Tag Archives: Glee

Stars United To Honour The Orlando Victims (Video)

In the past weeks, the tragic shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando has weighed heavily on all of our thoughts.

With 49 victims, the hashtag #SayTheirNames has served as a way to memorialise those who lost their lives.

However, now Ryan Murphy (the man behind Glee and American Horror Story) has directed a tribute video for HRC, featuring actors of both shows, along with a host of other A List stars, in a touching tribute to honour the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando.

In the video, 49 celebs wear black and sit against a black backdrop, each one reciting a brief biography of one of the victims.

Lady Gaga, Caitlyn Jenner, Matt Bomer, and Laverne Cox are just a few of the many names who came together to tell these stories. They also use the platform to call for an end to hate crimes and gun violence.

The Wiz Live! Teaser Stars Queen Latifah, Uzo Aduba and More

Twice now, American television network NBC has tried its hand at live Broadway productions. In 2013, the network aired The Sound of Music Live! (starring country music singer Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp) and in 2014 it followed that up with Peter Pan Live! which featured Girls’ actress Allison Williams in the titular role.

The two telecasts brought in over 18.62 and 9.1 million viewers each, giving NBC its highest Thursday night (non-sports) ratings since 2004.

With all of that success, the network was keen to give viewers yet another Broadway experience and so on December 3, NBC will air The Wiz Live!.

The Wiz Live! is based on The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical “Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, which is itself based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel.

However, this particular take on the iconic story is special as it’s actually a “urbanized retelling” of the original plot, done whiten the scope of African-American culture.

As such, The Wiz Live! will feature some of the most well-known African-American performers, singers and actors in its production.

Grammy Award winning actor and musician Queen Latifah stars as The Wiz, Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black) plays Glinda the Good Witch, Elijah Kelley (Hairspray) plays the Scarecrow, nine-time Grammy Award winner Mary J. Blige is Evillene, Common (who is also a Grammy winner) plays the Bouncer, Amber Riley (Glee) is in as Addaperle, while Ne-Yo and David Alan Grier are in as Tin Man and The Lion (respectively).

Also, Dorothy is being played by newcomer Shanice Williams, while Stephanie Mills (who played Dorothy in the original Broadway cast) is in the show as Auntie Em.

Despite The Wiz Live! being a three hour live telecast where anything and everything could potentially go wrong, those names are all experienced and talented enough to b able to pull it off without a hitch.

It’s also worth noting that the Emmy-nominated duo of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will be executively producing The Wiz Live! (they also produced The Sound of Music and Peter Pan’s live telecasts) and the Cirque Du Soleil team is also on board so this could really be a rather special night of entertainment.

The Wiz Live! airs on December 3 at 8PM EST on NBC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzPnU6NtCHQ

Bi Erasure In Television Perfectly Summed Up In These Wonderful Memes

Are you tired of the straight-as-default trend in most media today? Are you tired of all queer subtext being read as gay or lesbian, but never bisexual? Then you are not alone.

Author and activist Nicole Kristal’s memes about bisexual TV characters hilariously point out, not a single one has used the word “bisexual” on screen.

Talking to Bustle, Kristal explained.

Labels are important because they create visibility and community, and they help dissolve shame.When you’re a minority group who cannot see a positive representation of yourself on television or in films, it’s damaging. It accounts for the horrific stats that have recently come out about bisexuals.”

In an effort to draw attention to bisexual erasure and its effect on individuals, Kristal created the #StillBisexual campaign last January, which features bisexuals discussing their sexuality and dating history in confessional-style videos.

I thought if people could see our bisexual stories, they would finally start to believe that we exist.

When bisexuality is depicted on television, it’s often shown as a transitional stop on the road to gay town …or as ambiguous and undefined. Characters almost never say the b word, especially not in reference to themselves, and often times their sexuality is used as a plot twist rather than a permanent identity.”

As a result, Kristal created memes featuring frustrated TV characters…

Dianna Agron And Paz de la Huerta Sizzle in Trailer for New Queer Feature Bare

Get ready for Bare, Dianna Agron’s queer drama about a young woman living in Nevada, who becomes romantically involved with a female drifter played by Paz de La Huerta.

In this first trailer, we get a pretty extensive look at the start of the relationship between these two as Dianna’s character must make the choice between a life she’s used to and the thrills of drugs, sex, and stripping.

