Our Fight Is Not Over

I’m about to say something that seemed practically sacrilegious as of two weeks ago: I never really loved “The 100” all that much. Based on everyone’s enthusiastic recommendations, I sat down and dutifully binge-watched the first two seasons last year. Certainly I enjoyed parts of it, including its powerful female characterizations, and was interested to see the Clexa storyline develop. But, to be honest, I was just there for what turned out to be the super-duper, oh-so slow burn that was Clexa in the first place. I commend both Alycia Debnam-Carey and Eliza Taylor on their nuanced portrayals. But because of the way they ended things between those two at the end of the season two – with Lexa and her Grounder’s abandonment of their however tenuous alliance with Clarke and her Sky People over Mount Weather – I felt a little cheated. Yes, we got that one glorious, oh-so thirsty kiss. But then larger politics of loyalty and power took over and that was that.

So when folks started watching again in Season 3, I was encouraged by what I heard – but not enough to catch up right away. And now, I’ll confess, I’m so glad I didn’t bother. I tend to not get too involved in the spoilery, behind-the-scenes gossip associated with shows. Before all of this happened I really wasn’t aware of how show creator Jason Rothenberg has been interacting with fans. But now that I’ve read up on it I take particular umbrage to is how he appears to have actively courted LGBT fans only to saddle them once again with a disappointing, repetitive and frankly tired-ass trope. So here we have a moment of true happiness followed by sudden and random death. Lexa is yet another dead LGBT character. Oh, geez, your shirt – AGAIN.

One might have been able to argue that in the Tara Maclay days some 14 years ago that the writers innocently were unaware of the Bury Your Gays trope (and, again, I’m not saying they were, but they could). But it’s clear that is not the case now. The series creator actively engaged and encouraged its LGBT fans and seemed to make promises that he obviously had no intentions of keeping. You can’t hold yourself up as a model example of representation and then offer us the very same sorry representations we’ve too often been force fed That’s not how this works. That’s now how any of this works.

What is most clear from this debacle is that LGBT audiences crave to see their own happy endings reflected back to them. And, just as clear, is that we will no longer sit passively by when we are disappointed and deceived by the stories we’re told.

The LGBT fandom’s reaction to this latest, tragic TV development is to stand up and demand accountability. To stand up and demand better stories. To stand up and demand we not be taken for granted as fans. If you’re a true ally, show us – don’t keep telling us you are. (And, conversely, don’t be sending out death threats or malicious messages to people who write make believe for a living – that helps no one.)

Look, tons of wonderful and eloquent fans have written on this topic already. Like here and here. You got LGBT FANS DESERVE better to trend for hours last week. And you’ve even inspired mainstream media like Variety and the GLAAD president to weight in on the situation. When you have 142 dead lesbian and bisexual characters on TV and only 16 or so TV shows where they have been given happy endings, the math is clearly off. That’s especially true when you consider there are currently more than 400 scripted shows on television. Our stories are few-and-far-between as is, and when they’re told they are disproportionately tragic.

While I’ve touched on this whole “The 100” situation in the last couple of weeks, I haven’t written too explicitly about the show on purpose because, again, I wasn’t watching. Like I said, it just wasn’t and isn’t my favorite. But the din of this controversy has risen above just one series and is now about what LGBT fans want, and demand, from their storytellers. It’s not just about the death of one beloved character. And that’s fantastic.

Even more fantastic, fans are turning their anger into positive action. Fans have come together to raise money for the Trevor Project. That campaign has so far raised more than $45,000. That’s a lot of money to help struggling LGBT youth. That’s a lot of good out of something bad. May it carry through to a continuous battle cry for more and better representations across all of entertainment, period. I’ve been writing about this stuff for a long time (10 years in April, folks). And I will always be on the side that advocates for more and better LGBT representations. It matters, it always had.

We will meet again, because this fight is not over.