For the GEP: Julia’s letter to FOX

heyerchick:

On behalf of Julia:

Dear Mr Reilly,

Treatment of LGBT characters in Glee

I’m a 23 year-old woman from England and I’m writing to you as a fan of Glee. I watch the show; I download the songs; I discuss the show online on Tumblr and message boards. There are many things I love about Glee, that have kept me watching for three years, but I also have my concerns and that’s why I’m writing to you today.

Being gay myself, I think it’s wonderful that Glee has such an array of LGBT characters; few shows can boast similar numbers. It’s so rare to find my experiences reflected on TV, so when I do discover a character like Santana Lopez, I treasure her. It was a joy to watch Santana’s journey in season two as she came to terms with her sexuality; the writing was sensitive and thoughtful, and Naya Rivera’s performance was nuanced and moving.

I had high hopes for Santana’s storyline in season three, but unfortunately I found it disappointing in almost all aspects. It is no exaggeration to say that episode 3x07, I Kissed A Girl, was the most offensive hour of television I have ever watched.

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Hosted on my Blog: My Sister’s GEP Letter to FOX

georgette888:

Dear Mr Reilly,

I am a forty-year-old Glee viewer. I would regard myself as a member of the casual, but regular, audience although my son and my sister are more avid fans. However, I have been to Glee Live and I’ve bought the DVDs for my children and paid for itunes cards so they can download Glee tracks.

I am a mother of two children. My son, who is 17, is gay and his idol is Chris Colfer. He looks up to him as a role model and I am ecstatic by that since I can’t imagine a better one for my son to have. He fell in love too with the character of Kurt Hummel in Series 1 of Glee.

So why am I writing a letter in support of the Glee Equality Project?

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A letter from a mother of a gay son in reaction to Kurt Hummel’s depiction in Season 3.

For the GEP: Aziraphale’s letter to FOX

heyerchick:

On behalf of Aziraphale:

Dear Mr. Reilly,

I’m writing you about something very close to my heart.

I watch television to be entertained. I’m now 23 years old and use it to escape from reality for a little while. To laugh and cry and sometimes shout at the characters I came to love. I want to enjoy what is on my screen and get very sad when I stop liking a show, because then I have to stop watching.

Glee is a show I want to love and have loved for quite a while, but this last season has left me feeling so empty and awoke no desire to watch the next, like the second season did last year. I bought the half season box sets of the first two seasons as soon as they came out, because I didn’t want to wait for the complete ones. I put the jukebox on when I clean house, because it’s more fun that way and I wouldn’t want to miss them. Naturally, last autumn I thought I would add the third season to my collection as well, but now I’m pretty sure I won’t.

I want to explain to you why, so I’m doing something I have never done for another tv show before: Sending a letter from Germany in the hope, that what I have to say will be read and that it maybe changes something.

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A letter that explains the ‘empty’ feeling the writer now has watching Glee.

My letter for the Glee Equality Project

thesminkyone:

I am a straight 32 year old woman from Scotland.  I would like to preface this letter 

by stating that I have never done this before.  I have never felt strongly enough about an issue in a television show to contact the person in charge to air my grievances.  Up until now I have been content to discuss any problems I had with Glee in private with friends; however I feel strongly enough about this issue to contact you personally regarding my feelings.

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A letter from a first time letter writer about a TV show.

coolbeans3131:

This is the first of two GEP letters I am sending. This one focuses on Kurt and Blaine and my second will focus just on Kurt. I had to divide it up, or it would be too long!

  Dear Mr. Reilly, I am writing you to let you know of my concerns regarding how the relationship of Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson is being treated on Glee. I am a 41 year old woman. My two daughters and I are all fans of Glee and particularly Kurt and Blaine. We own the DVD’s, buy many songs off iTunes (I love the Broadway tunes myself) and went to see the 3D movie. Watching Glee together is great bonding time for us and we love discussing it.

  As big fans of Kurt, were excited to see him get a love interest. I remember vividly how we squealed and clapped the day the “Teenage Dream” performance was released. We watched it over and over, smiling and laughing. The magic of that scene really set up high expectations for Kurt and Blaine’s relationship, and I think Glee lived up to those in Season two. I had never been so charmed by a gay couple before and was surprised that it didn’t matter to me at all that they were both boys. Their romance was sweet, and so much fun to watch.

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A letter that shows that LGBT affection is nothing to be afraid of on Glee.

My letter for the Glee Equality Project campaign

coffeeandhyperwaves:

Dear Mr. Reilly,

I am a heterosexual eighteen-year-old girl from Italy. Not once have I missed an episode of Glee. I was captivated by it since the pilot and I have grown to love - in its excellence and in its imperfections alike – a show that set out with the promise of being fresh and groudbreaking.

