Orange is the New Black S4 SPOILERS

       I don't cry about TV shows usually, but Orange is the New Black managed to make me cry. They killed off my favorite character, Poussey Washington. Another lesbian character has been killed to further the plot. It's also an outrage that she was one of the very few POC lesbians on the show. Her death was also an accident. Just after the scenes of her and Soso were planning their life together. I find it somewhat disgusting that Chapman and Vause are currently happily together. It seems that this death specifically targeted POC lesbians. I should have known the writers would have killed her off. It's sad that I have to type that.

TV Trope: Dead Lesbian

       I loved the show "The 100", it started off great. Interesting premise, interesting character development in seasons one and two, and it even had a strong lesbian lead character: Lexa. Then they killed her off (a scene after she and Clarke made love), after months of the producers clamoring about how LGBT friendly they were. Her death was meaningless, I mean Clarke could have saved her with the equipment in the room. I'll admit I've still kept up with the show, even after they killed off a strong POC lead character (for no reason), mainly because of Raven.
       Anyhow, this made me wonder, why are all the lesbians dead on TV? I looked at the Ultimate Infograph to Dead TV Lesbians and All 158 Dead Lesbians and How the Died by AutoStraddle. The Infograph is a great way to compare the number of lesbian characters to the number of straight characters (the numbers need to be updated a bit). But it doesn't go into detail about networks or death specifics like the complete list does. So I went through the 158 Lesbian list and came up with the graphs at the end of the section. This list focuses on live action TV, and does not include any Western animated series or anime.
       In Figure 1 the number of lesbian characters killed off has been increasing dramatically in the past four years. 2016 looks like it might be a record year for lesbian TV deaths, since it is already more than half of 2015 deaths. It would be interesting to compare the number of surviving lesbian characters in each year, but that would require a lot more data finding.
       Figure 2 shows the types of deaths that kill the lesbian characters. I knew that getting shot was a common way for writers to kill of lesbian characters. I did not expect to see categories of explosion, bludgeoning, and throat slitting to be so popular. For graph clarity the disease category covers lung cancer, heart attacks, etc. This is also applied to the murdered and shot category. Some of the categories in "Other" are childbirth, electrocution, drowning, being eaten by monsters,drug overdose, etc.

       It was actually unnerving to see Figure 3, and how many deaths were intentional acts of violence. Many of these were carried out by ex-lovers/husbands, etc. The "N/A" category exists since some minor characters were killed in a manner that makes the motivation unclear.

      Finally Figure 4 shows the number of lesbians killed off on a given network. ABC is currently the worst offender in terms of death toll. However, the CW's Lexa death has been the most controversial, and the most talked about in recent years. The "Other" category is networks that have had under 5 lesbian character deaths, and are generally non-US networks.

       Now it is nice having representation on TV. However, when I begin watching a show and I see a lesbian character and think "I wonder how they are going to kill off this one." or "I'd better not get too attached." there is a problem. I wish that more live-action shows took the approach that many children's animated shows (i.e Bubbline, Korrasami, Garnet). It's ridiculous that kids shows have alive and happier lesbian couples than live action, more adult shows. This theme in TV reinforces old fashioned thinking that only young girl/school girls are allowed to be gay and once you get older you need to be straight. If it's one thing we can thank Jason Rothenberg for it's that Hollywood will hopefully think twice (or more) about killing off lesbian characters for "shock value". Hopefully we can expect more lesbian characters who live throughout a series in the future.

Fig 1: Graph displaying number of lesbian character deaths on TV per year.

*2016 data only from January to June.

Fig. 2: Method of death, with corresponding number.

Fig. 3: If the actions that resulted in a death were intentional by another character (i.e Lexa was accidentally shot, so her death was not intentional).