The film, is written, produced and developed by Purple Milk aka Natalia Leite and out producer Alexandra Roxo, two independent filmmaker from Brooklyn. Together they have worked on documentaries, like the upcoming Serrano Shoots Cuba, and the web series Be Here Nowish (which you can watch on KitschMix.tv), which they wrote and also starred in.

Natalia Leite said about the film,

It’s kind of an add romance in that they’re like oil and water. They’re such different characters in the story but they fall for each other and sort of change each other’s lives. Alexandra and I pulled together the financing, found another producer to start collaborating with, a local New Mexico producer, Chad Burris, because we knew we wanted to shoot there, in a small desert town.”

Check out the trailer right here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8p5RhFZTm0

Dianna Agron Discusses Her Three Queer Roles

Dianna Agron is perhaps best known for her role as Quinn Fabray in the hit FOX TV show, Glee.

Quinn certainly faced some hardships as the series went on, including a teen pregnancy storyline and the time a car accident left her temporarily paralysed, but one of her high points include the time she slept with (lesbian character) Santana Lopez; twice.

And although her not-so-platonic relationship with Santana wasn’t given much screen time, Agron’s portrayal of the character made her a favourite in the hearts of many queer viewers.

Following her portrayal of Quinn, Agron has gone on to star in two more queer pieces of media.

One of these is the Hollow In The Land, a film about a “tomboyish lesbian” who goes to work at a pulp mill. Her character has already had to deal with her father’s imprisonment for murder and a year later, her brother goes missing, and so she on a quest to find him.

And then there’s Bare, in which the actor plays a woman called Sarah Barton.

In Bare, Sarah meets and falls for an older woman (played by Paz de la Huerta from Boardwalk Empire) and soon she is coaxed into a wild world, that involves drugs and getting a job at a “truck stop strip club”.

These roles are all massively different and in an interview with PopSugar, the actor has shed more light on the different ‘looks’ of each of them. Of Quinn, Agron says that “she was all about the lash. Loved a lash, loved an eyeliner, and mascara.”

Of her role in Hollow In The Land, however, the actor explains that

it’s not dissimilar to my own life, but it’s not similar to my own life — its just finding a balance” and that as an actor “you can draw on experiences that you’ve had, but then at the same time you can turn it into something that is so different than anything you’ve ever experienced”.

As for Bare, in which Agron has her first on-screen nude scene, the actor reveals that she did “nothing” to prepare for it:

I was very communicative with our director. I knew they didn’t want to film anything in a gratuitous way, everything was going to be very art house — in and out of focus. I was very comfortable with all of that.”

Bare was released in April, 2015. Hollow In The Land does not yet have a release date.

Dianna Agron Lands Another Lesbian Role in ‘Hollow In The Land’

According to Deadline Reports, the actress has landed a lead role in Hollow In The Land, an indie drama from writer-director Scooter Corkle.

She will paly Alison, a tomboyish lesbian who works at a pulp mill. A year after her father was put away for murder, she’s in a troubled state, but her troubles get worse when her brother goes missing. She sets out to find him.

Agron recently featured in the queer movie Bare.

Bare tells the story of a young girl called Sarah Barton (Agron), living in Nevada, who becomes romantically involved with a female drifter played by Paz de La Huerta.

From there, she is introduces to a life of stripping, drugs, and metaphysical experiences that teach her what happens when real life catches up with dark fantasy.

The film, is written, produced and developed by Purple Milk aka Natalia Leite and out producer Alexandra Roxo.

Why Gay Fans Shouldn’t Accept Queerbaiting In TV Shows

Queerbaiting (verb): to deceive or trick the audience of a form of media (e.g film or television) into thinking that a character identifies as non-heterosexual. Often done by networks in an attempt to raise viewership numbers.

Even if you didn’t have a definition for queerbaiting until now, you were certainly exposed to it. Case in point: Glee with Brittany and Santana (in season one), Glee again with Quinn and Rachel, John and Sherlock in BBC’s Sherlock, MTV’s Teen Wolf, Rizzoli & Isles, Once Upon a Time, and Skins (Gen 3).

Once Upon a Time - Swan Queen Art Work

All of these shows are guilty of it; the production teams behind them have purposefully injected faux queer content into their shows so that queer folk pay attention and begin to support the show.

