Throughout the many LGBTQ stories that have been told onscreen, there is one dominant theme: suffering. From the "Bury Your Gays" trope that sees queer characters dying far more frequently than straight characters, to stories that foreground the struggles of LGBTQ lives, we rarely allow them to be happy. So why have we insisted on making queer characters miserable? Here’s our Take on how this trope has dominated LGBTQ representations over the years, and whether we can get to a place where suffering isn’t always part of their story.
 |
| President-Elect Joe Biden |
I hadn’t shared who my father @BillyGraham voted for in 2016 but because of @CTMagazine’s article, I felt it necessary share now. My father knew [Trump], believed in him & voted for him. He believed Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in the history for our nation.
Tchividjian, while not outwardly calling his uncle a liar, got highly shady with his response.
I’ll never forget that day in 2016 when my grandfather @BillyGraham, shrugged off the symptoms of Parkinson’s and hydrocephalus, got up out of bed for the first time in a year, drove down to the polling station, and cast his vote. What a glorious memory!
According to Mountain Xpress, this exchange blew open the door:
For those who hadn’t followed the insular world of evangelical Christianity, this exchange blew into full view a rip in the Graham family’s fabric that mirrors a larger split within the entire evangelical community – a split likely to be accelerated by Trump’s defeat for re-election. Tchividjian and his more outspoken sister, Jerushah Duford, whose mother, Gigi Graham Tchividijian, is Billy Graham’s oldest daughter, have emerged as the family’s most visible critics of their uncle and of Trump. Both have written several books, separately and together, about their grandfather and his worldwide ministry, which was rooted in the North Carolina mountains near Asheville. Although they are not the first among evangelicals to publicly charge Franklin Graham with undermining the memory of his father, the fact that they are bringing the charge from within the family brings powerful momentum to it. Graham declined to comment through a spokesperson.
“My grandfather’s goal was to introduce people to the saving love and grace of Jesus and he stayed out of politics for the most part because he knew that he would alienate an audience if he was involved,” Jerushah, 42, said, then adding a reference to her uncle: “He is too polarizing of a personality to be introducing people to Jesus. People outside the church are not going to listen to Franklin.” Her brother, two years older, said that his uncle Franklin’s public claim about Billy Graham voting for Trump was “such blatant baloney” that he couldn’t resist responding with the sarcastic tweet. Tchividjian said that he now regards his uncle and Trump as “two peas in a pod.”
The article deserves reading and sharing. It also proves yet again that karma does not play.
 |
| One thing we must never forget about the Donald Trump presidency is how quickly and often the religious right pandered to him. |
Remember, while presently watching this mess going down with Trump refusing to concede the election wihch he fairly lost, the increase in COVID infections, and the general chaos, how conservative evangelicals contributed to it all. These self-appointed religious leaders have done nothing and said nothing to quell the situation. They only cared about what Donald Trump gave them and as long he gave them goodies (access to the White House, photo ops, policies favoring their desires, conservative judges), they threw plaudits after him as if he were the Second Coming of Jesus. They didn't give a damn about the damage he was doing to the country. Most likely, they still don't.
First is Gary Bauer. His claim to fame is being the first president of hate group the Family Research Council and undermining the fight against AIDS while working in the Reagan Administration. According to Reagan's Surgeon General, the late C. Everette Koop, Bauer undermined his ability to communicate to Reagan the severity of AIDS because he felt it "God's punishment."
Next is former Focus on the Family head James Dobson, the one who thinks that gays have thousands of sexual partners.
 |
| Michele Bachmann |
Sympathy should not be on the menu for them.
But if you ask me, the one who wins the booby prize has to be former Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann. Bachmann, who has been known for basic homophobia, took it upon herself to appeal to God to use his "iron rod" in order to smash the outcome of the recent presidential election . . . in a figurative sense of course.
Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann calls on God to "smash the delusion, Father, that Joe Biden is our president. He is not." pic.twitter.com/gqoFP97ipT
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 9, 2020
