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Entertainment

SCIENCE: Building a Planetary “Life Scanner”

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Star Trek Beyond

When the crewmembers of the starship Enterprise pull into orbit around a new planet, one of the first things they do is scan for life-forms. Here in the real world, researchers have long been trying to figure out how to unambiguously detect signs of life on distant exoplanets. They are now one step closer to this goal, thanks to a new remote-sensing technique that relies on a quirk of biochemistry causing light to spiral in a particular direction and produce a fairly unmistakable signal. The method, described in a recent paper published in the journal Astrobiology, could be used aboard … Read more

FILM: “The Eternals” Will feature Marvels’ First Major Openly Gay Film Character

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Eternals

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first openly gay character will appear in “The Eternals.” “He’s married. He’s got a family. And that is just part of who he is,” Feige spilled about the character to “Good Morning America” at the D23 Expo in California. Before the announcement, it was suspected Valkyrie would be the first major LGBTQ character in the MCU in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which opens on Nov. 5, 2021. “The Eternals” will hit theatres on Nov. 6, 2020.  Full Story at the Washington Blade

INTERVIEW: Briandaniel Oglesby

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Brian Oglesby interview

I met Briandaniel a few weeks ago at the annual Playwrights Revolution – a staged reading of four plays that Sacamento’s Capital Stage puts on every summer. Brian’s play “Basement Demons and Trailer Saints” stood out, not just because of the stellar cast of actors who put it on in less than a day, but for the fascinating writing and super-LGBTQ+ group of characters he’d created. So afterwards I screwed up my courage and went to talk to him, hopeful that I could get him to do an interview for QSF (which I will also share on my own blog). … Read more

FILM: Lana Wachowski is first openly trans director of a blockbuster

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Lana Wachowski

After months of speculation, it was announced this week that Lana Wachowski will write and direct a brand new instalment in dystopian franchise. With the first three films in the series making a combined $1.6 billion (£1.3m) at the box office, the new sequel has the potential to become the most lucrative piece of trans art in history. Lana and her sister Lilly co-wrote and directed the initial Matrix trilogy, released between 1999 and 2003, before either had come out as trans. This latest film will see Lana go it alone, as Lilly has opted not to return. “Many of … Read more

Borderlands 3 character Will Be Non-Binary

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Borderlands Non-Binary Character

As fans gear up for the highly-anticipated shooter game, it has emerged that one of its vault hunters does not fit into the gender binary. Ahead of its September 13 release date, eagle-eyed fans have picked up on gender-neutral pronouns and allusions to an LGBT+ identity in the sequel’s description description. “An emergent AI driven in an ongoing quest for self-discovery, FL4K wanders from world to world accompanied by beasts. While they feel a connection with the primal wisdom of animals, the social constructs of humans are strange to them,” reads one such passage. Ahead of its September 13 release … Read more

First Look: Deaf, Genderqueer Actor in “Titans”

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Chella Man Titans

The new “Titans” trailer gave the first look of Chella Man, a deaf, genderqueer actor and model, as Jericho. Jericho is the son of Deathstroke (Esai Morales) in the series. After his vocal cords are severed during his kidnapping, Jericho must communicate through sign language. He can also control people’s bodies and voices through eye contact. The trailer shows a brief clip of Man as Jericho using sign language. Man praised the show’s representation on Instagram. “As a Deaf individual who uses sign language on a daily basis, Jericho’s primary mode of communication hits close to home. I RARELY saw … Read more

TV: Maya Hawke Pushed for Her “Stranger Things” Character to Be a Lesbian

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Actress Maya Hawke

Actress Maya Hawke, who plays Robin in the third season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, has revealed that she advocated for her character to be a lesbian after filming began. Robin became the first LGBT+ character in the hit show, coming out as a lesbian to her ‘Scoops Ahoy’ colleague Steve Harrington in episode seven. In a scene that cleverly defies genre expectations, Robin reveals she didn’t actually have a crush on Steve in high school, but on the girl who couldn’t stop staring at him in class. Speaking in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Hawke said the Duffer … Read more

Aquaman Has a Same Sex Kiss

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Aquaman

DC Comics continued to expand its roster of out superheroes this week by showing a same-sex kiss between Aquaman and Wynnde on the animated series Young Justice: Outsiders, a show about teenage superheroes. In the recent episode “Quiet Conversations,” Kaldur-ahm, a character formerly known as Aqualad, took on the name of Aquaman from the original superhero after serving for a while as his protege. After becoming the new Aquaman, he kissed Wynnde, a resident of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. The new Aquaman is known for being soft-spoken and clear-headed and is more or less the leader of his superhero team. … Read more