They dangle a queer carrot in front of us like a rabbit that’s not eaten for a week and then, because we’re a fickle bunch, starved for canon queer content, we often hoover up these scraps and run with them.

Furthermore, not only do we tune in and watch the shows that do this but we’re also incredibly vocal about them on platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and YouTube.

With a tuned in queer audience, not only are the networks getting extra viewership but queer fans getting their queer friends to tune into the show too and the TV networks are managing to do this without actually including any real queer content at all.

You see, the beauty of queerbaiting is that it can be explained away, or, in some particular egregious cases, it can just be left alone and forgotten about. A good example is Glee, which I’ve mentioned.

In the first season, there was a throwaway line by Brittany that her and Santana had slept together. Back in those days Brittana didn’t get very many lines and so it wasn’t until season two that the show really elaborated on it – after fans had expressed their vocal support for the pairing.

Glee - Brittana

Meanwhile, Quinn and Rachel were also extraordinarily close (despite the show pitting them against each other), something shown in season one where Quinn draws a not-so-nice picture of Rachel in her notebook and yet she doodles hearts around it.

Glee was keen to have them face off, though, despite the times that they comforted each other (e.g when Rachel called Quinn the prettiest girl she’d ever met), and it allowed the show to dismiss their relationship as a budding friendship, despite the hints of something more.

But you know and I know that this sort of thing is classic queerbaiting, and shows like Glee should be ashamed.

Are we right to put up with this sort of behaviour from TV creators? In our defence we don’t have a lot of representation so perhaps queerbaiting, even in its weakest form, is a good thing? One clued in TV viewer I spoke to (who we’ll call J, for privacy), disagreed with this idea:

“Just because it’s representation, it doesn’t mean that it’s good representation; LGBTQ people deserve good representation like everyone else. I understand that the intentions are often good, but for me, it’s not good enough.

I don’t want to say that if you’re not going to have good representation (preferably written or influenced by actual queer people) don’t bother at all, but queerbaiting is still unfair.”

When considering a stance on queerbaiting, we should also consider the other nefarious side of the business, along with the outcomes of it.

Queerbaiting doesn’t just pull queer viewers in, but it also satisfies heterosexual ones too. By having viewers ask ‘are they or aren’t they’ and then eventually revealing that no, the character isn’t even the slightest bit questioning, it helps to pander to an audience that would be uncomfortable if the character was anything other than incredibly heterosexual* (*with close gal pals or bromances only).

Rizzoli & Isles

On the one hand, this robs real queer people of a chance to see their stories presented on TV but it also tells people that it’s far easier for a character to not be queer. When you skirt around the issue of someone’s sexuality, it suggests that there’s something wrong to be skirted around. And that’s not fair at all.

Essentially, if the queerness isn’t canon, don’t accept it. It’s fine to ask and campaign for it but watching a show specifically for queerness that will most likely never happen in the future means that the queerbaiting production teams have won. If they don’t respect our identities then they don’t deserve our patronage and really, it’s as simple as that.

Jane Lynch Is Getting Her Own TV Show

Glee is not over yet, but Jane Lynch has already booked her next role.

She has been given her own show, and will be is taking her cutthroat-Sue-Sylvester act in a different direction; playing a sarcastic guardian angel in a new CBS comedy pilot called Angel From Hell.

In the half-hour show — written and executive produced by Scrubs and Spin City’s Tad Quill — the Emmy-winning Lynch plays Amy, guardian angel to Allison, who can’t tell if this she is an actual angel or a deranged life coach who eats intensity for lunch.

More: Sneak Peek: Watch Behind The Scenes of Glee’s Santana and Brittany’s Wedding

Given her previous comedic counselling roles – therefore have been more than one – Lynch should have lots of fun playing both good cop and bad cop in Angel from Hell.

Lynch has won two Emmys, one for her co-starring role on Fox’s Glee and one for hosting NBC’s Hollywood Game Night. She has a long-standing relationship with CBS, stemming from her recurring role on Two and a Half Men where she did 14 episodes over a period of 10 years.

Sneak Peek: Watch Behind The Scenes of Glee’s Santana and Brittany’s Wedding

ETonline has released exclusive footage of the gorgeous location and reception of Santana and Brittany’s wedding, plus, a look at all of the special guest stars who have also been invited to attend and sing.

