fandomhigh | Catching up on Pop Culture, 3rd period

If Jon looked a little extra stiff and formal today, he was just trying to...keep his dignity, that was all. He wasn't at all nervous about discussing this sort of thing due to a history of less-than-sterling reception, even if he knew Fandom was different from Oxford.

"This month is Pride month," he announced. "You've probably heard about it, and you'll probably hear more. What it means is that those outside of the modern Western tradition of gender and sexuality norms will be celebrating their differences, something that hasn't always been safe to do. Recently there's been a real push to acknowledge these differences and get them to be accepted, rather than ostracizing or killing anybody who's different." He straightened (ha) even more. "I should hope this goes without saying, but in the event it doesn't, no judgment or...or intolerance about people's gender and sexuality will be tolerated here. If you're not prepared to be accepting, you can leave."

He nodded firmly. "I'm also not going to force anybody to come out - that is, reveal their gender or sexuality - if they aren't ready for it." Even if Beholding did live off of fearful secrets, he wasn't about to do that.

"That said, there are a lot of flags you may see around, and I thought we could take a look at them all, and if you have any questions about what they represent, I'll do my best to answer."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With flags if you got 'em and want to!

Liberty Hazlett

Tisarwat

Billy Coen

Belle

Josephine Jones

Shane Gooseman

Take a look at the flags.

So many flags!

Tisarwat just sort of had to shake her head a little, because while, yes, the lack of gloves was bad, the one thing that continued to convince her of just how uncivilized this planet was was inherent in the fact that any of this was even an issue.

Even Hwaeans knew better.

But it was good to know Earthlings were working on it.

Billy was admittedly a bit behind on the whole sexual identity thing. It wasn't that he didn't know about it or wasn't familiar with the more common ways people framed things like sex and gender. But as far as how it applied to him? He... really had not ever given it much thought really...

Ask questions if you have them. Feel free to reveal your own only if you want to.

"Is it okay," asked Libby, a little sheepish and pink in the face herself, even if her own awkwardness and embarrassment was borne entirely from how she was raised, "if I take a few pictures? For my friend back home? She's just been really loving how this place has been embracing Pride so far."

Zo had been claiming maybe she would join in on Libby's nursing program, too, just so she could go to school here, as well.

"You can take pictures of the flags if you like," Jon said. "Or...or me, I suppose." He sounded a bit pained, but he supposed that was his lot. "You have to ask the other students if you want pictures of them, though."

"I had no idea there were so many options," Belle said. "Some of these words I've never seen before."

Which wasn't a question, but it was at least a little commentary.

"There are new ones all the time," Jon said. He glanced at the list of flags. "Honestly, some of these I hadn't heard of, either. Often people will use 'queer' as an umbrella term for all of them, if that's easier. So long as you're respectful if somebody has a specific identity they want acknowledged."

"I'd never heard of Pride month before, I don't recognise any of these words, except for gay but that means happy ... at least back home it does," Jo admitted, "they don't talk about any of this back home,"

For a number of reasons and at least in Jo's family very conservative social circle they didn't.

"Yes, it's still...well, still illegal in your time," Jon said. "It's only recently that things have started looking up a bit for people who are different, and it's often still hard."

Goose had only learnt about Pride month recently from Summer but since he was a bit conflicted about his identity as a whole, his sexual identity was something that he was only just discovering.

"Erm ... I don't really know ..." he admitted, "about my sexuality I mean I ... well I have a boyfriend," well Jon knew since he had spoken up being unable to contact Ignis at the picnic, "but I do …um also like women but ..,they didn't really encourage emotions and well ... relationships in general where I grew up," all of this was very new to him.

Goose had also not expected to reveal that much about his own upbringing.

Edited 2022-06-07 11:13 (UTC)

"If you like different genders, that could mean you identify as bisexual or pansexual," Jon said, "but you don't really have to identify as anything at all. If...if you want to acknowledge you aren't only attracted to women and you don't want to get more specific, you could say you're queer - that encompasses any sexualities and identities that aren't the expected majority. And you don't have to identify as anything at all!" he stressed. "You can just be yourself. In the end, it's really nobody's business but you and your partners'."

He's here! Not so sure about this "discussing sexuality and gender" thing, but he'll do his very best.

Woot for canonically panromantic asexual characters!

Catching up on Pop Culture, 3rd period

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