers, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you thirty seconds to speed past this if you
Speaker 1: really want to see it. But at the end, when
Speaker 1: Satan has like straight up breast and it's like never addressed,
Speaker 1: it's never like a thing. It's like, yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: I am a man, I have breast, I am beautiful,
Speaker 1: and this is in let me destroy the world. You know.
Speaker 1: Japan culture is very interesting though, they because they still
Speaker 1: have homophobia, but it's different. And I believe homosexuality is
Speaker 1: illegal in Japan for Japanese citizens. Is that correct? Canon Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's it's an interesting law they have. I I
Speaker 1: go to Japan fairly regularly for work, so I have
Speaker 1: a little bit of experience with Japanese culture and it's
Speaker 1: fascinating and I love going to Japan. But one of
Speaker 1: the really interesting things I learned very early on was
Speaker 1: so things like prostitution are illegal between Japanese citizens, but
Speaker 1: prostitution between a Japanese citizen and a non Japanese citizen
Speaker 1: is not legal. And you'll find a lot of things
Speaker 1: or I'm sorry, yes, yeah, what about homosexuality in Japan?
Speaker 1: So being gay is not illegal in Japan. But if
Speaker 1: you ask any Japanese people like, are they're gay people here?
Speaker 1: They will tell you no, it's a very fascinating thing.
Speaker 1: Yet in a lot of their art nor culture, you'll
Speaker 1: see a lot of gender nonconforming people. You'll see a
Speaker 1: lot of queer people. You'll see people that don't fit
Speaker 1: the normal gender spectrum. So they're very comfortable with it
Speaker 1: in their art and in their style and in their culture.
Speaker 1: But if you ask them straight up, like what is
Speaker 1: the l g T community here, they'll say, oh, Japan
Speaker 1: doesn't have those. That doesn't happen here is bizarre. And
Speaker 1: then they'll say, if you do see it here, it's
Speaker 1: because foreigners have come here and they've like and I
Speaker 1: wonder if the art is that is like their expression
Speaker 1: of it, because like, yeah, if we're just looking at
Speaker 1: anime and like it's so not all of it, but
Speaker 1: a lot of it is sexual and sexual between women
Speaker 1: and women, men and women, man and man, like just
Speaker 1: a large spectrum, and so yeah, I find that fascinating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it is interesting, And that's just a whole another
Speaker 1: deep dive of a whole another culture because that they're
Speaker 1: because there's just so many nuanced levels to it. I
Speaker 1: don't think this is okay at all, because to me,
Speaker 1: the way it sounds on paper is like appropriation. You're
Speaker 1: you're willing to make money off of the imagery and
Speaker 1: having it in your media, But when it comes time
Speaker 1: to actually allow it to happen, to allow certain people
Speaker 1: to be free, now we're going to pretend they don't exist.
Speaker 1: That's well, that's their kind of way of dealing with
Speaker 1: anything in Japanese culture is just they if they don't
Speaker 1: like something or if it makes them feel uncomfortable, they
Speaker 1: kind of are just shut it down and like, this
Speaker 1: isn't happening, what are you talking about? I did want
Speaker 1: to talk about sorry to transition, so I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about some queer characters in Nerdum okay. So some
Speaker 1: of the ones that I personally love would be zena
Speaker 1: warrior princess. I don't know if you watched her yeas amazing,
Speaker 1: you would I Chris have talked extensively about wonder Woman,
Speaker 1: so and who is she? She's officially bisexual, right, which
Speaker 1: I mean it's basically been hinted forever but and was
Speaker 1: then openly confirmed. But for me it was it was
Speaker 1: frustrating to see people upset about this when it was like,
Speaker 1: she lives on an island of all women. Women know
Speaker 1: how to pleasure other women. There's no way that these
Speaker 1: goddesses are just sleeping alone every night by themselves. I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone that's read a Wonder Woman comic was
Speaker 1: upset by it. I think it was like a lot
Speaker 1: of people were like, Linda Carter, no, but it's so true.
Speaker 1: And another thing I would have to say before I
Speaker 1: move off of her is that in the movie with
Speaker 1: her being with Steve Trevor, and people were like, well,
Speaker 1: clearly she's not by I'm like, no, it's just the
Speaker 1: clock struck straight this time, might not next time. But
Speaker 1: that's like, you know, it's she can still be a
Speaker 1: bisexual woman and have reallys with a man. That's actually
Speaker 1: how that works. That's a problem with bise I mean
Speaker 1: people's opinions on bisexuality in general, as they don't understand
Speaker 1: that you can be with someone that's the opposite sex
Speaker 1: and still be bisexual. Yeah, so many people take that
Speaker 1: away from bisexual people. It's sad to see that oh yeah, no,
Speaker 1: even to go even a little further into it, it
Speaker 1: is funny that type of nerd, which is basically, you know,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, just really just only
Speaker 1: trying to protect their sexual desires around the character. Like
Speaker 1: the same thing with the outrage of Shira. You know,
Speaker 1: some people are like, oh, it's just because it's done with.
Speaker 1: There is a camp of people who are like, this
Speaker 1: isn't the Shira I remember who you know, it was
Speaker 1: very sexy, or whenever they make a character more modest
Speaker 1: than they get mad. It's like, you're not even, in
Speaker 1: my eyes, a real fan of this character. You only
Speaker 1: like this character for your sexual pleasure and think that
Speaker 1: no one should touch it to make you happy in
Speaker 1: a way that the character wasn't even built for in
Speaker 1: the first place, Like you know, go to Rule thirty
Speaker 1: four and get your rocks off, believe like the actual
Speaker 1: art and the people, actual fans of the character, like
Speaker 1: let them have the things they want, which is good
Speaker 1: story progressive styte storytelling, like leave leave your like weird.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not going to kink shame you, but
Speaker 1: leave it out of it. You know. The really funny
Speaker 1: thing just about wonder Woman, real quick, they're really funny
Speaker 1: about wonder Woman. So she has a totally queer origin story.
Speaker 1: There's actually a movie about her three creators, and it's
Speaker 1: a man and two women that we're in a relationship
Speaker 1: at the time that we're super into bondage, and that's
Speaker 1: why Wonder Woman's power is the lasso of truth and
Speaker 1: she would tipe people off, make sense. So there's this
Speaker 1: whole like all of the queer undertones of Wonder Woman
Speaker 1: are absolutely intentional. Yeah, well, do you remember even in
Speaker 1: the film in the boat scene when she was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I read about, you know, pleasures or whatever
Speaker 1: with a man and a woman and he was like,
Speaker 1: what did you find out that we don't really need you?
Speaker 1: That is a queer like moment of being like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we've no how to pleasure each other. We don't actually
Speaker 1: need you unless we want to have children. So, like
Speaker 1: you said, the undertones, but like if you it's there,
Speaker 1: it's there. But I wanted to know some of your
Speaker 1: favorite queer characters in gaming or in television and film,
Speaker 1: or some of the fandoms that you are into. That's
Speaker 1: a great question. Um, I'm trying to think of it's
Speaker 1: so weird even thinking about like gay characters in video games,
Speaker 1: for instance, there's really uh so many like who who
Speaker 1: can you think of who's gay? I was gonna say, Chris,
Speaker 1: you actually introduced me to America. Chaves, Yeah, the one
Speaker 1: that did. And she's a Marvel character. Yeah, is great.