Fig. 4: Number of killed off lesbians on each network

Orlando Tragedy

       It isn't something that we, the LGBT community, ever thought would happen. But Sunday morning a lone gunman, Oman Mateen, open fired an automatic rifle the gay club Pulse. 50 people were killed inside the club, 53 people were injured. These numbers make it the worst mass shooting in US history. The media is calling this a terror attack. In my mind it is not a terror attack, it is a hate crime. Mateen's ex-wife stated that he was a non-practicing Muslim. He specifically targeted a gay club; if he wanted an act of terror he could have gone to another nightclub.
       This event will most likely bring about a phase of Islamophobia, especially considering it is an election year. We all need to remember that Islam is a religion of peace, and that it is an extremely small minority that are extremists. Calling every Muslim a terrorist is like calling every Christian a member of the KKK. Do not punish Muslims for the small minority of extremists. No matter what religion you follow, please remember that all religions tell people to love your neighbor, do no harm to others, be peaceful to one another.
      I will be donating to the Trevor Project and to the GoFundMe for the Orlando victims and families. I want a world where everyone has a safe spot that everyone can go to. Part of me wonders if the recent killing off of LGBT characters in TV shows have influenced this attack. But that is a discussion for another time. Please stay safe and be kind to one another.

       Trevor Project Donation:  https://give.thetrevorproject.org/checkout/donation?eid=63307 
       Orlando GoFundMe:  https://www.gofundme.com/PulseVictimsFund

Yesterday Will Go Down In History

       So I am sure that all of you have heard that gay marriage is now legal in the entire United States of America! I was able to listen to most of Obama's speech on the radio, so happy that it the Supreme Court passed it, thanks guys! Thanks Obama for putting Kagan and Sotomayor in those positions! The outcome of the decision (5-4) definitely shows how much power a president has when choosing a Justice, should be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.
      Anyhow I am celebrating tonight by drinking a few beers and listening to a lot of Tegan and Sara. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and stay safe!!

Really Need to Post More Often

      Those of you who asked about finals, they went surprisingly well. I passed all my classes with the lowest/average grade being a B. So that's good, I'm kind of shocked cause there were at least two courses that I should have gotten a C. Summer has been good so far, been working a lot of overtime to pay for my final year of school. I will still have to take out another loan though.
       It was hilarious because during the last two weeks of school a whole bunch of my friends thought that my friend Trent and I were dating; Trent knows that I'm gay. That was hilarious to watch the gossip around that. He's a good guy, like a brother to me if anything. Also last night I got a text from another guy friend who knows I'm gay, he basically said that he wants to sleep with me and that I look like Caitlyn Jenner. Thanks dude, but you'll have better chances sleeping with her than with me. But I hope I look as good as she does when I'm 65.

The Problems of Lesbian Dating Sites

       So recently I have attempted online dating, however I have found a few flaws.  The first site I tried was called Pink Sofa, which only has a three day free trial, then costs $10/month.  I am a college student, so no I don't want to pay dollars.  Second I tried Pink Cupid, and it went really smoothly, until I tried to message someone, we both had standard accounts, so we can't view the messages.  Yes, you heard me.  The only way to view a message from someone  is if one of the people in the conversation is paying for a membership.  So that's a no.  I don't understand why there are so many free, no cost straight dating sites, but when it comes to LGBT dating they want dollars.  It's extremely frustrating.  It doesn't help that my internet connection is the pace of a tortoise with honey on it's feet.

It's Been Awhile

       So it's only been about six months since I've posted....oops.  I should have posted during winter break, but clearly that never happened.  As for this semester it's been hectic, all classes have major assignments due alternating weeks, so I've been working on homework 6 nights/days a week.  For those of you starting school set aside one day a week to relax and have fun, it definitely helps.  Anyhow I've decided that you could make an engineering BINGO card depending on the school you go to.  Free space would be if you have an assignment from every class due in the same week; another space would be a saying that a professor says a lot (or multiple spaces), etc. Just hand it out at freshman orientation, see how many people complete it.  This BINGO card would vary between each subset of engineering of course, but it could work.
       And now for something completely different.  I was hanging out with one of my friends at the bars last night and as we were walking back he said "so-and-so told me that you were a lesbian."  I had one of those moments where I forget that people do talk about me when I'm not there, and it's interesting to see how this is slowly spreading in my circle of engineering friends.  I can't really blame So-and-So since he was drunk at the time, and I usually come out to people after I've had a few.  I should start to map it to see how long it takes to get to a certain number of people through gossiping.  Anyhow I hope you all had a great holiday season and safe spring!  I'll post later (hopefully not six months later)!