This Animator Is All the Rage on Twitter for His Insightful Take on a Lack of Gay Characters
An animator who posted an epic rant on Twitter last week concerning animated gay characters has since seen his thoughts go viral. He was commenting on the (ridiculous) argument by some in the industry that a character shouldn’t be made gay “for no reason.”
It’s of course a lame argument whatever the industry (film, TV, comics, etc.), but this animator, @AlexTweeterMan, is a self-professed “animation buff” and the creator of animated web series Team Hyperdrive.
the argument of "characters shouldn't be gay for no reason" is stupid because it implies that a gay person needs to justify themselves, while straight people are allowed to just exist
even if a character being gay doesn't add anything to the plot it shouldn't be a problem— ★ alex ★ (@AlexTweeterMan) November 21, 2018
His thoughts have been met with agreement from other animators and fans of the art form. Some have compared what he’s said to issues of race, while others have chimed in that they have included animated gay characters in their own work.
Here’s what @AlexTweeterMan had to say about the industry’s lack of animated gay characters (edited slightly for clarity):
The argument of “characters shouldn’t be gay for no reason” is stupid because it implies that a gay person needs to justify themselves, while straight people are allowed to just exist. Even if a character being gay doesn’t add anything to the plot it shouldn’t be a problem.
Not to give away a whole lot, but I do have gay characters, and there is a thematic reason for it,
but not every story with gay people has to be like that. Straight people get all kinds of media about them that isn’t about being straight. Why can’t gay people have that, too?
Gonna add to this before i mute this thread: Not every gay character has to be an argument for the existence of gay characters. I sometimes see people say “characters should only be gay if they’re good characters” but I don’t necessarily agree, because straight characters aren’t held to that standard.
When a straight character is bad, people can just say it was a bad character. But when a gay character is bad, suddenly it’s proof that you shouldn’t make characters gay without a reason, and that’s obviously kinda bullshit.
And i’m NOT talking about when a character’s only personality trait is being gay. That’s called tokenism. It’s a different subject.
And another thing: saying “just make your own game/movie/show” is fucking stupid because not everyone has the skills and resources to do that. okay bye.
