Zuri

@Mancunian Always happy to share my thought! Yeah, I guess, there'll always be room for all of us. That's part of the fun, isn't it?

What's bad about teaching English? ^^ Thanks 😊 Indie films sound fun Happy weekend to you, too

Glad, you liked it. Never heard about it, honestly. May check it out some time. One of the first queer movies I watched is probably actually Prayers for Bobby.

I always like thinking back at the time when I published previous stories. As long as I don't re-read them, I think of them somewhat highly. When I re-read them … well … I also cringe. When it's about spelling and grammar, I'm open to hints from my readers and like to correct them (spelling and grammar, not necessarily my readers ^^) if I'm not too lazy at that moment. I found that Grammarly is a good help with finding these errors. When it's more about logic or the like, I wouldn't correct that. I think, it can be seen as a measurement of my own development as an author and I should adhere to my own shortcomings.

Title Excerpt Why? Short films BRACE TRIGGER WARNING, Violent and Homophobic content!! After coming out and leaving his girlfriend, Adam dreams of finding acceptance within London's gay scene. His burgeoning freedom is soon challenged when he meets Rocky, a handsome stranger who is harboring a secret that he desperately wants to share with Adam. As their bond strengthens and Rocky prepares to reveal his secret to Adam, their fledgling romance is ruptured by a cataclysmic event that forces the truth to come out in the most explosive manner. When dating, what are we looking at, what are we looking for in a person? What would make us revise our decision? What are obstacles we thought would be huge, but if we think about them, aren’t? This story is about a trans person, but it’s also about re-evaluating our mindset about interpersonal relationships in general. Still me From the filmmakers of 'MASKED', 'Still Me' follows the story of a non-binary teenager (Bailey). After coming to terms with their identity it's time for them to come out at school and navigate what this means for their social life. However, this proves harder than they anticipate and Bailey is faced with a choice between social ridicule or the closet. Luckily, Bailey makes a new friend named Zach. Even though, this story is told from a non-binary perspective, it’s about identity and belonging, so not only non-binary folks should be able to immerse in this story. While sexual orientation gets somewhat accepted in the western world, gender identity is still less talked about and less understood by those, unaffected by it. Feature films Prayers for Bobby Prayers for Bobby is a televised drama film that premiered on the Lifetime network on January 24, 2009. The film is based on the book of the same name by Leroy F. Aarons, which is itself based on the true story of the life and legacy of Bobby Griffith, a gay teen who killed himself in 1983 due to his mother's homophobia. Ryan Kelley stars as Bobby Griffith and Sigourney Weaver portrays his mother Mary. CN suicide NGL, this movie was an emotional roller coaster ride for me. So intense, like almost no other movie I’ve seen. I love, that not everything is fine, but everyone tries to make the best out of the situation—that’s how life is The Matthew Shepard Story The Matthew Shepard Story is a 2002 made-for-television film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, based on the true story of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay youth who was murdered in 1998. The film scenario written by John Wierick and Jacob Krueger, it starred Shane Meier as Matthew and Stockard Channing as Judy Shepard and Sam Waterston as Dennis Shepard. CN Suicide, death sentence Like in Prayers for Bobby, we see the titular character alive in the beginning and form a connection with him. We witness his death, and then we follow along his parent’s grieving process. In this case, Judy and Dennis almost drift apart when it comes to the question if they wish the death sentence for Matthews murderers Web series Falling for Angels The creative diaspora has converged in Southern California to shape the 21st Century in the most dynamic and diverse city in the USA. Gay men of every color and type explore the Los Angeles dating scene, chronicling the various stages of relationships that inhabit each distinct neighborhood and navigating the issues of sexual health, wellness, and sex positivity. Each of the six episodes is located within a neighborhood, focusing on characters authentic to: Boyle Heights, Koreatown, Leimert Park, Silver Lake, Bel-Air, and Malibu. 'Falling For Angels' is both a dynamic reflection of dating and love today and a love letter to the city of Los Angeles. Each episode is a cinematic masterpiece on its own. Storytelling-wise, they tackle topics and don’t shy away to also show uncomfortable sides of it. Artists/music Julian Hornik Julian Hornik is a composer, lyricist, and librettist based in Brooklyn, NY. He wrote the book, music and lyrics for Tenn, a musical based on the early life of Tennessee Williams. His musical Deathbed Edition premiered at Ars Nova’s 2019 ANT Fest. [more …] Queer artist, who writes songs and musicals about queer people, including drag queen Shayna Maidel, Peter Doyle, Tennessee Williams, and many more. Ben J. Pierce/Miss Benny Texas-born, Los Angeles-based independent songwriter and producer Miss Benny is a 20-year old androgynous pop phenomenon with a cult-like following stemming from every pocket of the internet. A self-proclaimed “teenage party favor,” Miss Benny explores the budding sexuality of newfound adulthood through the lens of a young, vibrant queer romantic. Besides creative music videos, also their lyrics are often sociocritical and the music catchy YouTubers Quinn Birkholz/Quinn T. Sensual Self-proclaimed “local birate gender anarchist” who educates about gender, sex (like in “getting laid”) and other LGBT* topics. Calls a spade a spade, videos are well-researched and give an in-depth view on the topic. NOAHFINNCE Noah Finn Adams (born: August 18, 1999 [age 22]), better known as NOAHFINNCE is an English vlogger and musician. Noah is a trans YouTuber who first started his channel with covers. Starting with his transition, he focussed on this journey in his videos for a while, until he released his first album. Continuing with his music career, he also now and then does vlogs on trans topics I'm Gay - Eugene Lee Yang Miss Benny cowboy Eugene comes out as gay in his original, deeply personal music video, featuring music by ODESZA. This music video is 200 % art, astonishing visual storytelling, let alone an important message.

