I blame him (at least partially) for the rise in anti-indian racism in the late 2010s to today and people look at me like I'm the friend who's too woke when I say that. But it's true
and you’d be right to blame him. he normalized the rise in anti-indian and anti-desi racism through “jokes.” it took me forever to take pride in my indian heritage bc of the culture he helped set up.
alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.
we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)
please rb for larger sample size!
Question 1/3
What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?
when i look up a knitting term, the last thing I want is an ai overview. I want a 60+ year old woman with no understanding of lighting or helpful camera angles who still manages to give the most concise and clear explanation of how to execute purl 2tog through the backloop. ai summary fuck off, where is phyllis?
Overly elaborate Resident Evil gay head canon backstories because I love being woke (happy pride)
TW: Internalized homophobia/ transphobia (both from religion and not), era appropriate homophobia and misogyny, mention of gender affirming surgery, but nothing graphic.
Characters: Leon, Chris, and Jill
Leon:
That is a bisexual trans man if I've ever seen one. Oh my god.
I won't go too far into detail, but long story short, I think Leon was raised catholic and when his parents died, he was brought to a catholic orphanage. That is to say, he very much believed in god for a long time. It was a source of comfort for him because at least he could believe his parents were in a better place. However, that comes with the caveat that he also felt like God might be punishing somehow by killing them, although Leon never could figure out why.
It started to make sense when he, still perceiving himself as a girl, started to like other girls in middle school. And he tried so, so hard to push it down. To pray that he could change, swearing to God he could be different, that he'd already been punished so please, just make him normal. But it never worked, praying. Not about anything. By the time he got to high school and nothing changed, it got harder and harder to believe in God was watching over him. It was a slow progression into disbelief, but he could never fully shake the feeling that something was wrong with him.
His loss of faith didn't make it any easier when he started to feel like maybe he wasn't a girl.
Leon ended up doing some research at the library. A look through the DSM-3 led him to believe he had Gender Identity Disorder, but at the very least he realized that there was something he could to about it. That being dressing different and HRT (actually what is suggests as treatment in the DSM-3 btw). Although, Leon knew he wouldn't be able to access that care until he was older, so he just kind of ignored it for awhile. At least it was easier to accept that he liked girls if he was a guy.
He did survive a secret lesbian situationship when he was in high school. There were a lot of very complicated feelings attached to it, both in terms of dysphoria and feeling like he was constantly lying to his partner.
When he turned 18, he leaned more into masculinity but still had to live as a woman through the police academy. He had to face the brunt of 90s misogyny, which made him all the more eager to transition when he graduated. It was incredibly difficult given the times, but he managed to get on T and get his name changed on his records before applying to work for RPD. He couldn't get his gender legally changed yet, so he just made the excuse that it was a horrific typo, haha. Don't worry about it guys.
He was out to the girlfriend he had pre RE2. She didn't make a big deal of it, but Leon always had the feeling she thought it was kind of weird. Their sex life was almost non-existent, but Leon didn't necessarily mind because dysphoria made it hard to enjoy anyway.
When the US government got him, he asked that at the very least, if he had to work for them pretty much against his will, could they at least make it so he was legally a man. Somehow, they said yes.
He had to be stealth through training which was a fucking nightmare. He was often called pretty boy, queer, about a bajllion other offensive things. He was incredibly on edge because he always felt like he was about to be found out. He endured a lot of late night showers and very unsafe binding. Oh my god. When he figured out he could use TK tape to bind it was such a game changer.
Then of course came the realization that oh shit, he liked men too. It took him a very long time to accept it, having to grapple with the idea of being trans AND not straight. Although, matters of his identity didn't seem to matter much when he started going on missions. There were much worse things he needed to worry about.
He didn't get top surgery until circa 2009. There just wasn't an opening where he would have time to recover until then. He was barely healed by the time he was back to going on missions, but it was so unbelievably worth it.
Leon didn't come to terms with the fact that being trans wasn't a disorder until he started going to therapy some time post Vendetta.
He got a hysterectomy some time before RE9, but never got phallo. By that point in his life he's comfortable with his body and who he is, although it took a very long time to get there.
Chris:
Bisexual with a preference for men.
I think Chris had progressive parents. They were involved with the civil rights movement before he was born, but had to step back from activism when they had Chris. They taught him to be accepting and kind, and to try and speak up for anyone who couldn't do so themselves.