More: Spoiler Alert | Here Come The Brides – First Look At Glee’s Brittana Wedding (Tissues Ready)

Santana’s mom (Gloria Estefan) will be supporting her daughter, and Brittany’s awesome parents (played by Jennifer Coolidge and Ken Jeong), will also be there. And for the first time, fans will finally get to meet Blaine’s (Darren Criss) mum, played by the hot-hot-hot Gina Gershon.

Spoiler Alert | Here Come The Brides – First Look At Glee’s Brittana Wedding (Tissues Ready)

Wedding bells are ringing on Glee and spoiler alert: there’s a pantsuit involved. Glee has released these teasing pictures from the much anticipated Brittany and Santana’s wedding episode, A Wedding.

We have all been getting very excited about the event, since Santana (Naya Rivera) and Brittany (Heather Morris) got engaged on Glee a few week ago, and the new episode looks to be very pleasing.

A Wedding will air on February 20th.

So Did Naya Rivera Come Out As Bisexual or Not?

If you spent any amount of time in Glee’s bubble of rabid Tumblr fans circa 2011 then you would have been treated to plenty of speculation about Naya Rivera’s sexuality. It has often been suggested that the actress, who plays lesbian Santana Lopez on the cult TV series, isn’t just a straight ally but is a member of the queer community herself.

There were once suggestions that she was secretly dating her Glee co-star Heather Morris (who plays Santana’s fiancée Brittany). While it may have been a case of overexcited fans with overzealous imaginations, they were backed up by Naya’s own Facebook posts that hinted that they were together, the famous kiss from the Glee tour and the fact that the two actresses just look adorable together.

But after those rumours fizzled out and Naya dated men – including rapper Big Sean and her recent marriage to actor Ryan Dorsey – could Naya have been queer after all? During a recent appearance on daytime talk show The View, the Glee actress possibly came out as bisexual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw9wLDfcn8E

On the episode of The View that aired on the 14th of January, out, gay presenter Rosie O’Donnell explained that “new research found that women who are bisexual are more likely to suffer mental health problems than lesbians”. To which Naya replied “No wonder, Rosie! No wonder I’m crazy, this just solves it all”.

While it could have been a case of Naya just wanting to chime in with her two cents on the state of female mental health, the fact that Naya pointed out her own mental health issues after the study (and Rosie’s words) directly referred to the mental health problems of bisexual women seems to suggest that Naya herself is bisexual.

Cynics have suggested that it may just be a ploy from the actress to drum up attention. During another appearance on The View Naya also made the outlandish claim that “ethnics” do not shower as often as white people, comparing her own shower habits to her husband’s, saying that she only showers a few times a week but he showers several times a day.

Of course she may have just accidentally put her foot in it (she has since apologised and explained that her comments were a joke) but as it got so many people talking about her in the last week, many people believe that she is just doing it for attention.

Attention seeking or not, many Glee fans are positively giddy at the prospect that the actress behind one of their favourite queer TV ladies may be queer in real life too. There hasn’t been a confirmation or a denial from Naya or her representatives just yet though, but we’ll keep you posted.

Our First TV ‘Awww’ Moment of 2015 as Glee’s Brittany and Santana Get Engaged

Once hailed as a bastion of queer television characters for the way that Kurt Hummel was unapologetic in his sexuality in a time where few shows put LGBT characters as the leads, Glee was actually notorious for treating its queer female characters poorly.

For example, Brittany and Santana (also known as Brittana) came about because of a throwaway line about the two girls sleeping together in season one and it was pressure from fans that forced Glee to make them an official item in season two.

Then, there was the fact that Brittany and Santana didn’t get to kiss until season three, by which time couples like Kurt and Blaine, and Finn and Rachel had kissed each other plenty.

In contrast, during Glee’s famous body swap episode actors Kevin McHale and Amber Riley got to kiss each other (their characters had body swapped with Brittany and Santana), while Brittany and Santana (as played by two women) didn’t get to kiss for some episodes later.

Furthermore, there have been throwaway lines about lesbians not wanting to date bisexual women, a poorly handled Brittana break up (when Santana couldn’t do a long distance relationship) and dialogue that ridiculed Glee’s queer female fandom.

But as the show enters its sixth and final season, could the musical dramedy finally be ready to make amends? It appears so, as season six of Glee looks to be a bit of a throwback to all of the characters and relationships we loved long ago.