I created my account back in 2015, but I haven't posted in this topic since, so I thought, I change this today. I first learned about GA when @Sammy Blue started posting his story Gemini in a German gay community. @L.J. Buechter told me about Hidden Sunlight, a story by @Stellar who inspired his writing style—one I admire. I have to admit, I forgot about GA for a while, but when that community suffered from fewer and fewer contributions, I thought about alternatives. First, I didn't consider GA an alternative since English is not my mother tongue, and I wasn't sure if I could be good enough for readers to enjoy my scribbling. Users like Mancunian, really encouraged me (thank you!), to continue publishing after the first test chapter of Subconscious Mind I felt so nervous about. Currently, I focus on posting blog entries for reasons outlined in my last status update.

As a guy working in computer science, it's amazing, how much Turing contributed to this: Breaking the enigma code Inventing the Turing Machine, which would later be the bases for the invention of the computer Also working out the basis for AI He was quite ahead of his time. Even in the 90s, his Turing test could not be fully proven, but we're still making progress towards it.

Now, this is a slightly different review because I won't suggest a book or a movie per se, but rather show the strengths and weaknesses of a story by its two adaptations. The plot diverges somewhat by taking different approaches to the topic, but not to an extent to which the overall idea respectively their similarities would become unrecognizable. That being set, let’s dive right into it, shall we? Theme Geography Club—chosen because it's the most boring club possible, so nobody would voluntarily attend—is a cover for a GSA even though, they internally don’t name it as such until later in the story. The novel I think, the downfall of Russel is depicted more severely in the novel, but actually in a very well-made metaphorical way. Russel tells us about the different tables in the school cafeteria and about Brian Bund and how he feels separated from everyone else, just like Kevin does. This abundantly becomes clear when they meet in the pizza place where first try to start a conversation and then to decide on one pizza topping for all of them, and they realize, they are very different after all despite all of them being queer. They feel relieved to be not the only queer kid at school and that there are others that feel similar to how they feel. However, in terms of group dynamics, they have a rough start—some pairings work and some absolutely don’t. One scene in particular, that stood out to me, was their meeting in the cafeteria after they have been only meeting outside of school. In the beginning, they feel out of place with their peers but now, setting with the other queers, makes them feel no less awkward. Other than in the movie adaption, Russel eventually hits rock bottom by alienating all his friends, starting with a vote where he had to decide between Kevin and Min, over being outed to his football friends, and lastly messing it up with Gunnar. Even Min and Terese break up. Russel even ends up sitting with Brian Bund, because he isn’t welcome at any other table anymore. He literally came from hero to zero. But Brian accepts him, even though, Russel had treated Brian pretty poorly. Brian also is a character with a different attitude towards his treatment. He is so used to it, he pretends to not even care about it anymore and has a special kind of humor to cope with it. Brian even teaches Russel, that one should not care what people think. That’s also the first time, Brian is considered a human being by any character. Russel, ending up at the bottom of the food chain, even eating with and talking to Brian might be ironic at first, but is only logical if you think about it: After what he’d done to Brian and him being selfish, letting success turn his head, he had to pay the price and at the same time come to terms with what brought him there as well as finding his way back to being true to himself. Another interesting side plot is Belinda joining the Geography Club: First, she is seen as a threat, then, she makes the Club more diverse by being non-gay (a typical real-life discussion topic at Pride marches), and finally, she reveals to be marginalized, too. That can be seen as the first hint at the later GSA. So the secret queer club turns into a support group for marginalized people. That’s another big topic in the community: Just because one is, for example, gay, it doesn’t mean, that very person isn’t, for instance, transphobic. The