Friends, we are right in the middle of Pride Month - a month to honor the LGBTQ community. There are Pride events taking place all over the world this month and PCPH wanted to join in on the celebration. This is not only a time to celebrate but also to learn - to hear the stories and experiences of those in this beautiful community of people. For our conversation, we were excited to welcome Dr Sebastian Barr who writes here on Substack at Weathering the Storm. Dr. Barr is a counselor and therapist with a focus upon the LGBTQIA+ community.
For our conversation, we had a bunch of different categories that we set up for possible pop culture items and we think we came up with the biggest list yet! But before we get into the categories, Sebastian shared this quote from Drew Gregory about transgender representation that needs to be shared and truly heard.
Like many, I learned about transness from film and television. Movies like Ace Ventura and The 40-Year-Old Virgin told me we should be mocked. Movies like Dressed to Kill and The Silence of the Lambs told me we should be feared. Movies like Dallas Buyers Club and The Danish Girl told me we should be pitied. And then, like lightning to the bolts on the side of my head, shows like Transparent and Sense8 told me we could be human.” – Drew Gregory
So the heart of what we shared in our conversation was about that last part… the humanity of LGBTQ+ people..
Some of our categories were:
Start ‘Em Young - What was the first representation of an LGBTQ person in media you remember? (unfortunately most are rather problematic)
For the Joy of It - Just simply letting LGBTQ people live. Nothing special - just the ordinary people they are
God loves gays - where spirituality/faith and queer identity were woven together meaningfully
Worst LGBTQ tropes - what stereotypes or cliched representations simply need to never appear AGAIN?
Favorite representation - What is simply a really good reflection of LGBTQ people
Stories that pushed me - what stories challenged us to further open understandings?
Many of the examples we shared were in multiple categories so here are a few of them that we particularly wanted to lift up:
I Saw the TV Glow - Sebastian had an incredible summary of this powerful film trying to help people understand the experience of being transgender
Semler - Christian LGBTQ musician that Sebastian shared about who will be added to our libraries for sure. (Also, Ed shared about The Many and MaryAnn shared about the song, Testify to Love)
Casper (1995) - Sebastian shared about this film and opened it up for us in a way we had never considered
And there’s SO much more - take a listen!
Our next episode is on June 25 as we center on stories of America at 250 with Marlon Weems!
Thanks for tuning in!
