Hey, It's Still Che Diaz

Look, just because it’s Pride doesn’t mean we have to love everything gay, OK? So I’ll just come out and say it. Che Diaz is annoying. Che Diaz is written to be annoying. Che Diaz’s annoyingness has nothing to do with their gender identity. Whew, see, that wasn’t hard.

This month Variety did a big cover story on Che Diaz/Sara Ramirez and more than anything I find it perplexing. The lede calls Che “the most visible (and often most ridiculed) queer character on TV.” And then goes on to say how this nonbinary character played by a nonbinary actor has become a “Rorschach test for viewers.”

Make no mistake, we are in an incredibly perilous time for trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and otherwise “other” presenting human beings. The rights of trans people to play school sports, use public bathrooms and generally just exist is getting legislated away with each passing day so Republicans can get more votes. Make no mistake, the political climate is terrifying for queer and nonbinary people. You need need only look at the 31 white supremicist domestic terrorists arrested in Idaho over the weekend to know that Pride events and queer existence are being targeted.

But, none of that changes the fact that Che Diaz is annoying. Am I glad Che exists? Of course, I think more queer, trans and genderfluid representation is great basically always. The more the merrier. But let’s also admit that Che falls into the grand tradition of annoying and polarizing characters à la Rachel Berry and Jenny Schecter. (To not be misogynistic about it, also there are your Pete Campbells, Ross Gellars, Will Schuesters, et al. because the world has no shortage of annoying dudes, unfortunately.)

While I understand the showrunners may be a little confused at the general reaction to Che (I mean, I wasn’t expecting the memes), they really shouldn’t be. They made them this way. They set this character up to be disliked by making them the reason Miranda cheats on Steve (who, let’s admit it, was probably the most likable of SATC’s straight dudes) and making their “comedy concerts” universally unfunny.

Like, I get it, in theory who wouldn’t immediately fall for Sara Ramirez? Sara Ramirez is amazing. Period. But the way they wrote Che in no way reflects how amazing Sara is. And it also does not reflect how the other characters react to Che. They’ve written them as kind of a woke fuckboi hipster, yet all the other characters react as if they are instead meeting an extraterrestrial charisma supernova.

Again, make no mistake, writing one of the highest profile nonbinary characters to join an already high-profile series as annoying is a choice. Setting up a pioneering character like Che to be widely disliked is also a disservice.

The point of representation is always more than just visibility. It’s to make what people consider “other” (and therefore to them something scary or weird or bad) more human. And, yes, that also means making queer characters annoying and/or bad and/or frightening. But — and again this is a big Sir Mix-A-Lot-worthy BUT — we have to get to the point where LGBTQ+ people are seen as human before we revel in any kind of caricatures of our community.

The Variety article also makes reference to people maybe being turned off my Miranda and Che’s big kitchen sex scene because it wasn’t your sterotypical hot girl-on-girl action. I think it’s more likely people were turned off because it was juxtaposed with Carrie LITERALLY PEEING THE BED. No kink shame, but that’s just not my thing. Also, come on, the whole reason Miranda was there in the first place was to help Carrie recover from hip surgery and instead she gets fucked in her kitchen. That’s just bad friendship form, people.

Yes, I understand there are small-minded people who think watching two very attractive and talented people like Sara Ramirez and Cynthia Nixon get it on is gross because they don’t fall into the stereotypical gender norms. I also know there are people who recoil at Che Diaz's mere presence. Those bigots that would rather none of us exists. But thinking small-minded bigots should fuck off forever and that Che Diaz is annoying are not mutually exclusive mindsets.

Also, it’s a choice to make Sara Ramirez dress like this for a photoshoot to go with an article about being taken seriously as a pioneering nonbinary character on a high-profile show. A real, big choice.

Apparently we’ll be getting “more of Che rather than less of Che,” in the second season of “And Just Like That…” which I hope will be a good thing. More Che more more chances for Che to be fleshed out into a fully realized person. Bottom line, I’m glad Che Diaz exists and think we should get more nonbinary (and lesbian and gay and bisexual and trans) characters on television. I’m also certain Che Diaz is annoying because Che Diaz was written that way.