So, Chris never had a problem with gay people. But he never thought it would be something he had to accept about himself.
It started with the little things. He liked girls, sure. They were pretty, but he always caught himself looking at guys the same way. The cut of their jaws, the way boys in his class started bulking up as they got older, the idea of being with them the same way he could be with a girl, it was undeniably appealing and it was kind of terrifying.
But virtue of his adolescence being in the 80s and early 90s, the culture he was socialized in was blatantly homophobic. Any guy who was too skinny, too emotional, anything not overwhelmingly masculine could be a target. Chris felt so, so lucky that he was always more of a typical jock type. And he wanted to try and step in, but it was so hard because all it took would be one wrong move and he'd have a target on his back too.
He always thought it was more convenient than anything else that he still liked women. He actually had a pretty serious high school girlfriend. It made it a lot easier to hide certain truths about himself.
And then his parents died, and he had a little sister who needed taken care of. Dating anyone wasn't really important.
So Chris, 18 and in his senior year, broke up with his girlfriend and dropped out of school to be Claire's guardian. He knew then more than ever that if he wanted to remain as such, he could never pursue anything with a man until she was grown up.
Money was tight, so the easiest option was to join the Air Force. Suddenly all those assholes in high school looked like a joke compared to what his drill sergeants had to say.
And when suddenly it was him taking the brunt of the insults, no matter the person he showed himself to be, it was so hard to stomach. But he had to. He needed the money if he wanted to be able to support Claire. So he could just bite his tongue and take it, because he was strong and capable. A few pointed reprimands weren't going to change that.
Despite himself, he still joined in on the customary locker room talk, grossly exaggerated stories about sex with his past girlfriends and all that. He never liked it, but how else was he supposed to distract from his wandering eyes in the showers? If he couldn't suppress that part of himself entirely, then he could at least make it less obvious.
And then he got kicked out of the Air Force and scooped up by S.T.A.R.S. And there, he met Jill Valentine who much to Chris's surprise, she was an out lesbian (he has a very sub-par gaydar)
The two of them became fast friends, and she dragged Chris along to a few gay bars. One thing led to another and he ended up sleeping with a man for the first time. It wasn't revolutionary or life changing, maybe a little freeing at best, to know that he could pursue men at all and it wouldn't be the end of the world.
The hardest part of that experience was coming out to Jill afterwards. Of course she'd accept him, but it was still hard. Although as time went on, he realized it would get a little easier each time. When he told Claire she told him he called it, but he never got an explanation to what she meant by that.
Jill:
As mentioned before, she's a lesbian. I mean, come on.
(Okay, so I came up with an elaborate HC backstory for her before I learned that in one of the novels her dad was like her sole guardian and a master jewel thief, so this won't be as detailed as Leon and Chris because I've had less time to ruminate on it. I've bent some things to make the novel backstory line up with the game canon. I apologize for any major lore inaccuracies lol.)
Given that Jill was raised as a criminal, learning just about everything her father knew about lock picking and robbery, she never put too much concern into what was considered conventional.
She was skilled, determined, crafty, and for awhile never questioned the life she lived with her father on the run. It was all she had ever known.
She jumped from school to school with the excuse that she was in a military family. When she got a little older, she didn't feel that strongly about it when she realized she liked girls. But then she told her dad without paying it much mind, and she got a hefty scolding. The goal was to try and bring less attention to themselves. Being with women would do the exact opposite. It was taboo, and would only cause problems.
Jill loved her father, but it was around this same time that she started to feel like maybe the life the two of them lived wasn't one she'd want forever. Especially if she had to give up parts of who she was for it. She isn't the kind of person to compromise for someone else's sake.
When Jill's dad was locked away, she was old enough to go straight into the army. Being the only woman in Delta Force made her a target for harassment and misogyny. She proved herself skilled enough to earn some respect, but it still wasn't a fix. Regardless of her sexuality, being standoffish and showing a zero tolerance for their behavior was the easiest way to keep herself safe.
When Jill joined S.T.A.R.S., it was easy to be open about who she was. She never had a problem with herself and wasn't afraid to defend her identity as a lesbian. Plus, she became close friends with a hopelessly closeted Chris Redfield, and Jill was happy to be the one to push him in the right direction to come out one day.
She even met a girl in Racoon City who she started a pretty serious relationship with. Although, things came to a swift end after the Spencer Mansion incident. There were more important matters at hand.
