Entertainment making you feel represented?

[PozTalkAuthor]

Hi, this discussion is inspired by two topics started here: 

- one about "right vs. left" usual political discussions where I talked about LGBT (wrong?) representation in mainstream entertainment.

- the other about experiences with virgin men from a top's point of view where I shared a little of what happened with my current partner.

 

As an amateur writer I care about what entertainment is and means, so I try to focus on this topic; I don't consider porn though, as that is (or at least should be) like video games: show extreme, surreal situations to trigger sexual excitement. In few words sex education SHOULD NOT be learned through porn or otherwise we might obtain the driving license by studying car-related games rather than taking ordinary schools and exams.

 

So which entertainment (book, tv show, movie, etc) made you feel represented for who you are or for the goals you wanted to achieve in your real life? I am very, very convinced that entertainment plays a relevant role in how our community is seen in this world, together with information but entertaining material helps you, or ruins you, depending on how it's made.

"Queer as folk" was addressed to LGBT+ community and from my point of view it was really well made -covering many points, even controversial but in a quite considerate way; it has the promiscuous, the closeted, serodiscordant and monogamous, even with a kid, it has also included "bug chasing" topic in one episode.

But I am referring to mainstream-addressed material.

For me the best representation has been Artie Russo, a character coming from "cold case" - a crime show focused on unsolved murders.

He was in episode 7 from season 2, called "it's raining men". He involves the police in 2000s to solve his former partner's murder back in 1983. Jeff was HIV+ and died strangled.

The episode covers Jeff's back story, when his father disowned him due to homosexuality, he takes care of Artie while he's hospitalized with AIDS, promising him to do his best to help - Jeff's father owned a medical company involved in new AIDS drugs experiments.

Artie was actually an AIDS survivor and the police discovers that Jeff had been killed by his brother, Paul, closeted gay, who was afraid that Jeff could out him while talking about Artie with their father. He feared to be disowned too.

And the final scene was Artie's wedding, with a song called "when I'm with you" by "Sheriff" as sound track. That song which is now the soundtrack for me and my partner's romantic moments.

Yes seeing two gay men get married in a mainstream-related tv show after having experienced literally hundreds of tragedies, has meant a lot to me helping me to continue believing I still could hope in a long-term relationship with a man. I stopped believing it after having ended the affair with my very first man who fell into substances addiction, I was far from being HIV+ then. 

I have that episode recorded in a DVD and after sharing my experience in virginity-related topic here I have decided to watch it with my current guy to explain why "when I'm with you" has become our song. Seeing those scenes 20 years later made me emotional again.