message is clear: Queer people are not less invited to look further than their own noses than cis straight folks are. Interestingly, she doesn’t appear in the movie adaption. There, her character gets merged into Brian. The movie The movie adaption however turns it way more into a blackmailing kind of story—remotely similar to Love, Simon. Other than in the novel adaption, here, Min finds out about Kevin and Russel by accident when she watches them kiss each other. I actually like this version better, since even though, Min forces them into joining the Geography Club by blackmailing them, it ironically feels less forced than in the novel where Russel comes up with the idea of meeting in the pizza place because being queer seems to be enough similarities for him—which turns out to be very wrong. The blackmailing comes in handy as a plot device and plays into the theme's hands of the fear to be outed. A character interesting character is Ms. Toles: She doesn’t have much screen time, but I think, she shouldn’t be overlooked. This teacher stands up for modern sex education against Reverend Bowd, but eventually loses this fight by being fired. On one hand, she—besides Brian Bund—serves as an example for the reader and the Geography Club of why the club is so afraid of being outed. On the other hand, even though, it doesn’t work out, Ms. Toles is a shining example of how sex education should be told at school today. She even provoked her dismissal by giving an interview to the school newspaper about her views on sex education, after she already lost her reputation by practicing sex education in a very open-minded way. That makes her a great role model as well as an ally that stands up for what she believes in. In the movie version, she gets her job back in the end and supervises the GSA. If I recall it properly, Kevin is way more considerate in the novel adaption. He makes sure, Russel is fine and even tells him, he should make his own decisions instead of trying to please him. Russel, on the other hand, by doing exactly that, messes everything up just to be with his love interest. Kevin's behavior changes when Russel’s reputation is restored. At that point, we can see, where they really primarily stand after all, what they won’t give up for the world. Other notable changes are: In the movie version, Russel only rejects Brian joining the club; in the novel, however, he outright bullies him to look cool in front of his jock friends. Also, in the movie adaption, the idea to found the GSA comes right after Russel is outed by Kimberly, but instead of Brian making the application to clear Russel’s name, here, Russel has the idea to be out and proud. Therefore, Min isn’t angry at him anymore, which takes a little longer in the novel. While Kevin also joins the club in the novel version, in the movie, Kevin avoids it even after being blackmailed by Min and sends Russel to check the club out. One thing, that is not in the book but in the movie, is that Russel’s parents want him to have a conservative lifestyle including marrying a woman, and he decides against that. Kevin’s parents, on the other hand, would be cool with him being gay, but despite that, he wants a career and is convinced he’d only have it as long as he convinces everybody that he is straight. That’s why Russel breaks up with him after a fight. In the novel, Russel is over it, and they leave as friends. While Russel is relieved, Kevin has a really hard time, including Russel seeing him cry for the first time. Gunnar even breaks up with Kimberly in the movie version. But other than in the novel, he had no clue, Russel was gay. Conclusion So, which one is better? You might be disappointed, but hear me out: Both tackle the topic in their own unique way, and both have a different quality to it. What I like, in both adaptions, Russel is neither an underdog nor a highly polished jock. Oftentimes, one of these tropes is used to fit into stereotypes. He is not even as good-looking as Simon in Love, Simon, but that might just be my perception. And that’s actually a good thing. None of his traits is outstanding, but to Kevin, Russel is beautiful. I really love, that the story keeps us in suspense almost the entire length of the story. Even more, do I love all the metaphors, first and foremost, the cafeteria. On a personal note: Have you read Subconscious Mind? In that story, in drama club, they actually adapt Geography club, which actually also has stage play adaption in real life. Gareth and Chase are even closely inspired by the relationship of Russel and Kevin. What do you prefer: The novel or the movie?

