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LGBTQ Victory Fund Endorses Richmond Mayoral Candidate Alexsis Rodgers

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The LGBTQ Victory Fund is backing Alexsis Rodgers in the 2020 Richmond mayoral race. If elected, Rodgers will become both the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as Richmond’s mayor.

Richmond’s four-way race to determine who will become the city’s next mayor has been heating up ever since the summer began. Now, in a new development sure to interest the city’s LGBTQ community, the LGBTQ Victory Fund has endorsed Richmond mayoral candidate Alexsis Rodgers. 

“This is a huge boost for our campaign, because their endorsement is a seal of approval and shows we are on track to win,” Rodgers said in a statement. “Victory Fund only endorses candidates who will be strong voices for equality and who prove they are building a campaign that is heading toward victory.”

LGBTQ Victory Fund, founded in 1991, helps support openly LGBTQ candidates for public office. In the past, they have backed Danica Roem, who represents Prince William County in the Virginia House of Delegates and in 2017 became America’s first transgender person elected to statewide political office; and Dawn Adams, an openly gay delegate who represents Richmond’s West End in the Virginia House of Delegates. Sean Meloy, the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s senior political director, called the group’s endorsement a “powerful statement of your campaign’s viability.” 

If elected, Rodgers will be the first openly LGBTQ mayor of Richmond, and the first woman elected to the seat. 

“LGBTQ people are 4.5 percent of the U.S. population but hold only 0.15 percent of elected positions nationwide. We need more diverse voices in office – people that will fight for everyone – and I am determined to be that voice,” Rodgers said. “When elected, I’ll fight for equality, affordable housing, environmental protections, and other issues important to our community.”

Rodgers helps with a cleanup along the Richmond Slave Trail. Photo via Alexsis Rodgers/Facebook

Rodgers has a history of advocating for the Black LGBTQ community in Richmond, receiving the 2020 Rodney Lofton Social Justice award from Black Pride RVA for her work in the community. She also is known for fighting for health care access, labor and housing rights, and workplace protections for LGBTQ people across Virginia. 

“I am humbled to receive the endorsement of Victory Fund and will continue to advance progressive policies that will uplift queer people in Richmond,” said Rodgers. 

Rodgers is also endorsed by Run for Something, Our Revolution RVA, Generation Ratify VA, and many community leaders, Virginia elected officials, and business owners. She hopes her election will allow her to advocate for underrepresented groups. 

“We will continue to see disparities and discriminatory practices in our institutions and communities if we don’t address the inequality of power,” Rodgers said. “The current Black Lives Matter movement and mobilization to dismantle oppressive policies are led by Black and brown and queer and trans women, yet we see little gain for these communities. It’s imperative that we center and advocate for underrepresented groups in a transformative way.”

Top Photo by Shawnee Custalow, via Alexsis Rodgers/Facebook

Lilly Wachowski Confirms That The Matrix Was Always Intended To Be A Transgender Allegory

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In a recent interview, Matrix series co-director Lilly Wachowski confirmed what has been a rumor for quite a while — the Matrix films always contained a transgender element, and were even supposed to feature a trans character.

It’s been over two decades since The Matrix was released, and it’s made a lasting impact on pop culture. Not always in good ways, either; the whole “red pill” metaphor beloved of the misogynist online “men’s rights” community wouldn’t exist without Laurence Fishburne’s portentous speech at a crucial moment in the first Matrix film.

Of course, in light of all that, it’s rather ironic that directors Lilly and Lana Wachowski turned out to be transgender women. They weren’t out at the time of The Matrix‘s release (Lana came out in 2010, Lilly in 2016) but as Lilly recently revealed in an interview for Netflix, there were transgender aspects of the film’s concept, from day one. Even if she and her sister didn’t think of it that way at the time.

“I don’t know how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing it,” Lilly Wachowski told Netflix. “The Matrix stuff was all about a desire for transformation, but it was all coming from a closeted point of view.”

And of course, you didn’t see the transgender aspects of The Matrix on the screen in 1999 unless you were really looking hard for them. But that wasn’t the Wachowskis’ plan. The film was even intended to include a trans character.