Speaker 1: Batwoman's great. Um, there needs to be a little bit
Speaker 1: more representation in video games because I think, besides like
Speaker 1: the Last of Us there, I'm trying to think of
Speaker 1: a triple A title right now that has like a
Speaker 1: main character that is I'll bt, and I can't think
Speaker 1: of one on the top of my head. There are
Speaker 1: very many UM comic books that's slowly turning around. But
Speaker 1: I mean, we're even just fighting to get a woman.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like we're finally getting a Captain Marvel movie.
Speaker 1: Like it's finally just even getting a woman on screen,
Speaker 1: or finally getting black panther on screen. It's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a it's a long uphill battle. I would say
Speaker 1: a character that I've always enjoyed who I think has
Speaker 1: some serious like fizzazz and queer overtones is Bayonetta. Yeah.
Speaker 1: All of the Bayonetta games are just super gay. I
Speaker 1: don't care what anyone says. She's a drag queen. Character almostly.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean that meaning that she's a man
Speaker 1: posing as well. I mean as as far as like
Speaker 1: the culture goes and as far as how she uses
Speaker 1: her sexuality, it is very and the way that she
Speaker 1: jokes in the undertones, it's a lot of almost like
Speaker 1: drag sona type of stuff. Actually, the more that you
Speaker 1: say that, when you when you ask queer nerds, who
Speaker 1: do they find that represents them, it's usually a lot
Speaker 1: of female characters because there aren't they're not many gay
Speaker 1: character is, especially in video games. I think there was
Speaker 1: like the Ballad of Gay Tony GRANTSUFT Auto four. That's
Speaker 1: another big one. It's been very lacking obviously in in
Speaker 1: video games and nerd culture. Yeah, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: sometimes that way where it is once again like that
Speaker 1: off screen type of stuff where it's like, oh, that
Speaker 1: person is gay. But the division had a lesbian a
Speaker 1: kind of like your lead point person, which was fay Lal,
Speaker 1: But once again that was an off screen stuff you
Speaker 1: But that one was a little tricky because that's one
Speaker 1: of those games where you get story notes through like
Speaker 1: pickups and stuff. But I don't think there was anything
Speaker 1: that leaned heavily, heavily on it. But I know she
Speaker 1: and that I mean that game as a whole because
Speaker 1: it took place in New York, had a lot of uh,
Speaker 1: a lot of like gay characters in it, like the
Speaker 1: first doctor you help references her wife who died in
Speaker 1: this and so. But like, it would be nice to
Speaker 1: have like something like The Last of Us where it's
Speaker 1: like someone that people can look at and be like
Speaker 1: there there, you go right there and not have their sexuality.
Speaker 1: It's it's hard because you don't want it as a
Speaker 1: plot device. And since that it's like, we're a liberal company,
Speaker 1: look at us like that. I think that's why The
Speaker 1: Last of Us was so perfect. It's a part of
Speaker 1: her character. It affects who you are, it affects how
Speaker 1: you Your sexuality does affect so much about your personality.
Speaker 1: But it's it's hard to get that where it affects
Speaker 1: your personality. But it's not a stereotype and the company
Speaker 1: is not using it to make a statement there like
Speaker 1: this is just the character and this kisses because it's
Speaker 1: it's not a political statement. It's just we're showing a
Speaker 1: story and she romance is part of the story. I
Speaker 1: do feel like some of them can be a little
Speaker 1: bit of a cop out. I agree with that, I
Speaker 1: in a different type of way. In the Latin X community,
Speaker 1: they recently had Hernandez that was named as Magnum p
Speaker 1: I and then people were like, Okay, well he's a
Speaker 1: Mexican man, so are you going to like address that
Speaker 1: at all, and they were like, not really no, and
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, but his America just by definition, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit different than the last guy.
Speaker 1: Like his experience is, like you said, it's gonna inform,
Speaker 1: it's gonna shape his experience. And so for me, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a cop out to just make someone
Speaker 1: brown or make someone queer and then not address it
Speaker 1: at all. And so that kind of happened a little bit.
Speaker 1: I felt like in two thousand seven with J. K.
Speaker 1: Rowling and Harry Potter when she was attended to the
Speaker 1: Q and A at Carnegie Hall and she revealed that
Speaker 1: Dumbledore was gay, and it's like, this is great, that's awesome,
Speaker 1: And then we thought, like in Fantastic Beasts or like
Speaker 1: and other stuff, that it was going to be addressed
Speaker 1: and it's not. And so I kind of just like okay,
Speaker 1: And you know, I feel like they did that a
Speaker 1: little bit in Deadpool too, where it's just like you
Speaker 1: kind of say, like, oh no, they're like explore their sexuality.
Speaker 1: It was like, great, are we going to actually see
Speaker 1: them with another man? Like are we gonna actually see
Speaker 1: them be physical or something? And then they're not, And
Speaker 1: then I'm like, so it feels like you're just using
Speaker 1: this to say it. I don't know how you guys
Speaker 1: feel about that. They're using it to kind of get
Speaker 1: the game market on board, on like Twitter, like they're
Speaker 1: getting the Twitter gaze on, you know, like that type
Speaker 1: of audience, like people on the Internet on board, but
Speaker 1: not enough for the casual movie goers watching it to
Speaker 1: be a ended. And I feel like that's kind of
Speaker 1: like with Dumbledore, that's a huge part of his story
Speaker 1: and I don't get I mean, I'm hoping it will be,
Speaker 1: you know, eventually explored, but I don't want to judge
Speaker 1: because I haven't seen the movie and I understand what
Speaker 1: we're saying, like no, that's not his whole entire identity,
Speaker 1: but like it does feel a little bit like if
Speaker 1: you don't include it, there's a way to you don't
Speaker 1: want it to be like where it's shoved down people,
Speaker 1: no one wants anything show it's obviously uh speak for yourself,
Speaker 1: but there's a way to include it where it's still
Speaker 1: your sexuality is always genuine maybe yeah, And it's always
Speaker 1: going to affect some of your your character decisions, It
Speaker 1: always will. I think it's it's a really difficult line
Speaker 1: to walk, right because you want you want to portray
Speaker 1: queer and diverse characters in a way that is that
Speaker 1: his heartfelt and that is real, and you also don't
Speaker 1: want to lose your core audience that is Middle America.
Speaker 1: So it's tough. Yeah, I think it's my kind of
Speaker 1: thoughts on it. Yeah, I know. And that's such an
Speaker 1: interesting kind of stance and walk because are we helping
Speaker 1: or hurting by hiding you know this from Middle America?
