Why Queer Representation is Important to Me

Since it’s pride month, I’d like to reflect for a moment on queer representation and how important it is. LGBTQ+ characters are often few and far between in most media, and the current political climate in the USA doesn’t mean that’s going to improve. In fact, the very existence of any LGBTQ+ media in the USA is under threat right now. So, I’d like to share my story of why I think this type of media is important, and why we need to defend it.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, there wasn’t a lot of queer representation in media that I saw. I’ve thought back to who the first gay person I might have seen on TV is, and it’s hard to remember. Will & Grace was on the air when I was a teenager, but I never watched it. The first one was probably a queer coded 90s villain or a joke character in a movie. But, there’s one LGBTQ+ person who does stand out though, and one I saw more than just once:  Mr. Humphries, played by John Inman, in the classic British sitcom Are you Being Served?

For those not familiar with it, Are you Being Served? is a cheeky British sitcom that was produced from 1972 to 1985 that follows employees in a stuffy department store in London. Mr. Humphries is an over-the-top character, but the entire show is over the top. It’s tough to call the role progressive today, but it certainly was groundbreaking for its time. By the time I saw it, even the spinoff done a few years later was in the rear-view mirror of television history, but when my parents moved to a house that didn’t have cable, we had to make do with an old TV antenna for a couple of months. And what did you get back in 1996 on the old antenna? Local TV stations and PBS affiliates.

So, while John Inman, probably isn’t the first gay man I saw in media, he’s the one that I remember seeing the most. I can’t say I took any of my mannerism from him, or he was a role model for me, but he was funny. He looked like he was having fun, and certainly Mr. Humphries, the character, looked like he had fun. The humor, even though it was dated by the time I saw it, was amusing to me. Now I’d call it stereotyped, but based on the jokes, it was clear exactly what Mr. Humphries was in to, and he had quite a few unique and sexy situations that occurred off screen.

Beyond that, it wasn’t till I found furry and started reading furry fiction that I saw a lot more LGBTQ+ representation. Here I was, fifteen/sixteen, and the first people who reflected me back at myself were characters in stories I was reading online. And wow, they weren’t trapped in a department store measuring the inseam of men’s trousers. Hell, when Are you Being Served? wasn’t on the TV downstairs, where else was I going to see LGBTQ+ characters? Back when I was in high school, people weren’t exactly out. I had one bisexual male friend I hung out with in school who introduced me to furry, and I know female student who also had bisexual experiences. That was my entire sphere of what being gay entailed till I was eighteen.

College should have been an eye opener, and it was, but not in this department. Graduating high school in 2000, I managed to go through college earning a bachelors degree and a masters degree meeting zero other LGBTQ+ people in school. I did start meeting others like me during this time period, but always they were therians and furries I meet outside of college. After high school, I didn’t have local LGBTQ+ friends again until I was twenty-two. That’s also when I finally met a trans person.

It's lonely being alone, but if there’s one thing a good story can do for you, it can take you away from where you are. Whether it’s a good movie or a good book, good story telling can transport you somewhere else. The LGBTQ+ representation I had was the only window out there that people like me existed for a long time. Now a days, it’s not hard if you know the right places to go to find other LGBTQ+ people, but I had to learn where to find others back. Even today, you still learn that I feel. Not everyone grows up in a place where you can find others, and certainly with how social media works, it can be difficult for some people to make close connections online. Queer representation was the first clue, long before I meet another gay man, that people like me were out there, and they could be happy.

John Inman, for as campy as he was playing Mr. Humphries on TV, on a show that they stopped making when I was three, is the first LGBTQ+ character I got to really know. Are You Being Served? for as silly a sitcom as it is, was my first glance that there was more out there for someone like me. Mr. Humphries, the one character in an all-white cast who was a little more different than the rest was my entry into queer representation. This is why representation in media matters, be it for LGBTQ+ or the various flavors of BIPOC. People want to see or read about someone like them, and that’s what we need to fight for. When someone is alone, that book, that movie, that whatever, might be the first time they see themselves reflected back at themself in media, and that can be life changing. For an isolated individual, that might be what they have that helps them keep going.

Also, thank you John Inman for being there for me. I wish I could have seen some of the pantomime shows he did in London, but at least I got to see him on TV, rebroadcast on the local PBS affiliate, being unabashedly free and out.