Leidy Garay

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It’s so important to highlight the deaths of POC under the supposed care of the authorities. It’s so important to shine a giant damn spotlight on the way authority figures cover up these atrocities. POC are dying within the prison system and within police custody, so many people, so often, it’s real, and it’s happening now, and as ever OITNB has seriously drawn focus to an issue much larger than fiction.

It’s a brave move on the part of OITNB and I’m so proud that they weren’t phased by the general rhetoric of the media- the usual “POC aren’t being killed in custody it’s all a giant misunderstanding/accident/idk man it just happened”- it’s brave to step away from that and it’s RIGHT to step away from that.It’s the right thing to do, it goes some way towards honouring the victims of police and CO violence and it goes some way towards speaking out and acknowledging that we as human beings are listening.

I thought of every one of the real life cases I’ve seen in the past few years as I watched this particular episode. The names of everyone who had died at the hands of the authorities came to mind. The tangible fear, the real, raw, harsh reality that this isn’t just fiction, this is happening was so evident, and so painful, and did precisely what it was supposed to do. It was one of the most powerful moments I have ever seen on television. 

It was an awful, terrible scene that made you forget that this was fiction- because for so many people it is not fiction. It has happened. And the lives that have been lost weigh heavy on the soul, particularly during that scene. OITNB got that so very, very, right. People need to know that this is happening and people need to feel what it does. I can’t know how this episode impacts the POC community as a white woman, though I imagine that that scene is a horrific trigger for many. I’m not in a position to say whether it was right or wrong- it was graphic, and it’s not my place to comment on the nature of the scene itself. As a theme within this series however, I am so thankful to the creators of OITNB for addressing this so openly and so honestly with none of the sugar coating or avoidance tactics of the general media.

With that said, I am so sick of queer characters having a tragic end on television. I understand that this particular character wasn’t killed due to the fact that she was a lesbian, but it’s not uncommon for lesbians to be killed within fiction as we all know. In fact, it’s the norm.

I’m so tired of queer women coming to a tragic end. Yes, the LGBTQ+ community faces adversity. It’s important to address that fairly in the media. You know what is never addressed in the media though? The happy endings. I am sick of queer characters arcs revolving around how they face adversity. I am sick of queer characters being inserted for the sole purpose of being tormented. And, as in the case of OITNB, I am sick of queer characters being murdered, meeting brutality, suffering, endlessly suffering.

How does that look to young LGBTQ+ people? Watching all their favourite characters, the characters they see themselves in dying? How does it look when the hetero couples are happy, and walk off into the sunset scratch free and together, while the queer couples are left in pieces? Stop using LGBTQ+ violence as a TV trope. Start making LGBTQ+ characters more than their sexuality.