Speaker 1: Because lots of times they in Middle America. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like at times can be cop outs because
Speaker 1: I feel like Middle America is the excuse that kept
Speaker 1: a movie like Black Panther from being made for so long,
Speaker 1: and then we saw how that did move like crazy
Speaker 1: rich Asians come up for so long we thought how
Speaker 1: that did? And you know, I think Moonlight did well
Speaker 1: and I'm sure it didn't make that much money, but
Speaker 1: I think that's less because it tackled black gay issues
Speaker 1: and more because it was an art house film, you know.
Speaker 1: And though there, I think if you were to love Simon,
Speaker 1: this year did really actually fantastic speaking of like I mean,
Speaker 1: big budget you know movies, I think it. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: did fantastic. And so many people watch us and we're like,
Speaker 1: I mean, they're so happy that it was an lgp
Speaker 1: BT film where it wasn't another person dying from the
Speaker 1: AIDS epidemic, where it was like just like it was
Speaker 1: is a happy story and it was just a silly
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties style like romance comedy that just featured a
Speaker 1: guy looking for another guy, and it was just amazingly
Speaker 1: well done that people are like, oh, thank god, it
Speaker 1: wasn't someone homosexuality. It was part of the movie. They
Speaker 1: tackled parts of it, but it wasn't like in a
Speaker 1: in a way where it was just a part of
Speaker 1: it was just a segment of it, and it was
Speaker 1: just part of his character. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that's a big part of it too, is we're finally
Speaker 1: in the part where we can justify getting better movies
Speaker 1: made for those that are not straight and white and
Speaker 1: says gender right, Like in the past, all the game
Speaker 1: movies were really stupid, and Love Simon is like a
Speaker 1: really really good movie. Like the production value is good,
Speaker 1: the acting is good, the script is good. All of
Speaker 1: it's really good. Black Panther another really good example, Like
Speaker 1: everything about Black Panther was like triple A quality, Like
Speaker 1: it was brilliant. And I think we're finally getting to
Speaker 1: that point where it's like, yeah, we can't tell these
Speaker 1: stories and they will be interesting. We just have to
Speaker 1: do it right. We are going to take a quick
Speaker 1: break and then come back can talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about more of our favorite queer characters, and we
Speaker 1: are bad. I wanted to touch on the c w
Speaker 1: C there superhero shows, well several of their shows, but
Speaker 1: definitely their superhero shows seem to be really taking initiative
Speaker 1: as far as including more queer characters. I know, there's
Speaker 1: Thunder and Black Lightning, there's Curtis Holt on Arrow, There's
Speaker 1: the Flashes, Captain sing, there's Alex Danvers and Supergirl Sarah
Speaker 1: Lance and Legends of Tomorrow gave a sharp and Ledgends
Speaker 1: of Tomorrow and now we have Ruby Rose as Batwoman.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw that was announced. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's very exciting. The main character too. You know, bat Woman,
Speaker 1: here's one of the most fascinating characters. And you know,
Speaker 1: if it was a few years ago and you told
Speaker 1: me that they would announce Ruby Rose as Batwoman and
Speaker 1: she would be getting tons of hate, I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: is it because it's a lesbian character? No, because nerds
Speaker 1: are bad? Yeah. And and if if they think you don't,
Speaker 1: because you know, all nerds are the perfect casting director.
Speaker 1: All these great fan casting picks that we see. By
Speaker 1: the way, that's what's so funny. It's every time fans
Speaker 1: cast something, it's always trash, or the budget would be insane,
Speaker 1: or that person would not dedicate, like it's like get
Speaker 1: out of here, like they were upset with Was it
Speaker 1: Heath Ledger when he was originally Yes, that's so true.
Speaker 1: Fantastic um. Yeah, and there's also isn't Voltron have characters?
Speaker 1: They just confirmed it at Comic conto. Oh and uh,
Speaker 1: thinking of even video games because I forgot this reference.
Speaker 1: Tracer from Overwatch, the one of the main faces of
Speaker 1: over Watching a lesbians. So yeah, I would be remiss
Speaker 1: if I didn't mention Stephen Universe, which is brilliant, beautiful,
Speaker 1: such a positive bright I mean even they though if
Speaker 1: he even their fans are bad bad you want to
Speaker 1: like hit I want to like roll up a newspaper
Speaker 1: slash like spray them. But I also think it's the issue.
Speaker 1: I mean, Cannon sometimes deals with this. Working at PlayStation.
Speaker 1: There is sometimes a huge amount It seems like it's
Speaker 1: a large number of people on Twitter, but it's because
Speaker 1: it makes people's voices sound bigger than it actually is.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times the Internet will freak out
Speaker 1: about something. It doesn't necessarily reflect the majority. It doesn't
Speaker 1: reflect sales, it doesn't reflect the majority of a fan base.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really reflect anything except for Internet. You know,
Speaker 1: Twitter height, which sometimes means absolutely nothing. It's it's bizarre. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's that's true. I know that you're good friends with
Speaker 1: Kelly Marie Tran and she experienced like so much hate
Speaker 1: that she got off social media. But the thing is
Speaker 1: is that when I was at Comic Con, there were
Speaker 1: so many people dressed like Rose Tico that it was
Speaker 1: just I mean, what it like, people just love her
Speaker 1: so much, But it's hard when like all you've seen
Speaker 1: it's a small minority of Star Wars obsessive harassment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the majority of Star Wars fans are super lovely,
Speaker 1: nice people. I think a lot of it has to
Speaker 1: do with two with people will have multiple accounts that
Speaker 1: the log into it makes if you you you can
Speaker 1: have represents so many different people on Twitter that it
Speaker 1: allows to for a falsehood of what actually is. But
Speaker 1: it's also I mean, it's why you know Kelly's not
Speaker 1: on you know, Instagram. It's because sometimes you don't need
Speaker 1: to read everything all the negativity. Yeah, and also it's
Speaker 1: one thing that's important to know. It may seem like
Speaker 1: when you're getting all the notifications and all the people
Speaker 1: in your mentions, you know, it may seem like, damn,
Speaker 1: this is a huge amount of people who think this,
Speaker 1: but only seven percent of Americans are using Twitter. That's
Speaker 1: seven percent of Americans are using Twitter a fake account.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of fake accounts, and that's a lot
Speaker 1: of like, that's not a lot of people. So so
Speaker 1: that and and you know what it is. I find
Speaker 1: that to be true because whenever something big happens on
Speaker 1: Twitter and you do kind of step out to the
Speaker 1: real world and you're like, have you heard of this?