When you get what you want but not what you need Who doesn’t like a happy ending? So good representation is when everyone reacts positively to the characters' coming-outs, they don’t have to look for love for long and live happily ever after, right? Right? That might represent your dreams, but that doesn’t represent reality. What representation means is: Can I identify with it? Have I been there? In return, does that mean, we can’t have a happy ending? Sure, we can. But it has to be well-earned. First, the story has to pick up where we currently are. That might be a dark place, we wish to escape. There might be someone reaching out to us, showing us the way. That way might be rocky. And if we keep a stiff upper lip, we find our happy ending waiting for us. And we can do it. We are not alone. Queer actors/actresses required? We often have these discussions on social media where queer people complain that queer roles are portrayed by non-queer actors and actresses. Of course, we can question this, but what is this all about in the first place? The claim is backed up by the assumption that privileged people don’t know how to play marginalized roles from experience. That’s partly true. Method acting doesn’t require the actor/actress to have experienced the exact same thing. It can be similar things If only one queer and one non-queer actor/actress audition and the non-queer one turns out to be more believable against all odds, why not give them the role? Just because you have experienced something yourself, doesn’t mean you are as good of an actor to play that What is the key to authentic scenes? The actors/actresses? They have their fair share of it, but they are really at the bottom of the food chain. For them to strive, there has to be a good script, a good counselor, and a good director. So it sometimes might be wiser to place that experienced person higher up in the food chain If companies can launder money and air one’s dirty linen in public, why not queerness? There are many alternative versions of that meme, and it has a certain truth to it. Just because somebody hoists the pride flag or tweets “love is love”, doesn’t necessarily mean, they are an ally. There is a difference between “doing every little thing right from the very start” and “showing stereotypes for laughs”. People are allowed to make mistakes, people can learn from them. Not everything needs to be brightly polished. But it might require some research to not repeat falsehoods people were led to believe. Good and bad examples (totally subjective!) Titel Type Rating Opinion Openly straight Novel 👎🏻 Review Center of the world Novel 👎🏻 Review Sex Education Series (Netflix) 👍🏻 Although, not being queer per see, Sex Education has a fresh and direct perspective on sex and relationships. Otis might not always have all the answers, but that doesn’t mean that the show can’t portray diversity. Love, Simon Movie 👍🏻 Some criticize Love, Simon to be mainstream and commercializing queerness. Although, it cannot be entirely denied that it is a bit softened and romanticized, in my opinion, the storytelling is still done very well. What I didn’t like, was the ending. It was too cheesy, too predictable, too unoriginal. Yet, I enjoyed the idea of Simon being blackmailed from a suspense building perspective as well as his father’s reaction to Simon’s coming-out since it was honest and authentic. What are your good/bad examples? Feel free to share them!

I have to admit, that I'm not a huge fan of short stories since they often feel rushed and sometimes fail to respect "show don't tell" because their time is limited. But as @Gary L said in his review, it's technically a very solid story and showcase of the development and the potential of an author 👍

From what I can say, you have. Given the nature of a short story as I described about, I have to check out one of your longer story to dive a bit deeper into your works. I agree 👍 I as an author should have anticipated that red herring but honestly, your distraction did a good job ^^

@Mancunian What you said in your blog about author's development totally applies to you 👍 I have to admit, that I'm not a huge fan of short stories since they often feel rushed and sometimes fail to respect "show don't tell" because their time is limited. But one can see the difference and development between your first story and this one 👍 I think, you have a very similar line in your other story—is it inspired by it? Frankly, I didn't predict that pairing, although I thought, he'd date Gary or Paul.

