I've received a lot of odd youtube recommendations recently, and that's led me to think a bit more about two issues that are kind of overlooked by the general public. the first issue is linked to a video series entitled "old gays...", where 4 older gay guys (in their 60s-70s) do various things like react to photos, dress up in halloween costumes, talk about their lives, etc. i think it's quite wholesome content! two of their videos stood out in particular to me, one where they reacted to photos of their younger selves, and another where they reacted to mean comments left on their other videos. the former reminded me that looks do fade with time, so it's probably more worthwhile to focus on inner beauty; and the latter showed me just how much strength they had, to look past homophobia and ageism. then again, they grew up in a world that was far less accepting, so i guess they had to learn to be strong real fast. i thought it was particularly admirable that they could laugh at themselves, and admit that they were getting old. they didn't sugar-coat it either, as evident from their series name, which didn't use more politically-correct terms like "elderly" or "senior citizen".
more importantly, the videos reminded me that older LGBT people do exist. if i asked you to imagine a generic LGBT person, chances are you'd imagine someone in their teens, twenties, thirties, maybe forties at most. i suppose your own age also plays a factor, in that you'd tend to imagine someone close to your age. but the point is, we don't really hear much about LGBT people past the age of 40 - famous LGBT people aside, that is. so, it's a good reminder that LGBT people don't just fade away or become celibate after the age of 40. personally, i'm lucky to know real-life examples of older gay guys, jedi master and his partner being 2 of them, and i can tap on their experience in this area. i think, as my generation grows older, more community-led initiatives to support older LGBT people will spring up...at least i hope that they will.
next issue is about transgender people, and that was brought about by a recommendation for a video about a trans guy whose basically transitioned as much as possible. he's had surgery done on both his top and bottom regions, and can basically be considered male except for the biological limitation of not being able to produce sperm. but then, some biological males are infertile too, so i don't think that that disqualifies him in the slightest from being male. i've spoken about my stance towards trans people before, so i won't repeat myself. i just find it weird that other cis-gendered people feel the need to antagonize trans people by referring to them by their biological sex. this guy has been really open about his transition, including about the aforementioned surgeries, and i think that he's a great source of information and inspiration to any people who think that they might be trans, as well as people who want to learn more about trans people. incidentally, he looks really good too! i was super impressed to learn that he has a girlfriend, and they are planning to get married soon! i think that they probably would have been married by now, if not for COVID. from what i've learnt watching their videos, it seems that they were best friends first, and had become friends before the guy transitioned (ie. while he was still biologically female). i guess it's an example of a strong relationship starting from a strong friendship, because as if there wasn't enough stigma already just from being/dating a trans person respectively, they're also a mixed-race couple. so i'm quite happy that they're happy.
blogging about youtube and LGBT stuff made me recall one more thing. there was a recommendation for a harley quinn animated series as well. initially, i thought that it was just another remake or something, but after like a few minutes of viewing, it became clear that that wasn't the case. there was uncensored profanity, and i was quite impressed that the writers were willing to write a same-sex relationship between two of the main characters. it's proof that society is progressing, i guess, but there's still a long long way to go on a whole.
think i'll stop here for today. there's still a bit on my mind, like dirty politics, but i think it might be safer to keep those thoughts to myself. i'm still ridiculously surprised that some people are planning to vote the way that they're going to, despite the goings-on and things done by both sides. but then, that's a feature of a democratic voting system...people have the right to vote for whoever they want, regardless of how stupid the choice may be to other people. it appears to be true that people vote based on emotion, not logic. it's amazing how people can seemingly forget everything that's been going on over the past few years after a few campaign rallies. by the way, i have not named any political parties, and depending on your political inclinations, you may read this as either supporting the ruling party or the opposition. i'll leave it to your imagination which one i support.
more importantly, the videos reminded me that older LGBT people do exist. if i asked you to imagine a generic LGBT person, chances are you'd imagine someone in their teens, twenties, thirties, maybe forties at most. i suppose your own age also plays a factor, in that you'd tend to imagine someone close to your age. but the point is, we don't really hear much about LGBT people past the age of 40 - famous LGBT people aside, that is. so, it's a good reminder that LGBT people don't just fade away or become celibate after the age of 40. personally, i'm lucky to know real-life examples of older gay guys, jedi master and his partner being 2 of them, and i can tap on their experience in this area. i think, as my generation grows older, more community-led initiatives to support older LGBT people will spring up...at least i hope that they will.
next issue is about transgender people, and that was brought about by a recommendation for a video about a trans guy whose basically transitioned as much as possible. he's had surgery done on both his top and bottom regions, and can basically be considered male except for the biological limitation of not being able to produce sperm. but then, some biological males are infertile too, so i don't think that that disqualifies him in the slightest from being male. i've spoken about my stance towards trans people before, so i won't repeat myself. i just find it weird that other cis-gendered people feel the need to antagonize trans people by referring to them by their biological sex. this guy has been really open about his transition, including about the aforementioned surgeries, and i think that he's a great source of information and inspiration to any people who think that they might be trans, as well as people who want to learn more about trans people. incidentally, he looks really good too! i was super impressed to learn that he has a girlfriend, and they are planning to get married soon! i think that they probably would have been married by now, if not for COVID. from what i've learnt watching their videos, it seems that they were best friends first, and had become friends before the guy transitioned (ie. while he was still biologically female). i guess it's an example of a strong relationship starting from a strong friendship, because as if there wasn't enough stigma already just from being/dating a trans person respectively, they're also a mixed-race couple. so i'm quite happy that they're happy.
blogging about youtube and LGBT stuff made me recall one more thing. there was a recommendation for a harley quinn animated series as well. initially, i thought that it was just another remake or something, but after like a few minutes of viewing, it became clear that that wasn't the case. there was uncensored profanity, and i was quite impressed that the writers were willing to write a same-sex relationship between two of the main characters. it's proof that society is progressing, i guess, but there's still a long long way to go on a whole.
think i'll stop here for today. there's still a bit on my mind, like dirty politics, but i think it might be safer to keep those thoughts to myself. i'm still ridiculously surprised that some people are planning to vote the way that they're going to, despite the goings-on and things done by both sides. but then, that's a feature of a democratic voting system...people have the right to vote for whoever they want, regardless of how stupid the choice may be to other people. it appears to be true that people vote based on emotion, not logic. it's amazing how people can seemingly forget everything that's been going on over the past few years after a few campaign rallies. by the way, i have not named any political parties, and depending on your political inclinations, you may read this as either supporting the ruling party or the opposition. i'll leave it to your imagination which one i support.
-random thought of the day: Lunch with the chemistry guys on polling day!-
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