Collected Contributor TV/Film

Wet, Haught, Canadian Summer: A Pride Month Celebration of Good Queer Canadian Summer TV

(credit for title goes to @geekw_oafandom on twitter. Thanks, darlin’.)

You guys, I am the literal worst. I was flailing on twitter about casual reveal bisexual Sarah Manning for the umpteenth time and my poor beleaguered patient editrex seriously offered to bribe me to do my job and actually write a thing. And I was like “I want to write the thing! I WILL write the thing.” so I am writing the thing.

It’s not news to anyone that it’s been a really really bad year for queer women on TV. Like monumentally awful. But being real it’s never a great time to be a queer character on TV, male or female (us inbetweenies/neithers are basically invisible to begin with), Bury Your Gays has a name for a reason.

So this Pride Month seems like a great time to celebrate Canadian genre TV’s queer, queer summer.

First off a show that my biffle Emmy covers for The Collective, Killjoys, and a fave of mine as well, released a nice lengthy promo for the new season that starts in the US on Syfy July 1st, and we see gay bartender and S1 supporting character Pree playing a MUCH larger role AND fighting alongside our favorite RAC agents. I tweeted show runner and all around goddess Michelle Lovretta in excitement and had this EXCELLENT exchange:

lovretta

How fucking fantastic is that?! Do you know how often effeminate gay men get to be badass heroes on TV? Close to NEVER. So bless ML and bless Pree and, not for the last time in this piece, bless Canada.

Speaking of badass effeminate gay men, how about Fee on Orphan Black as of late? Refusing to let Sarah treat him like a doormat, but ALSO saving Sarah AND Cosima from suicide AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME. Not to mention putting S in her place for the way she acted. This season, as much as I love Tat and all the sestras, the guys of OB are bringing it hard, and that includes Felix getting to really show off his chops.

Also on OB, they seem to be Unburying their Gay right now, with Felix revealing to Cosima that Delphine was last seen ALIVE. Now I’m WAY not a Delphine fan or a Cophine shipper, I outlined my reasons why on here before, but when the battlefield is scattered with my fellow WLW brethren damn not-so-straight I’m going to celebrate every soldier who survived.

AND DUDE, DUUUUUDE. BISEXUAL SARAH MANNING YOU GUYS.

bisarah
The way we found out was heartwrenching, and was a pretty accurate recap of early 20’s self destructive Jay’s lifestyle in case anyone was curious, with Sarah using sex, drugs, booze, and rock n’ roll (YES the reveal did happen while another amazing Canadian export, the queen Peaches, was performing, bless that too) as forms of self-harm and ways to disassociate, which you know, is a pretty shit thing to celebrate, But the reveal itself was SO CASUAL and like “So yeah, Sarah’s bi or whatevs, NBD” that it was glorious. Like it was clear that kissing -this specific woman- was a self destructive act, but at the same time it was just as clear that this was not Sarah’s first lady kissing rodeo. And I think that doing the reveal that way was brilliant and fucking fantastic and just like, it shouldn’t be a big deal. And it wasn’t, but at the same time for me as a pansexual viewer at home, getting another bi/pan/multisexual lead on TV was MASSIVE.

AND we got another AMAZING Canadian lady-kiss too! My fave new show and already top 5 shows EVER Wynonna Earp kiss-consummated the good ship WayHaught! Waverley was so cute and sweet and nervous but also willing to go after what she wanted and CAN WE PLEASE JUST BUILD A SHRINE TO NICOLE FUCKING HAUGHT ALREADY? She was so patient and tender and just to see this sweet, and incredibly real and incredibly human love story develop on my screen has been amazing.

wayhaught
Showrunner Emily Andras has been amazing too. Lady loving lady fans were understandably really fucking scared to get invested in another f/f pairing after the TV season we’ve has, and when Person of Interest killed off Amy Acker’s character Samantha “Root” Groves a lot of fans treated that as the last straw, lashing out in their pain with sarcastic jokes about the Nicole Haught deathwatch. In response, Andras did something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a genre show runner do, she generously spoiled the fate of her characters, assuring fans in an excellent interview with After Ellen that both Nicole and Waverly will survive this season, and if the show gets renewed (it better Syfy, it damn well better) they’ll be there next season navigating their new romance and paranormal baddies right alongside Wynonna.

I’d also be remiss to not celebrate the actual out and proud actors of Canadian summer genre TV as well, Luke McFarlane who plays D’Avin on Killjoys, and the much beloved Zoie Palmer who played Dr Lauren Lewis on Lost Girl and who currently plays The Android on Dark Matter, also returning to Syfy July 1st. It’s really fantastic to see gay actors playing roles beyond “token gay stereotype” which the macho hetero romantic lead and a brainy robot are definitely not.

Now does any of this make up for the staggering number of queer women killed on TV this year? No, not at all. You can’t erase that or the pain that comes along with it. But it’s damn nice to have some good queer TV to celebrate. Happy Pride Month, from myself, and everyone here at The Collective. May your TV be queer, and when it fails you, let there be fic.

About the Author: Jay Jaqobis is sometimes Jessi Bow Spence and frequently just Jessi but also sometimes Jay and will respond to any of the above, and also “Hey, you with the face.” Ze lives in the midwest with a cis dude spouse and the world’s greatest dog and does a mean impression of a housewife while battling agoraphobia and general bouts of ennui. Ze cofounded GenreTVForAll and wrote a chapter on Teenage Girls with Superpowers for the Geekiary’s e-book. Ze likes vegan food, pictures of shih tzus, and long naps. You can find zir on twitter and instagram.