Speaker 1: And someone hasn't. You're like how, But like when you
Speaker 1: see a number like that seven percent, you're like, I guess,
Speaker 1: I guess not. You know, I guess I guess it
Speaker 1: isn't as as big a big a world as we
Speaker 1: think it is. It just feels that way. It is
Speaker 1: people from other countries and smaller areas as well. I
Speaker 1: was also going to say, talking on the thing of
Speaker 1: online harassment, I mean it's something that Cannon has had
Speaker 1: to deal with working with PlayStation and everything. I don't know,
Speaker 1: if you can talk at all, you get like death
Speaker 1: threats from LinkedIn. They used to be really common, so
Speaker 1: back when the PlayStation that was a little bit less
Speaker 1: reliable than it is now. Any time we have an outage,
Speaker 1: it's totally common for people that have PlayStation and they're
Speaker 1: linked to profile to get death threats in your in box. Wow,
Speaker 1: it's fairly common, and it's it's it's not it's endemic
Speaker 1: to the whole gaming industry. Like female friends that work
Speaker 1: at studios and a lot of them won't even put
Speaker 1: what the name of the studio they're working at because
Speaker 1: the game will get released, and then someone will be like, well,
Speaker 1: this level, this thing was misdesigned, So I'll go and
Speaker 1: find a female graphic artists and just start sending her
Speaker 1: death threats and hate mail, and then everyone just bandwagons.
Speaker 1: And I remember that was a huge thing that happened
Speaker 1: with I Believe Mass Effect, where they were blaming this
Speaker 1: one woman for ruining the game, and someone had to
Speaker 1: come in and be like, well, she didn't even have
Speaker 1: that huge a part of it. There's actually these men,
Speaker 1: but you guys are targeting her, and it is interesting,
Speaker 1: and you know, does PlayStation do anything to protect y'all?
Speaker 1: Like can you report these people and you know, get
Speaker 1: their accounts yanked or anything. I mean, it depends on
Speaker 1: the social media using. I mean, Lincoln has a pretty
Speaker 1: robust reporting system for offensive material, so it's not so bad.
Speaker 1: But eventually saying that LinkedIn is like the not the
Speaker 1: thing that you should be doing. Like LinkedIn, you can
Speaker 1: see where they work and who that person is that
Speaker 1: doesn't like Twitter, I understand because you're like a random
Speaker 1: anime guitars, but like linked In, the fact that someone
Speaker 1: is oh man, I mean, but the craziest thing is
Speaker 1: you would think that Twitter would have a more robust
Speaker 1: reporting system than linked In, because LinkedIn at least you're
Speaker 1: a level of professionals where Twitter should be doing everything
Speaker 1: it can. But we're learning more and more every day,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna just leave it at that, and you know,
Speaker 1: just leave it at that. Yeah, I think um one thing,
Speaker 1: and this probably may sound crass, but you just sort
Speaker 1: of learned to rise above it and ignore it because
Speaker 1: it used to really bother me. And then I just
Speaker 1: started saying, you know, none of this matters, like they're
Speaker 1: not going to do anything. These people are hiding behind
Speaker 1: a keyboard. And all the people that I went into,
Speaker 1: like I have a When we launched the PS four,
Speaker 1: everyone got jackets that said PS four Launch Team, and
Speaker 1: I would just sometimes wear that out, not thinking, and
Speaker 1: I would have people come up in grocery stores and
Speaker 1: in malls and just randomly and they'd be like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, you worked on the PS four. Can I
Speaker 1: shake your hand? And they just like the fans are
Speaker 1: like the best part, right, And it's I think it's
Speaker 1: important to remember the good experiences more than the bad ones,
Speaker 1: because if we let the bad ones kind of occupy
Speaker 1: our mind space, then everything's gonna just it's so difficult.
Speaker 1: I feel like for me, I look at it as
Speaker 1: a glass of water with the amount of sexual harassment
Speaker 1: that I deal with, and I send it Chris, I
Speaker 1: feel like you have been such a positive I just
Speaker 1: want to take this moment. You're just you and Iffy
Speaker 1: have seen so much of the the harassment that I've
Speaker 1: dealt with trying to be in this space, and I
Speaker 1: just both are very supportive men in my life. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, I look at it as like
Speaker 1: a glass of water, and it fills up, fills up,
Speaker 1: fills up, fills up, and then eventually I can't take
Speaker 1: it anymore and overflows, and then I kind of spiral
Speaker 1: from the harassment and I might take a break, I
Speaker 1: might step back, and and it sucks. I agree, because
Speaker 1: I want to read all my comments. I want to
Speaker 1: answer the messages, but that means I have to see
Speaker 1: all the really bad ones, and it's very hard mentally
Speaker 1: to handle that. I think the scary thing is how
Speaker 1: Twitter is like the new KKK hood. I mean, I
Speaker 1: do mean that though, because I mean people. It's so
Speaker 1: crazy how people who are hateful, spiteful individuals, they do
Speaker 1: it in a way where they can still go to
Speaker 1: their day jobs. Like you must morally know deep down
Speaker 1: inside that you're doing something wrong and hateful if you're
Speaker 1: acting that way, but I think you're It's a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are on the Internet, and I think
Speaker 1: the biggest way that I've used to combat hatred is
Speaker 1: with our group meeting nerds who are positive, whether it's queer,
Speaker 1: people of color or just people who are loving, you know,
Speaker 1: people who are doing something for the better good, whatever
Speaker 1: your group is, it's finding people in person to talk to,
Speaker 1: because I think the best way to combat the internet
Speaker 1: hate is making a present outside. In person is the
Speaker 1: best way to combat that. I was just gonna and
Speaker 1: I want to get too political, but you know, a
Speaker 1: big part of the Trump election for me was processing
Speaker 1: how kind of awful it made me feel and how
Speaker 1: terrible I thought everything was. And what I eventually decided
Speaker 1: after kind of coming out of that fog, was that,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't change anyone's mind, I can't fight
Speaker 1: the hate directly, but what I can do is I
Speaker 1: can spend my time, my energy, and my money on
Speaker 1: helping the people in my community and then building that up.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what made me get into activism.
Speaker 1: It's why I volunteer at the center. That's why the
Speaker 1: Ely Gaming Society is starting to have fundraisers for the
Speaker 1: queer youth of Los Angeles, so that we can get people,
Speaker 1: you know, onto a better track, so that they're not
Speaker 1: homeless or not alone, or they don't feel so depressed
Speaker 1: all the time by all this negativity. And I can
Speaker 1: say that by putting my focus towards those kinds of things,
Speaker 1: my outlook has approved exponentially, even though the news on
Speaker 1: a fairly consistent negative is crazy. Like having a positive
Speaker 1: outlet where I can take kind of that nervous negative
Speaker 1: energy and work it into something has made a world
Speaker 1: difference for me. Well, I mean you saw, like you
Speaker 1: see negative homophobic like Kitako would have like a negative
Speaker 1: you know, this homophobic thing happened today. They didn't write
Speaker 1: about like our E three party, how we raised so
Speaker 1: much money for the we I think we raised I
Speaker 1: don't even know how many, Like five is over five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars just for video games for LGBT, you know,
Speaker 1: youth to play at the Center, um, so that they
Speaker 1: can have an outlet, which is amazingly enough, by the way,
Speaker 1: video games is such a healthy outlet that brings people together.
Speaker 1: And and then seeing people being brought together who are
Speaker 1: queer nerds who are thirty to forty years old, you know,
Speaker 1: who never had that outlet and in an adult space.