Well, it's a rule, they teach in German, too. In theory, it's a good rule, to avoid, only making characters "say" something but nothing else. In practice, it's like with many other rules: Find a middle-ground. When it's not important, how somebody said something and you didn't use "said" in the previous line of dialogue, don't bother to use it again as long as it doesn't feel misplaced. Glad to hear, I'm in good company ^^

@Mancunian You express exactly what I'm thinking: Translating a non-fictional text differs for example by having repetitions of phrasings to be consistent and has a formal tone in general. But when writing my first English story, I realized, I had difficulties finding interesting, alterations of repetitive tasks like messaging on the phone. By reading English stories here on GA or English novels in general, I try to absorb more and more ways to express things and improve my word hoard.

Maybe, you'd like to try out DeepL, a translator that uses a different, more modern technological approach to translating that is more inspired by human thought processes. Oh, his English skills are considerably good and because of his similar writing style, he already showcased in another of his stories, he accomplishes it to stay quite true to the original text. Thank you ^^ It's always interesting to get a new perspective on a story—especially culture-wise as you said.

@Mancunian Yeah, privilige is a topic that could fill whole books when talking about it. Almost all of us are priviliged in some way or the other. Unfortunately, some people refuse to realize and accept that even though they are marginalized in one respect, they are privileged in another. That also emphasises the fact that the queer community itself is not as united as it could be. Just because somebody is gay (marginalized), it doesn't mean that he couldn't be transphobic (cis = privileged) for example. I like your opinion that privilege means responsibility 👍🏻

Yeah, when we took over the forum from its previous owner, there was a lot of work to do and it seems, we could have focussed a little more on advertising the new URL so that previous casual vistors and users could find us again. It's the same with @Sammy Blue's Gemini. I enjoyed reading his English version over here. And yes, translating a story is fascinating on its own: It differs surprisingly much from how one would translate a non-fictional text in my opinion. In case of a story, one has to focus more on the meaning than on the word-by-word translation accuracy which makes one dive deep into the story's core and maybe learn this anf that more about the story.

@Stellar Thanks for your reply. I don't mind you hijacking this reply -- I kinda feel honoured. Are we talking about the same friend? The one that translates it into German? The new URL is https://forum.queerpoint.net. Unfortunately, changing the URL and the admins didn't really have a good effect on the community activitywise (yet). But I will sure forward your reply to him. Maybe, some of the stories there get translated to be published over here. Yeah, you really do have your way with words! And so does he. You two are fascinating authors in that respect and fascinating to read therefore.

@Mancunian Wow, I admire your openness with which you share that with us! That really sounds tough. I have the same opinion: Once you have a mental illness, you're stuck with it. That sounds unsatisfying, but, as you say, one can learn to cope with it. Therapy made me able to reflect on myself way better and taught me ways to handle certain situations better. I won't go that far to claim that the mental illness made me a better version of myself, but therapy can.

@MancunianOn a different note: At first, your story reminded me of Subconscious Mind, but it took a very different turn.

I'll definitely check his work out! So he not only inherited his passion for reading on GA but also for writing and publishing to you—awesome 👍

@Mancunian So this story is about your father. As you said: Early published work is not about having the perfect wording, but giving the story a heart that is able to move its readers. I have to admit, that this somehow leaped over into my eyes. Thanks for sharing this intimate moment and your thoughts on this! I especially like your depiction of the funeral: Everybody says they don't want their bereaved to not be sad and wear colorful clothes, but often times, funerals don't seem to end up this way.

So your father was queer, too? It must be awesome to be able to share the reading experience in a community like GA with your family 👍

While strolling downtown, Mark started squabbling with Colin for fun. Eventually I, broke off the fight by repeatedly poking Mark what gave Colin a slight advantage. Later, Mark would note, that I went to bat for Colin conspicuously the whole evening and defended him, which I hadn't noticed. For Mark, that was a reliable sign that he headed in the right direction by trying to matchmake us, and just had to stay on task. ∞ Just as the days before, Colin and I texted in the morning to set

@Mancunian Thanks for sharing your tack—I'll try to fiddle around with the archive a bit this way. I guess, I can sometimes a bit picky and the amount of stories can be overwhelming from time to time, but I really like @Myr's suggestion on your other blog post to create recommendation collections so that users can flip through what like-minded users liked.