Puck and Quinn are back together, Kurt is still pining after Blaine (despite Blaine dating Karofsky), and Brittany and Santana are loved up and singing adorable duets in the school’s choir room as though they didn’t graduate ages ago.

Following their latest mashup of Alanis Morissette’s “Hand In My Pocket” and Carole King’s “I Feel The Earth Move” it all gets a bit emotional. Santana gets down on one knee and proposes.

After an earlier scene in the episode where Brittany tells Santana that “I will love you until infinity,” and the two make plans to live in New York together, Santana proposes simply to which Brittany says yes.

However, will Glee make good on its same-sex marriage promises? Although Brittany and Santana are a bit young to be getting engaged, Santana’s not fussed and she proceeds to keep Kurt an ear lashing when he brings up this very point.

Furthermore, back in November Naya Rivera who plays Santana on the show shared this cheeky snap of a veil on Instagram, suggesting that not only is Glee quite ahead with their filming but that we will most definitely be seeing Santana in a wedding dress by the end of the season.

We’ll keep you posted once we have more on the upcoming nuptials.

Coach Shannon Beiste Shares His Decision to Transition in Glee’s New in Groundbreaking Storyline

Fox’s Glee has been no stranger to LGB storylines, and but in a new episode they look to finally cover the T.

In a new episode, viewers of the series learned William McKinley High School’s football coach Shannon Beiste, played by three-time Emmy nominee Dot Marie Jones, is transitioning from female to male.

The football coach shared with school principal Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) and assistant football coach Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) that he has gender dysphoria – the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe people who identify as transgender.

In a moving monologue, Beiste explained that her transition wasn’t about who she wanted to go to bed with but who she wanted to go to bed as. She then explained that she’d be having surgery to remove her breasts and begin taking testosterone as Glee kicked off a story that will see her character over the course of the season see Shannon become Sheldon.

“I’ve felt like this my whole life. Growing up I was really confused – I thought I was just a tomboy. No matter what I did, I never felt at home in my own skin. I never felt like my body matched who I was in the inside. I’ve got to do this for my own peace of mind, I’ve got to get my body in alignment with how I see myself.”

Sylvester, naturally, gets a few zingers in: ‘When you think about it, it’s not that big of a stretch.’

But even the normally heartless Sylvester shows she has a heart when she tells Beiste that his job will be waiting for her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aq-lQKj45I

Jane Lynch Discusses Glee and Gay Divorce

In a conversation with HuffPost Live’s Alyona Minkovski, Jane Lynch discusses the season final of Glee, her character Sue and her divorce.

“With Gay Marriage Is Going To Come Gay Divorce”

Jane Lynch

Jane Lynch doesn’t have much to say about the implications of her divorce from Lara Embry last October, but when pushed she says she felt pressure to maintain a certain family unity as a famous, gay, married woman.

“I mean, with gay marriage is going to come gay divorce. It’s just how it goes. Where’s my parade?”

Jane Lynch

Lynch previously insisted that her divorce was ‘not a horrible thing’ and friends explained the actress wanted to stay friends with Lara for the sake of her former spouse’s 10-year-old daughter, Haden.

“It’s not dramatic. It’s not a horrible thing. It’s something that we’re dealing with. It’s two people who just decided it’s better to go apart than stay together.”

Jane Lynch

Fall TV Makes Progress With Lesbian Characters – But There’s Still a Long Way to Go

On the path of gay rights and acceptance, the way that the media portrays the lives of gay is massively important. No, not just in the way they talk of Bill and David’s whirlwind marriage following the repeal of DOMA or Kathy and Sue’s adoption of a child following a court ruling but in the fictional stories too.

For those who don’t know any gay people, televisions shows and movies can help normalise the non-heterosexual relationships that really exist. It eliminates the idea of the rainbow wearing bogeyman (or woman) hiding (both literally and figuratively) in a closet.

But getting to a point where the media is fair with its portrayal isn’t always easy. We’re moving forward but playing the turtle’s game against a heteronormative hare doesn’t help conjure favourable opinion towards gay people in the short term.

As noted by GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis,

“Television networks are playing a key role in promoting cultural understanding of LGBT lives around the world, and are now producing some of the best LGBT-inclusive programming we’ve yet seen.”

Thankfully, the latest GLAAD ‘Where We Are On TV’ report for the 2014 to 2015 season (including shows scheduled to air in the Summer of 2015) show a swathe of new lesbian faces for queer women to identify with.