Speaker 1: I think they're positive things that are happening by us
Speaker 1: focusing on our community. I'm hoping that maybe the news
Speaker 1: can eventually pick up on some of those positive articles.
Speaker 1: To quote a great movie by the name of Nightcrawler.
Speaker 1: If it leads, it leads, you know, and that's the
Speaker 1: that's what the news is in the business of the
Speaker 1: moment the news became the business. It's less about you know,
Speaker 1: sharing the news and more so what can we do
Speaker 1: that's going to you know, activate people and get a
Speaker 1: reaction out of them and get them sharing our stuff.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it does. I find in multiple communities and
Speaker 1: multiple things throughout the new scope, everything positive kind of
Speaker 1: gets swept under the rug because they'd rather get someone
Speaker 1: mad who's going to retweet it and then say something
Speaker 1: snark and then someone's gonna add their snark. Me usually
Speaker 1: I'm involved in that. But yeah, so it is. And
Speaker 1: I think that is a great advice to anyone in
Speaker 1: their communities is if you are feeling hopeless, are feeling like,
Speaker 1: how do I make a change? Everyone thinks that, you know,
Speaker 1: I find that a lot of people believe that you
Speaker 1: need a million dollars to make meaningful change, and that's
Speaker 1: just not the case. You know, meaningful change could just
Speaker 1: be as simple as mentoring you know, someone who is
Speaker 1: you know, just like you, or someone who you think
Speaker 1: needs it. You know. Like I was thinking about the
Speaker 1: whole Middle America excuse that we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1: I was like, to say that you'd don't think this
Speaker 1: movie will do well because of Middle America is to
Speaker 1: say that you don't believe that there's a young gay
Speaker 1: kid in Middle America, that there isn't a young Asian
Speaker 1: kid in Middle America. There there isn't a young black
Speaker 1: kid in Middle America, or that there's no one in
Speaker 1: Middle America that has the empathy to take in this
Speaker 1: story and and enjoy it and understand it and like it, because,
Speaker 1: like Chris said, it's you know, Simon being gay is
Speaker 1: a part of the story, but in the end, it's
Speaker 1: still a great story. And I feel like it's unfair
Speaker 1: to kind of scapegoat Middle America. We often based on
Speaker 1: the excuse that Hollywood likes to get away with this
Speaker 1: Middle America. You're saying they are dumb, that they are
Speaker 1: all bigoted. It's all white and it's all white males
Speaker 1: in Middle America and that's why you can never do it.
Speaker 1: When I wouldn't care if only one little black kid
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma got to see Black Panther, that would have
Speaker 1: made it work there. Or one gay kid in you know,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma who got to see love Simon like that, that
Speaker 1: to me is more powerful than you know, a thousand
Speaker 1: kids who who are in a coastal city that you know,
Speaker 1: can eventually hopefully find a community. You know. But I
Speaker 1: think the problem is I think people just want good stories.
Speaker 1: And the problem is like there will be a movie
Speaker 1: with a black superhero or a woman superhero that, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason the development cycle someone doesn't believe in. They're like,
Speaker 1: they won't like this, they don't put the right resources
Speaker 1: into it. The actual movie, video game, whatever media format
Speaker 1: it is isn't good because they didn't believe in it,
Speaker 1: and then it fails in like, see, I told you
Speaker 1: it wouldn't do well because people don't want women as
Speaker 1: superheroes and they're like, no, it's because Catwoman was an awful, awful,
Speaker 1: like it just wasn't a good movie. But then you can,
Speaker 1: I know, for the wrong reasons. But then you see
Speaker 1: wonder Woman, which was a well written, you know movie
Speaker 1: with the right cast and everything. It's like, as long
Speaker 1: as something is well written, people will watch it. People
Speaker 1: will by the Last of Us too, because it's a
Speaker 1: well written video game. They don't care that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean whatnot? So yeah, I did want to
Speaker 1: go over a couple of more queer characters before we
Speaker 1: moved on. One of them Valkyrie Tessa Thompson real life
Speaker 1: couple Tessa Thompson and Janelle Monet. I'm so glad they
Speaker 1: found each other because no one else deserves them. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys watched Luke Cage this season,
Speaker 1: but Shades, that was very exciting to have them openly
Speaker 1: I guess, kind of openly confirmed at least I think
Speaker 1: the show runner did confirmed that that he's queer, and
Speaker 1: they actually had a moment of development for his character,
Speaker 1: so that was really nice. The Walking Dead, my friend
Speaker 1: Ross Markwan plays Aaron on there um and I believe
Speaker 1: that they also have Tara and very lgbtwo. Yeah, TVs.
Speaker 1: I think TV is the first format that's enough power.
Speaker 1: Gays have gone and involved with TV ad you know,
Speaker 1: but we have shown that, like like with anything, all
Speaker 1: that matters is a good is good writing, good story,
Speaker 1: good you know, direction and it and everything else, that
Speaker 1: it should be different characters and yeah, oh uh, Negasonic
Speaker 1: teenage Warhead, she's so badass. I mean I wish that
Speaker 1: they had done more to develop their like her relationship
Speaker 1: and Deadpool to like even she kind of was pretty
Speaker 1: much just a side character, which again we see we
Speaker 1: keep seeing, but I do think she's so cool. She
Speaker 1: actually sorry for it, but she actually requested that is
Speaker 1: I believe pan sexual or bisexual, and she was like,
Speaker 1: you could make my character lesbian, but I don't want
Speaker 1: it to be a thing in the movie. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: again I get that, like we keep going back and
Speaker 1: forth of like I wish that they would address it more.
Speaker 1: But then and maybe it's not necessarily that it needs
Speaker 1: to be addressed with her, but just because it's not
Speaker 1: addressed enough, well, I think they actually addressed it pretty
Speaker 1: well because it's like here's me and my girlfriend. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's it, and that's all they had to do as
Speaker 1: long as it's not like some like the Deadpool Too
Speaker 1: director two years later coming out saying that she was
Speaker 1: a lesbian the whole time. And then there's Are It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like they dress as long
Speaker 1: as I mean, I mean, not that necessarily, I mean
Speaker 1: having character development, like being able to have a character
Speaker 1: growth with your romantic part. I mean I just missed
Speaker 1: her in the movie in general, like I just wanted
Speaker 1: more of her. Yeah. Yeah. And then two other just
Speaker 1: main points that I want to say. Stephen Universe had
Speaker 1: the first cartoon lesbian wedding. Um yeah, that's really cool, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not something that they'd probably be able
Speaker 1: to do even five years ago, I don't know Cartoon Network.
