A new project is satirically skewering the world of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy nonprofits ― without relying on the typical tropes that we’re so often forced to put up with in other queer web series.
“ADVOCATES,” by writer and co-director Chloe Curran, who recently spent the last three years writing for queer women’s site AfterEllen (which recently underwent a dramatic staffing overhaul), takes all that she’s learned during her time navigating the nuances of queer media and turns it into a web series intended to engage with queer ideas and themes in a playful way.
“The modern climate of corporate LGBT activism is overflowing with inane platitudes, straight-splaining, and being utterly out of touch with our core demographic,” Curran told The Huffington Post. “Corporates commodify LGBT activism with the same zeal that they’ve commodified self-love.”
Curran added, “I think LGBT people are torn: we’re happy because, for the first time in modern history, we are being treated as a group worth catering to. On the other hand, our culture is being reappropriated and the real issues cheapened. But straight people and corporations are not entitled to our patronage just because they are not actively oppressing us.”
Check out a trailer for the project above. Want to see more about “ADVOCATES”? Head here to visit the series’ crowdfunding campaign.