“We had the character of Switch, who was a character who would be a man in the real world and a woman in the Matrix. That’s where both of our headspaces were,” Lilly said with a laugh in the Netflix interview. Of course, the character, eventually played by Belinda McClory, was more of an androgynous woman in the finished film, and there was no hint of transgender identity in the final version of the film.

“I’m glad that it has gotten out that that was the original intention, but the world wasn’t quite ready,” said Lilly of the cultural environment The Matrix was released into in 1999. “At a corporate level, the corporate world wasn’t ready for it.”

For Lilly and Lana Wachowski, their experiences as closeted trans and queer women were big influences on the sorts of work they created as filmmakers, as Lilly explains in the Netflix interview. “For me and Lana, we were existing in a space where the words didn’t exist. We were always living in a world of imagination,” she said. “That’s why I gravitated toward sci-fi and fantasy and played Dungeons and Dragons. It was all about creating worlds. It freed us up as filmmakers because we were able to imagine stuff at that time that you didn’t necessarily see onscreen.”

Digging into ideas that you don’t usually encounter onscreen has been a hallmark of the Wachowskis’ film work throughout their career. While the Matrix series has been their most successful work, they’ve been responsible for several other memorable filmic creations, including the sex-infused noir film Bound, the sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas, and the bonkers futuristic action-sports-comedy film Speed Racer. Both Speed Racer and 2012 space opera Jupiter Ascending were considered flops at the time of their release, but have since gone on to garner significant cult followings — always a sign that you’re doing something right, even if the mainstream of America isn’t exactly picking up on it at the time.

Ultimately, Lilly credits the perspective afforded her and her sister by their transgender experiences as a big influence on the Wachowskis’ tendencies to incorporate multiple film genres in their work.

“One of our things that we really enjoyed doing was genre-bending, where you would have stuff that felt like kung fu movies and anime and westerns,” Lilly said. “I think in our transness and queerness, we were always trying to incorporate as many things as possible. Trying to visualise within a much larger, infinite scope of the imagination.”

For the Wachowskis, both of whom struggled for years with their trans identities, it’s gratifying to hear that The Matrix films have reached transgender people in the manner the two of them originally intended, even if no overt trans content ever made it to the screen.

“I love how meaningful those films are to trans people and the way they come up to me and say these movies saved my life,” Lilly told Netflix. “Because when you talk about transformation, specifically in the world of science fiction, which is just about imagination and worldbuilding and the idea of the seemingly impossible becoming possible, that’s why it speaks to them so much. And I’m grateful that I can be a part of throwing them a rope to help them along their journey.”

Watch the full interview on YouTube below:

Images via The Matrix/Warner Bros

Schitt’s Creek Is The Pro-LGBTQ Comedy Series We’ve All Been Waiting For

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The Canadian series, which has steadily grown in popularity over its six seasons, features LGBTQ characters without giving us more of the same old depressing “after-school special” storylines.

Far away there exists a magical land in the north called Ontario, Canada. Within that land is a place of legend known as Schitt’s Creek. And it is the best television series that you are not watching (yet). 

Schitt’s Creek is the brainchild of Daniel Levy, son of comedy legend Eugene Levy. It is possibly one of the most important television series in the last ten years, especially for the LGBTQ community. The series focuses on the Rose family — comprised of the patriarch Johnny Rose (played by the elder Levy), matriarch Moira Rose (Catherine O’Hara), David Rose (played by the younger Levy), and Alexis Rose (Annie Murphy) — and their fall from expensive, privileged grace. After the IRS comes banging on their door in the first five minutes of the pilot episode, the Rose family is forced to slum it in the titular Schitt’s Creek, a small, rural town that Johnny bought David for his eighth birthday as a gag gift.

The series was inspired by Levy’s time as a commentator for MTV’s The Hills Aftershow, when he wondered what it would be like if people who were raised with privilege were dropped somewhere where they had nothing and forced to start over. What might happen? 

Aside from Creek’s reality show inspiration, Levy, who is gay in real life, also wanted to create a world where homophobia just was not an option. Too often, LGBTQ people in the media are forced through “very special episode” storylines, even on shows in which members of the LGBTQ community are the entire focus of the show. From repeated cover versions of the same coming-out story, to couples breaking up or watching partners die, to unsupportive or passive-aggressive family and friends, it feels like the community can’t catch a break, even in stories that are meant to be for us.

