Lexa's legacy

Representation Is Important

Just like straight people, lgbt+ people need characters they can relate to and identify with.
Sadly, there are not a lot of lgbt+ characters and if there are, they're mostly just side characters.
This problem is currently getting better but it's not what the lgbt community deserves yet.
We need representation to feel understood and supported.
And not only the older part of the community but also the younger children.
There are kids that realize that something's "different" about them at a very young age. Those kids need someone to tell them that it's okay and perfectly normal and that they don't need to be afraid or ashamed.
This way, other kids could learn that it's okay, too and they wouldn't grow up being disrespectful or mean and wouldn't make fun of children that are a little different.

We are all individuals, everyone's different and there's something about every person that makes them unique.
That's why bullying or ignorance are so terrible and unnecessary; it simply doesn't make sense to disrespect someone just because they're not like you.
It's just that simple: there are many different people in the world and we're not all the same person.

By respecting other sexualities, at least homophobia could stop.
I think that homophobia mostly exists because people don't know about this topic since no one's ever taught them.
They didn't learn that being gay isn't wrong or that women are allowed to love other women the way men do and the other way round.
Why? Because no one talks about it.
You don't learn anything about it at school and that's supposed to be the place you get prepared for life.
It's the place you learn to respect other people. You learn about different ethnicities or religions and that's so important but learning something about sexualities is too.

You don't often hear about the topic in the media either. In June, everybody's suddenly super obsessed with it because it's pride month and they use it for ads and for their business.
But then July starts and they don't care anymore.
Fortunately, there are some brands that support equality, like e.g. Maybelline.
But everyone should support it.
It's so important to show people that you're there for them, you accept and support them and that they're valid.
Because they are.

You are valid.

If schools don't teach about the lgbt+ community, then at least the media should so that young and old people can learn to accept others.
The older generations didn't learn that when they were young because a couple of years ago, representation was even worse. So they grew up thinking being gay is different and not normal. Why does no one teach them now?
So that's the point: we have to talk about it. We need enlightenment.

There are so many situations I realize how bad the education in this topic is. People ask questions as if they've never heard of any other sexuality than heterosexuality.
And you can't blame them because so often it's not their fault. I really hope representation will change in the future.
I get asked questions like "do bisexual people find girls amd boys attractive at the same time?" or "do gay people find themselves attractive?". And those questions are not stupid or anything like that, it's actually sad that people know so little about it.

Of course not every homophobic person is like that because they've never been taught about it, since you can easily learn that anything that distinguishes you from the others doesn't make you a worse or less valued person by yourself, it's not that hard to understand. People often use other things as an excuse for their homophobia but there's no excuse.

Homophobia is a choice and even if it's not your fault at first, you should at least be willing to learn something about it and understand the others.

Some persons simply don't accept lgbt+ people just because they're different and honestly it's extremely hard to change their mind. Some will always be disrespectful towards others but not all of them are like that. But others can still be changed and we need to try everything we can to make them believe in equality.

Sexuality isn't a choice. Straight people never chose to be straight, right?
So why does it matter if I am with a boy or a girl?
Why would men be allowed to kiss girls but not girls?
It's love, no matter what, and everyone needs to understand that.
If you let someone choose another person only by their character, without knowing whether they're females or males, would they really be able to distinguish the gender through characteristics? They would make assumptions but they wouldn't know if they're right. In the end they would just choose the person with the best character, if it was a dating thing, maybe they'd even fall in love.
No one would worry about the gender in a situation like that. Of course you'd be wondering. Of course you'd want the gender you find attractive but what if you fall in love with a character and not a man or woman?
Would it really be so terrible if it was someone of the same gender?
Maybe you wouldn't end up being together after finding out but you'd at least know that love means falling for another person's character, seeking for specific things in another person and finding them.
Love is not about choosing a gender because love has no gender.
I wish there were social experiments like that, that teach homophobic people that they could've been a part of the lgbt+ community themselves.

Nowadays, as the media has such an important role in our lives and we get most information through media, we need to start spreading a message there.
We need representation in media and schools, the two places for news, information and life advice.

The 100 actually has a great lgbt+ representation in general. There are many great gay characters, the main character is bi (and she's the first bisexual main character of a TV show, just to mention that) and all of them are strong and fierce characters. Sexuality is not a big deal there either, no one asks who you're in love with, the only thing that matters is that you're in love.
No coming-outs, no homophobia, nothing.
That's the way it should be.
However, The 100 does have some issues with the way thay deal with the lives of their lgbt characters.
Costia was killed because the Ice Nation thought she knew Lexa's secrets. Niylah got beaten up after kissing Clarke. Lexa died because of a stray bullet. Bryan just disappeared. Clarke loses every person she loves and her friends are mad at her because she chose her child over them. Miller and Jackson have very little screentime.
That's something that should be a lot better. The way shows treat their lgbt+ characters often is very unfair.
The "bury your gays trope" includes them all: all of the lgbt characters that died in the history of television. Yes, there are so many dead lgbt characters that there's a trope with the name "bury your gays"
I don't think I need to say anything else about this.
If you google this trope, most articles were written in 2016 and talk about Lexa in any part. Lexa really changed a lot because of the fan's rebellion and the Lexa pledge that was founded for a better lgbt representation.
It is better today. There are more lgbt characters and they get treated better and I'm so thankful for that.
I don't even want to make this chapter so much about the bad representation but about what a good one means to us.

Many people that have never learned that being a part of the lgbt+ community is okay finally understood that when they watched The 100.
Lexa showed them that you're still you and that it doesn't matter if you love a girl or a boy, it just matters to love at all.
They started to allow themselves to think about their own sexualities and were finally comfortable with it.
It makes you feel relieved, you let go of the worries you had and it feels like you finally get to exhale and be yourself. It makes you feel complete because you accept such an important thing about you. And you can love yourself a little more. You stop hiding your feelings and just let them be. You get comfident enough to tell the people you trust and that takes a lot of courage but the way The 100 represents lgbt+ characters gave a lot of fans the courage to come out.

No, Lexa didn't "make them gay". They've always been. She just showed them that that's fine.