These include Renee Montoya on Gotham, Renee’s love interest Barbara Kean and the lesbian doctor responsible for the main mix-up at the centre of Jane the Virgin’s story. When we add all of the newcomers to those that already existed we have 74 queer women (bisexual and lesbian) of all races depicted across cable and broadcast networks.

However, although the numbers are strong (if you can call less than 10% of all characters being LGBT ‘strong’, anyway) we are faced with many challenges about representation.

Also according to GLAAD’s statistics, on both cable and broadcast, the figures of queer woman hovered just above 40%, with most queer characters being men. In total this leads to a difference of over two dozen queer men in comparison to the total of queer women. Whilst many could argue that queer representation for all genders is a plus point, a lack of real equality can lead to inherent problems.

Glee in particular comes to mind as although it has a reasonable amount of white, gay males (the show’s creator is also a white, gay male it’s worth nothing) it has gone as far as to ridicule, mock and make fun of female queerness and antagonise the fans of said characters.

Meanwhile, despite Modern Family being very proud of its two gay leads (married male couple Cam and Mitch) when it featured a lesbian couple, they were incredibly stereotypical in their portrayal which is perhaps not offensive but is definitely enough to roll your eyes.

Not only this but the portrayal of queer women on our TV suffer from the same plague of ‘mostly white characters’ that the roster of heterosexual characters do. While it’s difficult to get a break down of queer women only, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that with 117 white LGBT characters out of 170 LGBT characters, there aren’t going to be a whole lot of queer women included.

Hollywood is racist from the ground up – the practice of whitewashing and the stereotypes they promote can tell us that much – but the TV side of the industry needs to embrace and overcome its problematic past.

One the one hand showing queer faces of colour can have a massive impact as it shows people that yes, people of all races can be gay not just the effeminate white man down the street, leading them to be more accepting. While on the other, with people of colour watching more TV than white people it just makes better business sense for Hollywood – y’know, if they aren’t particularly interested in the legacy and the messages that their media leaves behind.

But with this all said, it should be praised that we’re seeing new types of stories, even if we need the demographics to change a little. We have queer parents, we have bisexual women who aren’t just a sweeps week ploy and there are queer people of all sorts of professions and backgrounds too.

Ultimately there’s a long way to go until we can be truly satisfied but we’re slowly and surely getting there, at least.

Out TV Star Jane Lynch Picks up a Second #Emmy

Out TV star Jane Lynch has picked up a second Emmy award hosting NBC’s Hollywood Game Night. Best known for her role as Sue Sylvester on Glee, Lynch won the Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program award, for celebrity gameshow Hollywood Game Night.

At last Saturday night’s Creative Arts Emmy awards, she paid tribute to the show’s executive producer – Sean Hayes, who played Jack on Will & Grace, she said:

“Thank you for taking your crazy party and pitching it to NBC… thank you NBC for taking the bait. I hope we’ll do more. I’m tickled pink, actually.” Jane Lynch

Congrats to @janemarielynch for winning an Emmy tonight for Outstanding Host for @NBCGameNight. We love u Jane! pic.twitter.com/2nbEzJ6A8H

— Sean Hayes (@theseanhayes) August 17, 2014

Lynch won her first Emmy – for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – in 2010 for her Glee role, and hosted the awards ceremony in 2011.

Also at the awards, actress Uzo Aduba picked up an Emmy for playing lesbian Orange is the New Black character Suzanne Warren, known as Crazy Eyes. She beat out transgender co-star Laverne Cox to take home the award, presented to her by actor Morgan Freeman.

Thx nieceeeee!!RT @Meg_Doyle: SOMEBODY won another Emmy & that somebody is my auntie @janemarielynch !!!! pic.twitter.com/Jx2lMUJhTp

— Jane Lynch (@janemarielynch) August 17, 2014

Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean – Jane Lynch’s New Childrens Book

Glee star Jane Lynch takes a look at bullying head-on in her first picture book titled ‘Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean.’

In the story, Marlene is the self-appointed queen of the playground, the sidewalk, and the school. She is small but mighty . . . intimidating! Known for her cruel ways, the little Queen of Mean has kids cowering in fear-until big Freddy stands up to her and says what everyone has been too fearful to say.