This even happens in shows that are seen as liberal, such as NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Even that show dropped the ball on this one when Rosa Diaz (played by Stephanie Beatriz) was given the default “it’s a phase” reaction from her parents when she came out as bisexual. This implies, at least minutely, that our own allies might not support us when the cards are thrown on the table.

However, Levy believes that we have already seen too many of these storylines of LGBTQ folks enduring trauma and stress simply for being who they are. It’s about time for us to create the world we want to see.

“I have no patience for homophobia,” Levy told Vulture. “As a result, it’s been amazing to take that into the show. We show love and tolerance. If you put something like that out of the equation, you’re saying that doesn’t exist and shouldn’t exist.”

Levy’s David is openly pansexual in the series, but it never becomes a plot point. The only time it is acknowledged is when he and Rose Motel manager Stevie Budd sleep together. In what is now a classic and arguably viral scene from the series, Budd asks Rose to clarify if he is straight or gay while they are shopping for wine for a party, and Rose answers her questions in the only way he knows how.

“I do drink red wine, but I also drink white wine,” Rose explains. “And I’ve been known to sample the occasional rose. And a couple summers back I tried a merlot that used to be a chardonnay, which got a bit complicated. I like the wine and not the label, does that make sense?”

At the start of the series, the implication is that David is probably gay. He’s a fashionable hipster with rich, avant-garde taste, and flamboyant mannerisms. Not many straight men who are not of Scottish descent wear very many skirts (kilts, if you are from the highlands).

However, this was exactly why Levy wanted to have David and Stevie sleep together early in the series — in order to throw off the viewer’s perceptions. He told Them.us that setting up the narrative this way would help “subvert that [way of thinking] and show that you can’t always judge a book by its cover.”

Even when a storyline came close to being a “very special episode,” in very Levy style, a plot twist subverted this immediately. After David met and falls in love with his business partner, Patrick, Patrick’s parents came to town and accidentally learned that their son is gay. They had an immediate reaction of disappointment, leading the viewer to believe that this is leading toward another overtold story of parents being sad that their child is gay. But when David came to his beau’s rescue, he learned that the rescue is unnecessary; Patrick’s parents are not upset that their son is gay, but rather because they fear that they did something to make their son believe he could not tell them.

So while Levy’s intention was to create the world he, and all of us, want to see, in which homophobia is a thing we explain to our children as something that occurred generations ago in the past, there is an argument that this scenario is unrealistic. This fantastical world is just that, a fantasy, for many who do fear coming out to their families, friends, and their jobs. Coming out for many can mean isolation from loved ones, termination from jobs, and homelessness. 

While that is unfortunately true, Levy makes an argument for the good that creating this intentionally blissful world can still do.

“As humans, we learn through osmosis,” Levy told Pride. “The more we see, the more we learn. By depicting a world where love between two people can only result in more love, I’m hoping to help change the conversation in people’s homes surrounding queer love.”

It is bittersweet that such a monumental series is finally achieving popularity as it enters its final season. Having premiered in 2015 on CBC in Canada in PopTV in the United States, it only began to finally get wider recognition in 2017 when it came to Netflix. And now it is heading quickly toward an end.

Thankfully, there’s still time to discover it if you haven’t; the last episode of Schitt’s Creek doesn’t air until April 7, and previous seasons can be streamed on Netflix. You should dive in if you haven’t already. Not only is the world of the Roses and the citizens of Schitt’s Creek incredibly infectious, it gives the rest of us a sincere hope for a world that just might not be so far out of reach after all.

Images from Schitt’s Creek via Netflix

Rejoice, Doctor Who Fans: Captain Jack Is Finally Back

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Captain Jack Harkness was the first LGBTQ character to appear on long-running British sci-fi series Doctor Who, and later starred in spinoff series Torchwood. Earlier this year, he made a surprise return.

Hold on to your telecommunicators, Whovians, because the good captain is finally back – even if just for a one-time engagement. A couple weeks ago, Doctor Who fans got a surprise that absolutely no one saw coming.

