[00:00:12] Welcome to gay code, the all new show from always be a big deal. As always be a big deal presents gay code with Clay Phoenix and friends.
[00:00:32] Hello, everyone. This week on the show, I am actually going to be taking a detour and I'm going to be introducing a brand new show that I will be bringing. I will be doing this primarily myself. However, I will have David on sometimes, I will have other guests on sometimes to talk about everything in the world of being queer and being human and different. So it's not just about gay people, it's not just about straight people, it's not just about trans people. It's about everybody. And everybody is a human and everybody deserves a right to share their story. So I will be filling everybody in and educating everybody on some stuff. From stonewall riots to the fight for equality, the fight for gay marriage, the fight for all of the things that we have fought for as young individuals in this world. And we are the stepping stone and the change for the future. And we are the voice that needs to educate and allow people to know what we are all about. And we are humans. We deserve to be treated fairly.
[00:01:44] So in gay code, I will be discussing on multiple different topics and I'll have people on, I'll have some guests, I'll have a good time, I'll have definitely have my husband on and just talk about things from queer culture to trans culture to everything drag, everything that has to do with the squiggly gang in this world, we are going to talk about it. So gay code will be released as a part of always be a big deal and always be a big deal podcast will present it on the COVID You will see always be a big deal presents and it will be a addition to that show. Not its own standalone show, but an edition.
[00:02:43] So with that being said, you may hear Jess on every once in a while and we may have some really cool fun with that, but definitely listen to gay code. And then this week on the episode, I'm going to be all by myself. But there is one topic that I would like to discuss, and that is the fact that we have a whole new campaign going on that we have to worry about, and that is cancel your gays. This week we will be discussing cancel your gaze and we will let you know exactly what that's all about. So once again, we are fighting for our equal rights.
[00:03:28] This is always be a big deal podcast.
[00:03:59] And now please welcome your host, Clay Phoenix, and Jessica van den Zetta.
[00:04:10] I am very, very sorry that you are not getting just this week. I know you all do love her and appreciate her time that she spends with me on this show, and she will still be on the show. It won't always be a big deal. And as I said prior to this episode starting, that she will be joining me for this show as well. We are a united front building our brand, and she is a part of that team. So this week, I'm going to be cancel. I'm going to be talking about cancel your gaze. It's a new trend that sees queer characters disappearing from tv, and this is exactly what we don't need with everything going on in the world, we need that representation. But there's a lot of other things that are going on in the world that are keeping people from wanting to show that representation, from wanting to be able to give that representation. And that is where this whole entire trend comes in. So tv shows, which queer and trans characters are disappearing, sparking concerns that networks and streaming services are caving to anti queer sentiment. There were 468 queer characters in tv this year, according to an April report from the prominent advocacy organization GLAAD, 128 fewer than its last annual report.
[00:05:35] And of them, 36% aren't returning next year because their shows have been or will be canceled.
[00:05:45] That's compared to an overall 14% decline in new shows from 22 to 23, according to research from Cable network FX, partly owing to the Hollywood writers strike last year. And we can definitely see that as we go on and into this further, you can see the slow decline of that representation in television. And a lot has changed since the writers strike. And I find it very interesting that it didn't help people in the queer community to be able to thrive. It actually had an adverse effect.
[00:06:24] But I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is going to get better and we are going to see that representation again. Frustrated fans have dubbed the trend cancel your gaze, named after the bury your grays.
[00:06:40] Bury your gaze, not your grays trope that peaked in 2016, where many queer and trans characters, particularly women, were killed off in shows and denied a happy ending.
[00:06:55] An american journalist named Dana Piccolo or says seeing those characters disappear can be defeating for fans.
[00:07:06] I have some people I've talked to who personally, this has been very destructive to their outlook on their queerness and or their transness, she states. The fact that she or we have had queer representation and trans representation on television in a positive way for the last 20 years has really changed so much of how people understand and respect the LGBTQ community. This is actually very true.
[00:07:34] We see that trend, that difference and it's because of these characters coming in and not being able those token gay characters or being the butt of the joke. It's allowing people to see us as more human, and we are human. And the whole entire concept of it being not human is very confusing to me. I am who I am, and I've fallen in love. Who I've fallen in love with. And for so many years, I've lived in this world where I was like, am I wrong? Am I screwed up? Am I messed up? Because, be honest, I'm been with both, and I don't see anything wrong with that. And I've had two different relationships that were strong. One was with a woman, and now I am married to a man or getting married to a man, engaged to a man. And I don't see anything different than that. I haven't changed. I'm still the same person I am. I'm still clay. I'm still gonna be me. That doesn't change my personality. And so, really, where do I fit in this box of this world? That's really what's, like, confusing. And then I finally just threw it away and said, I don't fit into a box. I'm just me. Because we have secluded people so much. And, you know, during pride month, all we saw was, oh, when straight pride. When straight pride. When straight pride, when straight pride, like, guys, you have the Super bowl every year. Get over it.
[00:09:11] This is just a common thing over and over and over, like, you were not suppressed as straight people. You can walk freely, you can love who you want to love, you can hug your partner in public, you can kiss your partner in public without fearing that you're going to get shot or hit or SA or anything else. You know, there's so many different things that has happened in the community or to the community, and it's just. It's not fair for you to compare them, because you are then being homophobic by comparing them. If you want a straight pride, by all means, go to Honda days. It's there for you. You have many different opportunities to celebrate your straight pride. We literally get one month out of the year, and then we have to stop being gay at midnight because that's what you guys want us to do on the last day of June. Doesn't work that way, buddy. So, like, get a grip. The whole thing of with black lives matter. Black lives matter is a movement, and they deserve to be treated with respect and be treated as equals and be treated as humans. But then people turn around and they say, all lives matter. That's not the point. You are missing the point. And that right there is the biggest red flag for this country. The straight pride, when is straight pride and the all lives matter. Those two things go hand in hand. You are suppressing groups of people because of your own beliefs. What your mind is telling you is that this is wrong. But guys, there's nothing wrong with being black. You can't control it. There's nothing wrong with being gay. You can't control it. People are who they're going to be. So I feel like everybody just needs to get over it. But back to this.