In Seussian rhyme, actress Jane Lynch, clinical psychologist Lara Embry, and former children’s book editor A. E. Mikesell gently and comically depict the undoing of a bully and her efforts to reform. Tricia Tusa’s charming illustrations make the story an even more accessible conversation starter for all ages.

The book will be available on September 23, 2014.

What Does Glee’s Final Season Mean for LGBT Characters on TV?

Flashback to early 2009 and you’d be met with a time before Lady Gaga covers by Broadway stalwarts were the pinnacle of the weekday TV line-up and before cheesy renditions of every middle-aged white American father’s favourite song, Don’t Stop Believing’, was used as the only means of justifying a character’s progression.

But then Summer 2009 rolled around and brought the pilot episode of Glee with it, hitting TV viewers with the force of a ton of bricks with all of the subtlety of those aforementioned building blocks dressed in a sequinned leotard performing a Madonna song because damn, Glee really can’t get enough of its blonde, Italian female pop icons.

Over the course of the instantly ordered 12 episodes that followed (television network FOX deeming the initial episode’s popularity that strong) Glee introduced a canon gay man and some only slightly trophy lesbian subtext so with an army strong fanbase being built up over the remainder of the season, the face of television would never be the same again.

Then season 2 of Glee crept in, still with the same lack of subtlety and still with the emotional force that would rip your heart to shreds like a lover with a vengeance before singing it back together with equally as painful (yet beautiful) covers of songs that fit the situation just right (look to season 2’s ‘Rumors’ episode – specifically the scene where Santana serenades Brittany with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Songbird’ – for both).

Then over the course of that season and the ones that have thus far followed it brought with it a confusing collection of behaviours that were as far from the progressive attitude that it had helped usher in as Glee’s setting of Lima, Ohio are from the Hollywood lot in which Glee is filmed.

A really brief amount of example scenes are; a scene suggested that the struggles of a disabled female teen mom were any less valid than white, able bodied gay man, any scene that involved ‘Finchel’ the emotionally abusive coupling of Finn and Rachel, a scene where Finn actually drags Quinn (the aforementioned disabled teen) out of her wheelchair to prove a point.

Every scene in which Brittany and Santana were denied an on-screen kiss (they had to wait three entire seasons) and one key moment where fans of Brittany and Santana were ridiculed using in character dialogue. Did any of those things fill viewers with the titular glee? I should hope not.

In truth, Glee is a show that viewers have been waiting to get cancelled. With Ryan Murphy’s singing and dancing brainchild haemorrhaging viewers from the end of season 2, failing to stop the rot thanks to its reliance of both casual and overt racism, sexism, lesbiphobia and transphobia to boot, the stats show that too.

To answer the question I posed in the headline: that may as well have been rhetoric, because frankly, it really doesn’t matter. Yes, we’ll see an arbitrary numbers drop in the amount of LGBT characters because of those that Glee had offered us but the gaps will be filled by other, much better shows (see: The Fosters, Pretty Little Liars, Lost Girl, Orange is the New Black etc.) that take more care with presenting queer identities.

What Glee eventually became leading up to its sixth and final season was never like the incredibly progressive bubble that society tells us that we’re in and much like the ‘modern and accepting’ year of 2014, what we actually got was a progressive veneer and a promise that the world loves non-white, able-bodied, non-heterosexual identities when the prejudice still festers – itchy and infected – under the surface.

We shouldn’t have to settle for drive-through burgers of grease and gristle when the progressive prime steak is always going to be better; not now and not ever. So to answer my own question once again; I don’t care. Just give me something else to add to the pile of TV shows that delight me more than Glee ever did because God-knows this showtune hardened writer could use them.

“Glee” star Jane Lynch Discusses Her Early Struggles With Being Gay

Jane Lynch has spoken to Huffington Post about her early struggles with sexuality, expressing that at the time, being gay “felt like a disease” in her early teen years.

“I was in the closet for so long and it tortured me. I thought I was the only [gay] person in the world. It wasn’t a fun thing.”

Jane Lynch

Now, the actress says she’s proud of the impact that “Glee” has had in terms of opening doors for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teen community, even if the show’s immense success came as a bit of a surprise to her and the rest of the cast.

“I’m glad that this show and the fact that I’m out and open about it will perhaps ease the hearts and minds of some kids where it’s not so easy… They think it’s legitimizing a lifestyle that leads to ruin and tears at the fabric of society, and I think that we’re finding that’s just hogwash.”

Jane Lynch