i've seen in the laura lee tag yet another post asking if she is homophobic or not, something that once in a while tjis fandom brings back in different social media platforms (twitter, tiktok, and now tumblr), and think it's time for a serious talk
i know laura lee is a side character, and that's why not many people pay attention to her
but the thing is, jane widdop has addressed quite a few times the topic and assured the fans that laura lee ISN'T homophobic in any way, shape or form
they addressed it in interviews, like this one below, for yellowjackets buzz:
and they even addressed it in an instagram live with jasmin savoy brown at christmas 2021, that it's still in jasmin's page for anyone who wants to check:
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i know that the current climate is terrible in terms of influence of conservative Christianity in general in politics, and i know that especially Evangelicanism plays a crucial role in this with the way that they perfected communication in mass media
(here in Brazil and Latin America, in particular, many of the setbacks in politics and morality are connected to them, especially in small towns like the one i live in, so, believe me, I KNOW!!!!)
but, as jane widdop explained in their interview for yellowjackets buzz, laura lee is from a time in which mainstream Christianity wasn't as aggressive as it is today
besides, we know that characters like taissa or ben were afraid of homophobia back home, and that is because it wasn't just the Christians, queerphobia was still pretty prevalent in culture in the 1990s, to the point that, for example, comedian ellen degeneres almost lost her career in 1997 way before the issues with workplace bullying (aka the dakota johonson meme) because she had came out as a lesbian (sources here and here) , and singer george michael was arrested in 1998 during sting operations the LA police was doing against cruising (sources here and here )
besides, in the same interview, jane explained how they based laura lee's faith in their own experience being raised in a church that is more accepting of LGBTQIAP+ people like Episcopalian church, even if jane now is no longer Christian and identifies as Wiccan if i remember correctly
so, this type of discourse, even if it's just a joke, can end up backfiring really bad, and fuel things like ship wars and fandom in-fighting, and even make people who identify with the character for being raised Christians or devouts of other big world religions and finding out they are queer, or people who identify with her for other reasons, to feel hurt and discouraged to participate in the fandom (especially for the teenagers)
so, PLEASE, friends, roman, countrymen/women/them
let's just stop with this and, maybe, just maybe, try to pay attention on characters outside of your favorite ships/dynamics and understand the show as a whole