Captain Jack Harkness, who is played by Scottish American actor John Barrowman, finally returned, after a ten-year absence from the classic British series. Harkness, the first openly bisexual character on the series — which has been airing off and on since 1963 — first made his appearance in the 2005 episode “The Empty Child,” meeting Christopher Eccleston’s ninth doctor. He was last seen during the 2010 two-part special “The End of Time,” in which we said goodbye to David Tennant’s tenth doctor.

When Barrowman made his debut as the now-iconic captain, he helped begin the process of filling necessary voids in the long running, very white, very straight sci-fi series. Not only did Captain Jack become the first openly LGBTQ character in the franchise, he opened the door to significantly more LGBTQ representation in the series, from the sexually fluid River Song to smaller recurring characters, such as Madame Vastra and her wife and sidekick, Jenny Flint.

On a larger scale, this led to more widespread representation when the good captain received his own spinoff series, Torchwood. Torchwood told the story of a covert government agency based in Cardiff, Wales called the Torchwood Institute, which was led by Captain Jack and focused on stories that, while mostly similar to those of its predecessor, Doctor Who, had more adult themes (that’s the bonus of having a late air time). Amongst the storylines were several featuring more visible LGBTQ representation, such as the ongoing romance between Harkness and fellow agent Ianto Jones, which would carry on until the end of the series in 2011. 

Barrowman returned to Doctor Who this year during the episode “Fugitive of the Judoon,” but missed being introduced to Jodie Whittaker’s current iteration of The Doctor. In the episode, Harkness has stolen a spacecraft from the Judoon, and is now being attacked by the rightful owners.

Because of the forcefield on the spacecraft, he is unable to teleport The Doctor, and is only able to bring over her current companions – Graham, Ryan, and Yaz. Through the spurts of flirting which are now just a personality trait for him, Harkness is able to give a warning to the companions for The Doctor to beware of the “Lone Cyberman,” and to “not give it what it wants,” before sending them back and transporting away.

The news of Barrowman’s Harkness making a final return to the series was kept so well under wraps that Barrowman even used his flat that he owns in Cardiff to his advantage. He threw everyone off the scent through the clever ruse of being at his flat for “renovations,” and even went as far as to use the hashtag #flatrenovation on social media to hide his true intentions for being there.

“I felt bad, but I had to think of something to throw people off the path of what I was doing in Cardiff,” Barrowman told RadioTimes. “Because I was being seen all over the place. And people are like ‘Well what are you doing here?’ And I just said, ‘Well, I’m renovating one of the properties that we have.’”

It is currently unknown — even to Barrowman — if this is just a one-off appearance for Harkness or if he will return again, and if so, how often or for how long. Regardless, if you’re like me, this is as good of a sign as any that it is finally time to catch up on the series. Dust off your Converse, Whovians, because it’s time to save the universe.

Katie Sowers Will Make History In The 2020 Super Bowl

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The offensive assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers will be the first woman to coach in a Super Bowl, and is also the NFL’s only openly LGBTQ coach.

Whether or not the San Francisco 49ers are able to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, February 2, they’ll still be making history. San Francisco offensive assistant coach Katie Sowers will be both the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to coach in the NFL’s biggest game, and that’s cause for celebration even if her team doesn’t end up winning the day.

While most people think of American football as a men’s sport, there are female full-contact football leagues, and the biggest of those is the Women’s Football Alliance, which had its first season in 2009. Sowers played quarterback for the WFA’s Kansas City Titans and West Michigan Mayhem, and in 2013, she was a member of the USA Women’s Football team that won the IFAF Women’s World Championship — a sort of World Cup for American football rather than soccer.

Sowers retired from pro play in 2016 after a hip injury, and was soon hired as a wide receiver’s intern by the Atlanta Falcons. She was hired by the 49ers in 2017 as a seasonal offensive assistant, then promoted to offensive assistant coach for the 2019 season.

Photo via USA Football/YouTube

49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppalo spoke highly of Sowers, in particular her work with the team’s wide receivers. “She’s been tremendous,” he told San Francisco’s CBS affiliate, KPIX. “What she does with the receivers, all the skill positions guys, how she interacts with them — it’s special. She’s feisty, man. Katie is awesome out there. She’ll get after guys … It’s fun to be around.”