Speaker 1: And then Batgirl in the comics had the first transgender
Speaker 1: wedding in the comics. I believe that was when GAYL
Speaker 1: Simone was still writing. Yeah, and North I think The
Speaker 1: North Star had a wedding issue as well. Well. There's
Speaker 1: um Sinna Grace, who I got to meet on a
Speaker 1: DC shoot that I did. He is doing Iceman. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you follow that at all, but that
Speaker 1: is he had a coming out moment in the comics,
Speaker 1: and then it's kind of his development as a superhero,
Speaker 1: but also having to deal with with coming out, which
Speaker 1: is great because especially as if nerds are from you know,
Speaker 1: a community where their parents are you know, probably homophobic
Speaker 1: or whatever, they can just like sneak in an iceman
Speaker 1: and their parents are gonna say it's a comic book,
Speaker 1: and their parents are gonna they're like, oh, it's this
Speaker 1: masculine looking character. They're not gonna say anything. So they're
Speaker 1: writing something I think more than what's needed, more than
Speaker 1: they probably know by doing that. Yeah, I think we
Speaker 1: need to take a quick break, but when you get back,
Speaker 1: we're going to jump into the rest of this and
Speaker 1: keep it spicy. Oh right, what's up is your boy?
Speaker 1: You know who it is, if he's still here with
Speaker 1: Danny and our wonderful guests Christopher and Cannon, and we're
Speaker 1: talking about I feel like it's a real open discussion
Speaker 1: about you know, lgbt Q and nerd um and I
Speaker 1: think it's really thank you for joining us and letting
Speaker 1: us Yeah, thank you for having fun. I will say,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited too for the nerd fam that's going
Speaker 1: to check this out because I've seen nerd fam tweed
Speaker 1: net of me and they'll have the rainbow flag in
Speaker 1: their screen name, and you know that's how we know.
Speaker 1: I'd like that We've have made our for lack of
Speaker 1: a better description, planted our flags and our Twitter where
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, Nigerians will throw the Nigerian fat.
Speaker 1: Dominicans love putting that Dominican flag in their joint. You know,
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ community has the rainbow flag. We all know
Speaker 1: where we at, just so you know who you're talking to. Well,
Speaker 1: it's cool because even like PlayStation changed their icon during
Speaker 1: Pride Month, symbol Nation did too. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: you had like a lot of bitter people and sometimes
Speaker 1: a few of them were straight. So I was like
Speaker 1: chilled that were like, oh the consumerism of the Da
Speaker 1: da da and this, and Guy Brandham did a real
Speaker 1: funny joke of being like, oh, I'm sorry that for once,
Speaker 1: we're being accepted and not burned at the stake, and
Speaker 1: can you feel bitter? Like it was really great. Of
Speaker 1: course I'm not doing it as great as Guy, because well,
Speaker 1: people would tweet aut Funimation and they would just reply
Speaker 1: with gay anime gifts and I loved it so much
Speaker 1: because they have they also owned that like volleyball, the
Speaker 1: volleyball boys one oh yeah, and the swim team at
Speaker 1: that event right where they just had like a bunch
Speaker 1: of boys and petoes and then girls were young, I
Speaker 1: was like, what is Oh yeah, it was my family.
Speaker 1: I love them so much. I remember one and something
Speaker 1: you can get in there. I remember once um I
Speaker 1: was announced as like a host on something and someone like,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but do you even know anything about dragon Ball?
Speaker 1: And someone one of the Funimation people want on the
Speaker 1: account and was like, oh, she knows, and like tweeted
Speaker 1: it out to everybody. I also have to say they've
Speaker 1: been very supportive because Danny has put us in contact
Speaker 1: with Funimation and just as a gay video game you
Speaker 1: know group, Funimation is donated so so much, especially when
Speaker 1: we had our E three after party just to shout out.
Speaker 1: Fundimation gave us stuff, Square Enix gave us a ton
Speaker 1: of stuff, and of course PlayStation you know, gave us
Speaker 1: all of these free PlayStations to give out. So it's
Speaker 1: great that you know they've been PlayStations. Huh. The weird
Speaker 1: thing is we still get like we had like Nintendo
Speaker 1: nerds show up and they're like, where's our switch and
Speaker 1: we're like, I mean, yeah, it's a PlayStation of it's past,
Speaker 1: and yeah, good luck with getting Nintendo to yea sponsor
Speaker 1: anything LGBT. Alright, well, speaking of speaking of finding your space,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the first gay space on the Internet.
Speaker 1: It was called s oc dot M O T S
Speaker 1: S Yeah, and basically anticipated how we use social networks today.
Speaker 1: Right in programmers, Steve Dire started a discussion for him
Speaker 1: called net Moths later sock Moths on the used net
Speaker 1: news group system. Fun fact, So I had this super
Speaker 1: hyper nerd who I went to high school with. I
Speaker 1: forget his name, but I remember he was very practical
Speaker 1: and he told me, and it's so funny because I'm mad.
Speaker 1: I was mad then and now I'm even more mad
Speaker 1: because he was right because I used to do art,
Speaker 1: and uh, I would like, do the art, and then
Speaker 1: I would tell him, like the whole story behind, like
Speaker 1: the comic I was trying to make and all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and he straight up to my face was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: your art is not good, but you'll probably be an
Speaker 1: amazing writer. And I remember being like this dude, and
Speaker 1: like I'm a professional writer now kind of yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: mad about that. Is that your gay friend that told
Speaker 1: you that you'll be a great writer? He? Uh, he
Speaker 1: was this other dude. He was like almost stops. He
Speaker 1: was like a Jehovah's witness, and I like, so maybe,
Speaker 1: but he was really into building computers. And this was
Speaker 1: like back when I was a freshman, so this was
Speaker 1: hella new to me. And he had this guy who
Speaker 1: was like his kind of mentor and was teaching him
Speaker 1: about building computers. And he was like, you gotta check
Speaker 1: out this thing called newsgroups, newsgroups or where it's at.
Speaker 1: You gotta go on newsgroups. Uh, And he kind of
Speaker 1: told me how to do it, but I never figured
Speaker 1: out how to work. I had like the client to
Speaker 1: launch into newsgroups, but like, it's crazy reading about his
Speaker 1: news groups was like early internet stuff. But anyway, we'll suck.
Speaker 1: So suck is it suck? MOTS just we're gonna just
Speaker 1: someone will correct us, probably, I want to say. MOTS
Speaker 1: stood for members of the same sex, and so it
Speaker 1: was a way for it was essentially had threads and
Speaker 1: it was a way for people to to talk and
Speaker 1: members to talk. And it was actually one of the
Speaker 1: biggest membership communities of the early Internet. And it's really
Speaker 1: interesting because you can still go uh search on sock
Speaker 1: mats and see all of these forums from the eighties
Speaker 1: and see the first almost like the first time of
Speaker 1: like gay communication then and especially during a you know,
Speaker 1: troublesome time of the AIDS epidemic and everything it was
Speaker 1: as a gay person. It's it's really hard because it's
Speaker 1: not like, you know, when you have a Latino family
Speaker 1: or a black family behind you, you have people to
Speaker 1: kind of give your your culture, not just do are
Speaker 1: we not born from obviously gay parents, but a lot
Speaker 1: of people from the eighties died and a lot of
Speaker 1: these amazing innovative LGBT people are dead now and we
Speaker 1: will never really will get their stories told to us.