[00:11:18] Picoli said queer and trans representation in shows was improving from 18 onwards, but shifted after Covid-19 pandemic.
[00:11:30] This coincided with a rise in anti queer rhetoric following by waves of anti trans legislation in North America. The Southern Poverty Law center noted there were 86 anti queer hate groups in the US in 2023 and one third increase and the highest number it has ever listed.
[00:11:55] This is insane. Like, this is. This is crazy. We have 86 anti queer hate groups.
[00:12:05] 86. Why do we need this? Why do we need to hate everybody? And, you know, it blows my mind. So let's take this to a religious aspect real quick, because this is what I always get told is, oh, it's against my religion. Let's take this to a religious aspect. First of all, you are taught when you are in church, and I know this because I was in church, I grew up in a church. So you are taught that you love everyone equally, but then you turn around and you hate everyone equally.
[00:12:43] It doesn't. Where does that come in? Like, you literally are coming out with this hate and this disrespect, and then you're gonna turn around and say, oh, I'm a Christian. It's against my religion. Oh, I'm Catholic, it's against my religion.
[00:13:03] You need to just shut up. Because the problem with that is, is that we are constantly going to be pointing fingers at what we feel is the excuse, and we are not going to solve the problem.
[00:13:18] You may not agree with it, you may not agree with who we are as people, but we are people. So respect us, stay away from us and leave us alone. I don't understand why everybody needs to be in my bedroom. I don't understand why everybody needs to make a big deal about my husband and I holding hands when we're walking in the mall. It's not going to turn your kids gay. So just calm down. Like, everybody in this world is making such a big deal about it. And honestly, I think they're making a big deal about it because they didn't have the balls to come out of the closet. That's what I think. They have had thoughts of being with men, they have had thoughts of being with women, and now they want to say something about it because they are afraid to come out of the closet. It's. It's human nature, guys. This is all human nature. Some people act on it and some people don't, but it's human nature. Look, look at all of the animals in the ecosystem. How many animals have sex? Same sex. Same sex sexual reactions or. Yeah, you know what I mean?
[00:14:28] And it's a lot of them. It's a lot of them. And we are animals. And you can't say that we're nothing because I've seen some of you guys and your animals. So Bakali was personally disappointed by the cancellation of the award winning a league of their own about a second World War era women's basketball team that explored the lives of queer women in the 1940s. Amazon prime renewed the show for a four episode final season in 2023, but then scrapped it during the writers strike. Everyone has characters they see themselves in, she says. And for queer people, that connection is even more intense because we have so much less of that sort of representation. Toronto based writer and producer Emily Andras says the contraction has been felt across the board as tv studios have become skittish about buying queer and trans stories. It's very, very evident in the market that people are kind of retreating back to what they would consider traditional storytelling, Andre said.
[00:15:38] When Andre's own show, Wynonna Earp, premiered in 2016, the Los Angeles Times said changed the game for queer female representation. But the award winning show was canceled in 2019 and fans launched a massive campaign to save it, writing to studios and paying for billboards in New York City Times Square. It was eventually renewed for one more season in February. Streaming service to be announced it will resurrect it once more with a movie coming out this fall. Andres said her fanbase is proof that audiences are hungrier than ever for untold stories. These companies are businesses. They dont want any controversy. But the other thing I would say just to give a message of hope, is these are corporations. What they want is money and success. So if you want there to be more queer storytelling, it's imperative that you show up for queer storytelling. Your eyeballs and your money and your presence is really the greatest weapon that we have.
[00:16:46] So that's a very valid point. Support, support each other. Support the things that people are working on support these works of art and just come together. Come together.
[00:17:04] I don't know why I'm singing. I'm horrible at it, but just come together. You're just making everything into, oh, this is this and that is that. And that's the excuse. And as we go through these episodes of gay code, you will definitely start to, like, hear more of that throughout history of, like, the problems with gay people or gay people or this or gay people or that.
[00:17:31] And honestly, a lot of it is very, almost very hypocritical. Or actually, it's not almost, it is hypocritical. And when you start mixing that religious aspect into it and the other aspects of who the government wants us to be or society wants us to be, it's all this big snowball effect of people treating each other like they're worthless. And we are all worth something. We are all meant to be something. And at the end of the day, we are all human. Can't say that loud enough. We are all human. And we all deserve a right to live freely in this world.
[00:18:13] So that's all that I have this week for that and the disappearance of gay characters in television. If you have any tv shows that you love that have gay characters, make sure that you are watching them, streaming them, talking about them. I don't care if you're x ing or tweeting or whatever the heck you call it all the time. Like, we need to have that representation in television these days. So I would like to give you a little bit of an update. We are actually going to be having a guest on in a couple of weeks. That's very awesome and I'm very excited for it. I am going out to Jess's house today when this releases and I am actually going to be recording with her in person and with said guest. And I don't want to give away who it is, but it's going to be awesome. And then we are definitely going to have these episodes coming out as well. So I hope that you enjoy what we are bringing you. And as always, if you would like to connect with us, visit us on
[email protected]. alwaysbeabigdeal. You can visit us on any of our other socials at always pod. Until next time, stay true, be squiggly, always wear yellow crocs, and always be a big deal.
[00:19:37] Bye.