Sowers obtained her position with the 49ers in part by impressing the team’s head coach, Kyle Shanahan, when he encountered her during her time with the Falcons. Shanahan spoke highly of her in a recent interview with the San Diego Mercury News. “Katie did a real good job for us in Atlanta, she’s done a really good job here,” Shanahan said. “She’s a hard worker, you don’t even notice her because she just goes to work and does what’s asked.”

You might have noticed Sowers yourself, if you’ve caught a recent Microsoft Surface Pro 7 commercial that features her as the star. It begins with Sowers reading from a childhood notebook about her dreams to someday be part of “a real football team.”

This is the exact sort of dream that one of the most high-profile American sports has long denied to both women and LGBTQ people — indeed, despite the high-profile drafting of openly gay defensive end Michael Sam in 2014, Sam didn’t make it to the final roster of any NFL team, and ended up spending his pro football career in the Canadian Football League. Despite several openly gay players making names for themselves at the college level since, none has successfully gone pro. At this point, therefore, Katie Sowers is pretty much the only LGBTQ representation the NFL has to offer. When viewed in that light, her success is even more remarkable.

Therefore, whether her team wins in the Super Bowl this year or not, we have to count the fact that she’s there at all as a little tiny victory for all of us.

Top Photo via Katie Sowers/Facebook

The Rise Of Skywalker Chickens Out On Depicting LGBTQ Relationship

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We’ll never know for sure whether Star Wars characters Finn and Poe were really in love, but hey… there’s a lesbian kiss in a background scene at the end of Rise Of Skywalker. For many fans, though, that’s not good enough.

The Star Wars fandom has simultaneous reason to rejoice and lament, as their favorite and most dreaded time of the year has returned — the release date for a new film in the franchise. Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker was released on December 20 to moderate reviews, and as always, the fandom remains divided. One big reason for some fans’ disappointment is that we now know Finn and Poe’s potential romance will remain in the “will they, won’t they” pile indefinitely.

Since the release of the newest trilogy’s first installment, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the fandom has heavily debated the possibility of Oscar Isaac’s Poe and John Boyega’s Finn being a couple. Despite overwhelming supporting evidence present in the films for this claim (unlike evidence as to whether Rey is Han Solo’s daughter), current execs at the helm of the franchise have thrown in a hard and resounding “No.”

Both actors, Isaac and Boyega, have publicly supported the idea, Isaac even going so far as to call out Disney execs at corporate for the lack of support.

“I think there could’ve been a very interesting, forward-thinking… not even forward thinking, just like, current thinking love story there,” Isaac told PinkNews. “Something that hadn’t quite been explored yet, particularly the dynamic between these two men in war that could’ve fallen in love with each other. I would try to push it a bit in that direction, but the Disney overlords were not ready to do that.”

Director J.J. Abrams might be one of those Disney Overlords in question. He admits he never saw Poe and Finn as more than blood brothers.

“That relationship to me is a far deeper one than a romantic one,” Abrams told CinemaBlend. “It is a deep bond that these two have, not just because of the trial by fire in which they met, but also because of their willingness to be as intimate as they are, as afraid as they, as unsure as they are, and still be bold, and still be daring and brave.”

Despite this, Abrams was very adamant about having LGBTQ inclusion, even if it was only a minute token. During a celebratory scene in the background a lesbian couple can be seen sharing a kiss – that is unless you live in a market that cut it from the theatrical release. Specifically, markets in Singapore and the Middle East cut the kiss from final edits due to local laws preventing displays of homosexuality. Which is ironic, given the reason why Abrams wanted to include it in the first place.

“Part of the whole experience was to see a same-sex couple have a moment together that was explicitly saying in this galaxy, everyone is there and is welcome.” said Abrams.

It is always bitterly ironic whenever debates like this occur for one reason or another in science fiction franchises. Historically, science fiction has been a safe haven for marginalized communities. Whenever communities have to fight to stay in the picture and be represented in the genre’s most mainstream-friendly offerings, it just shows how much further there is to go — even in our own home.

Top Image via Lucasfilm