Speaker 1: It's great to see the conversation still there in print
Speaker 1: talking about dealing with some of the same things that
Speaker 1: our community still faces, and and seeing that in print
Speaker 1: just made me feel like just I got really emotional
Speaker 1: reading some of it because I was like, wow, this
Speaker 1: is what and also how little things have changed. You
Speaker 1: can kind of see how the early development of Internet
Speaker 1: talked like it was very much like reading a gay reddit.
Speaker 1: Threat of people just back and forth just talking about
Speaker 1: I think there was even just like a huge debate
Speaker 1: on speedos or something. It was like a weird like
Speaker 1: Speedo colors, and I was like, this is something that
Speaker 1: would still just be on my Facebook feed. Now. I
Speaker 1: know that is wild because it is because there's one
Speaker 1: thing when you look at movies that portray a time
Speaker 1: and like, you know, especially like if you for lack
Speaker 1: of a better movie, even though this movie it was
Speaker 1: problematic a f but like, um, it was about the riots, um,
Speaker 1: but like you had all weight, all white gay cast
Speaker 1: uh no, which I mean black trans women are what
Speaker 1: They've really laid the groundwork for the LGBT movement. They
Speaker 1: did so much for us, and to see them just
Speaker 1: being completely underrepresented when they did so much work, and
Speaker 1: then just to see white gay men in the front
Speaker 1: of this movie was It's so sad, man, I mean
Speaker 1: they still do. It's we're finally getting I mean, we're
Speaker 1: getting what's the show, Pope finally giving black trans women,
Speaker 1: I mean just trans women in general, the most underrepresented
Speaker 1: group in this country, just a voice that they need.
Speaker 1: I think that's so cool about members of the same
Speaker 1: sex as um, this this group is that Like, also,
Speaker 1: you hear movies, there's so many movies about the AIDS epidemic,
Speaker 1: and to finally actually see what the conversations were just
Speaker 1: like there's no, it wasn't a published article. It wasn't
Speaker 1: It was just like people conversing about AIDS, a lot
Speaker 1: of misinformation, a lot of people that just had no
Speaker 1: idea what it was happening. And just see those conversations
Speaker 1: just typed up. It's something that it wasn't for this,
Speaker 1: we would not be able to experience anything like And
Speaker 1: that's what That's what the point I was making is
Speaker 1: like when you see that portrayed in movies, you're getting
Speaker 1: this kind of dramatized, kind of assumed idea of what's
Speaker 1: going on, and this is just cold hard facts. These
Speaker 1: are what the people at the time we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Like imagine if you can go back to like the
Speaker 1: civil rights movement and see, like you know, the sneak
Speaker 1: shots that Malcolm Max and Martin Luther King were shooting
Speaker 1: at each other on the forums, Like you're getting a
Speaker 1: very real representation and that, I think is something that's
Speaker 1: going to be cool about the future. Is like when
Speaker 1: we move from now, people are going to be able
Speaker 1: to pull the things that we've said and it's not
Speaker 1: going to be a question of you know, this is
Speaker 1: kind of like what the general idea was it you
Speaker 1: have it right there. It's also I think the it's
Speaker 1: why there are so many LGBT nerds is because most people,
Speaker 1: I mean, Cannon and I came from both very homophobic backgrounds,
Speaker 1: and I think we both latched onto video games and
Speaker 1: nerd culture because that was our safe space. That was
Speaker 1: our favor space for figuring out what being gay is.
Speaker 1: That my first the first person I ever told that
Speaker 1: I was gay too was an internet friend that I've
Speaker 1: still did this day. I've never you know, met, but
Speaker 1: someone that I would That was the first part because
Speaker 1: that was safe to me, was telling someone on the
Speaker 1: on the internet when I was you know, you know,
Speaker 1: young enough. That was the only safe space for us.
Speaker 1: That's the only way to find information, that was the
Speaker 1: only way, especially in small rural towns. That that's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's so interesting to me, if you don't
Speaker 1: mind elaborating, what was that experience, like, how how what
Speaker 1: was the reaction? You know, when I first came out
Speaker 1: to my parents was one of the most difficult times. Ever,
Speaker 1: I I didn't talk to my mom for like months afterwards,
Speaker 1: and um, it kind of makes me feel sad and
Speaker 1: a little empty that the only loving and supporting um
Speaker 1: relationship that I could have to tell someone was someone
Speaker 1: on the internet that I would never get that comfort from.
Speaker 1: Is a straight guy on the internet that I played
Speaker 1: an online game with, But that was the only person
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable with and the only person that I
Speaker 1: had And it's kind of why I mean, Cannon and
Speaker 1: I both gravitated towards finding this. You know, l A
Speaker 1: Gaming Society is so that we could get people who
Speaker 1: are queer nerds to actually be able to meet up
Speaker 1: and actually feel like they have a support group because
Speaker 1: even especially in even though la is very liberal, there's
Speaker 1: so many places outside of l A, California that are
Speaker 1: very very homophobic. People that don't have homes, and it's
Speaker 1: hard enough for someone that's young and charismatic to move
Speaker 1: to I mean that to move to l A and
Speaker 1: be beautiful for people who it's difficult for them to
Speaker 1: talk to, we have we have to give them a
Speaker 1: safe space because I feel like no one's fighting for them,
Speaker 1: and no one really fought for us. So we kind
Speaker 1: of had to do something to kind of create a space.
Speaker 1: And that's why I mean Cannon's family to me, you know,
Speaker 1: because we had to create our own family, and I
Speaker 1: don't know the internet. The Internet, we would have never
Speaker 1: had lags if it wasn't for Reddit, for you know,
Speaker 1: the gay forms. I mean, you can talk about that
Speaker 1: a little bit. Yeah, I mean that there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot there, but I think, um, you're exactly right. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, gaming for so many people is their outlet
Speaker 1: because a lot of people live in a situation or
Speaker 1: in a circumstance that is dire, or is frustrating or
Speaker 1: is sad. So the nice thing about gaming is you
Speaker 1: know that that can be an outlet and escape for everyone.
Speaker 1: The downside of that is a lot of people take
Speaker 1: that negativity with them from whatever suffering it is that
Speaker 1: they have and they bring it into that space. And
Speaker 1: that's why you have the homophobia and the misogyny and
Speaker 1: the racism and all the ugly parts, right, And a
Speaker 1: lot of people I think don't realize that that they're
Speaker 1: bringing that with them. So when you're when you're queer
Speaker 1: like we are, and you you want to have you
Speaker 1: want to have your outlet, right, you wanta have that
Speaker 1: thing you grew up with where you bonded, and you
Speaker 1: want to have that safe space where you can play
Speaker 1: those games and just enjoy yourself. Right. So, to kind
Speaker 1: of bounce off with you said, I'm a big proponent
Speaker 1: of creating your own family. It's something that a lot
Speaker 1: of queer people have to do because we don't have
Speaker 1: we we don't really have another option. So creating that
Speaker 1: queer family around something like gaming has been a really,
Speaker 1: really great experience, and I think it is something we
Speaker 1: fought really hard for over the past few years, but
Speaker 1: it's it's worth it. Like we we just had a
Speaker 1: meet up last weekend on right, We just took a
Speaker 1: bunch of nerds to the beach. And it's like every
Speaker 1: time we have a new meet up, we always meet
Speaker 1: new people from different countries and different counties in different places,
Speaker 1: like from all over and they're just like, yeah, my
Speaker 1: friend you know told me about this group because I
Speaker 1: didn't have any friends when I moved here, and my
Speaker 1: family doesn't talk to me when I came out, and
Speaker 1: this is really cool, Like I've never met this many
Speaker 1: gay people before. And most of the time they're connected
Speaker 1: from meeting someone from the Internet. And that's why nerd
Speaker 1: curl culture is so important and why internet culture is
Speaker 1: so important for us, because I mean, I can't imagine
Speaker 1: what it would be like our where I would be
Speaker 1: without the Internet and being able to meet people and
Speaker 1: find people that were like me. You know, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people can relate to their internet friends
Speaker 1: almost being closer than in real life people that they know.
Speaker 1: I know, I see that a lot in discord if
Speaker 1: you and I used to host at a channel called
Speaker 1: hyper RPG, which is a very positive channel, but they
Speaker 1: had a very positive discord of people that could talk
Speaker 1: about their problems and issues in a way that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to around their family. And I found that.
Speaker 1: So I would pop in there and and be talking
Speaker 1: about things and and harassment and stuff that I was
Speaker 1: dealing with, and they would all come to my aid.
Speaker 1: But it was just so nice to see the positive
Speaker 1: parts of of nerd um like you were saying, and
Speaker 1: to remind ourselves of that, yeah, that it's not all
Speaker 1: gamer gait and crazy, just death threats toward that's a
Speaker 1: small and there. And at the same time they're trying
Speaker 1: to find a movement that they can latch onto you
Speaker 1: that makes them feel like they're a part of something
Speaker 1: and they're angry about other things besides just that that
Speaker 1: is just being projected the wrong way. All we can
Speaker 1: do is create positive movements and hopefully get people that
Speaker 1: that might be a part of this. You know, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people, for instance, that are in
Speaker 1: gamer Gate that are really really great people that are
Speaker 1: just have a lot of misinformation, that just want to
Speaker 1: be a part of something and they want to change
Speaker 1: the gaming industry and they wanted things to be positive,
Speaker 1: but they have a lot of mislead information and they
Speaker 1: start taking out um or they might not even take
Speaker 1: things out on women, but they support other people that do.
Speaker 1: And I think all we can do is create positive
Speaker 1: groups where they feel like people who feel like they
Speaker 1: need to be a part of something can latch onto
Speaker 1: those positive groups and create something positive. If you was
Speaker 1: going to say, I think that we might have to
Speaker 1: take in landing, I know I wanted to touch on
Speaker 1: Star Trek, but I think that Danny was like, I'm
Speaker 1: scared someone's gonna, you know, be mad that we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about all things. Because Star Trek was a huge
Speaker 1: part of what I'm gonna say is I wanted to
Speaker 1: I did want to address it, but I'll address it
Speaker 1: on us our Star Trek episode. Actually, um so, Kenny
Speaker 1: might have to have you back for that because that's
Speaker 1: something that you would love that. Yes, you talk about
Speaker 1: gay Star Trek exactly, well, we need to talk about
Speaker 1: the lack of it for a huge part and then
Speaker 1: how it just kind of came in. But anyways, um,
Speaker 1: where can everyone find you? And if people want to
Speaker 1: join any of your organizations, if you could let us know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can type up LAGS that's LAGS, l A Gaming Society,
Speaker 1: g A y Gaming uh Society on Facebook. We have
Speaker 1: a Facebook group. Would love to add you on their
Speaker 1: h My name is at Tinder Chris on Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 1: Also just as a plug, check out Cooking on High
Speaker 1: on Netflix. That's a show I'm on. We need a
Speaker 1: season two so I needed money, So please watch Clicking
Speaker 1: on High on Netflix and get me a job. Um
Speaker 1: Canon h Yeah, I feel free to add me on
Speaker 1: Facebook if you're so inclined. If you're into more nerdy
Speaker 1: fun stuff and video games. I love expanding my online family.
Speaker 1: Also fund my Instagram at Canon dot gift. Yeah, reach
Speaker 1: out to Yeah Tinder Chris and Cannon dot gift on Instagram.
Speaker 1: We love helping out, Like, by the way, is there
Speaker 1: any young queer listeners or anyone that needs help or
Speaker 1: any advice. You can reach out to us and we
Speaker 1: would love to give you advice and help you guys out. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I also love the anime post that you have
Speaker 1: the funniest Instagram stories, Chris. I go through all of them.
Speaker 1: It's all Sailor Moon and Yeah in there too. I
Speaker 1: am at ms Danny Fernandez. Um, yeah, what what? Please
Speaker 1: check out our tea public. Everyone's been loving those shirts.
Speaker 1: We did a get away, will probably do one again
Speaker 1: in the future, but in the meantime, go grab some shirts.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get the Batman one. I'm really excited,
Speaker 1: dope as hell. Oh, I will be at New York
Speaker 1: Comic Con, so I get to announce my Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to share some news with y'all. But yes,
Speaker 1: if you're going to be at New York Comic Con,
Speaker 1: I will also be there. This is my first time,
Speaker 1: so tell me what to do and and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: and and I have a panel on Friday that I
Speaker 1: get to announce in a little bit. So okay, I
Speaker 1: was waiting for you to announce it and you didn't
Speaker 1: say anything. I have a pass. I'll probably be hanging out.
Speaker 1: You know, you might see me there, you might not
Speaker 1: pay attention. Catch me at F Y n W A
Speaker 1: D I D E on Twitter and Instagram. If these
Speaker 1: on Twitch, Thank you all the nerd fan coming through
Speaker 1: dropping those Twitch prime subs. And here is your regular
Speaker 1: reminder that if you twitch prime sub you gotta do
Speaker 1: what every month it doesn't auto renew. I need them bucks. Maybe.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I love y'all, and as always, wait,
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, um, please tweet at us your
Speaker 1: favorite queer characters are like when you first filmed yourself
Speaker 1: representing anything that we might have missed. We'd need any
Speaker 1: references that we probably missed a lot, so help us out.
Speaker 1: Definitely do that tweet it. We're gonna retweet you, share
Speaker 1: the love. Really want y'all feeling nice and represented, because,
Speaker 1: like our motto says, it's a nerdy deep dive for everyone. Uh,
Speaker 1: don't make me. Don't make me do the tweet where
Speaker 1: I retweet you, then I drag you. Then I go
Speaker 1: to the part where it says a nerdy deep dive
Speaker 1: for everyone, and zoom in on everyone. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, and you know what I'm asking you
Speaker 1: not to do, so don't do it. But on that note,
Speaker 1: stay nerdy everyone,