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My GEP letter

sundaysalvation:

So I finally sorted my life out and wrote my letter for the GEP:

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A letter which addresses the wonderful job of LGBT representation Glee did and then the worrying and upsetting way these characters and relationships have been handled as times goes on. 

Why the kissing thing matters: from a GEP letter

sapienveneficus:

I happened to hear this…among a few of my 7th grade boys after Prom-asaurus aired.

Student A: Did you see glee last night?

Student B: Duh, Brittany did a Kes$ha song. She’s hot!

Student A: Yeah! It was weird though. Like, everyone in the gym was making out at the end, except for Kurt and Blaine. Wasn’t that weird? Aren’t they like going out?

Student C: That was weird, they were like the only couple not kissing.

Student B: So? They’re a couple of faggots. They can’t show that stuff on tv.

At this point in the conversation I felt I had to drop my casual eavesdropper status and step in. The end result was positive. The student who’d used that word came to understand why it was wrong without feeling attacked or put upon. It actually led to a pretty good discussion with the entire 7th grade during break that day….

The message my middle schoolers were getting from Glee (and I should note that they all started watching the show this season) is that being gay is okay as long as the characters act never act on it. When I asked the kids why they thought that, they kept using Kurt and Blaine as their examples. They correctly pointed out that these two were dating but never showed affection so that must be what Glee was trying to say.

A few of my 8th grade boys also chimed in with the fact that Santana and Brittany got to touch and kiss occasionally because they’re two hot cheerleaders, but I’ll leave the Brittana fans to delve into the issues of bias surrounding that couple.

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A thoughtful, considered letter from a 28-year old Christian woman who is a teacher and librarian. This extract, a good way down the letter, shows clearly why it matters what Glee does with Kurt and Blaine, Santana and Brittany, versus the straight couples. And why we do keep returning to this issue.

My GEP letter: pucklebastian

pucklebastian:

I finally organized everything and wrote it. It’s being sent as soon as the mailman gets here.

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A very moving letter from a 17-year old who identifies as bisexual. Glee is not kind in that regard.

Get in the game! Write your letter or postcard to FOX. You can even send us an email, and we’ll print & post your letter for you.

Kevin Reilly
FOX Broadcasting Company
10201 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

This is my letter to the GEP

the-world-is-a-corner:

Dear Mr. Reilly,

My name is Laura, and I’m an 18 years old straight brazilian girl who loves Glee, but is deeply unhappy with its treatment of some LGBT characters right now.

I have been following Glee ever since its first season hiatus, my MP4 is filled to bursting with Glee songs, I have been inserted in the online Glee community for years now, and thanks to it, have made a number of new friends. And one of the things I loved most about this show were the LGBT characters. Why? Because LGBT characters were the reason why I became interested in gay rights and struggles to being with, and, most importantly: I’m cursing my first year of psychology, and I hope to one day specialize in human sexuality. And what inspired me were the characters I connected to when I was younger. They had a major role in my life, my opinions and even my career choice. Gay characters in the media and the way they are portrayed are very important to me.

However, I’m deeply unhappy about the way Glee characters have been treated during the last season – many of those situations hit close to home, and made me extremely disappointed. Glee matters to me – the characters matter to me. And that’s why I want to point out these situations and hope you’ll understand the problem.

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Talks about the abandonment of Santana’s touching storyline with her Abuela, the mishandling of David Karofsky’s attempted suicide storyline, and the writers subjecting Kurt to so much failure.

Get in the game! Write your letter or postcard to FOX. You can even send us an email, and we’ll print & post your letter for you.

Kevin Reilly
FOX Broadcasting Company
10201 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

GEP letter: Romee on Brittana

heyerchick:

On behalf of Romee

Dear Mr. Reilly,

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

I’m an 18 year old girl from The Netherlands and for a long time I enjoyed Glee with everything I had. But recent developments  in season 3 regarding gay couples and LGBT characters in general had me worried. Therefore I’m writing this letter. English is not my native language, so there may be various grammatical mistakes in the next few paragraphs. Please know that this small barrier did not stop me from letting you know how much I love Glee and why I think there were so many things in season 3 that could have been handled with a little more respect.

I did not watch Glee up until a certain episode in the latter half of season 2. In fact, I really disliked the show. Which is odd because I had never seen it. Prejudice got in the way and it wasn’t until episode 15, Sexy, that I really wanted to give the show a chance. I read various websites which praised how Santana confessed her love for Brittany and how delicately it was handled. I watched that particular scene and was in awe. That scene was real, felt real.

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Romee is an 18-year old who was drawn into Glee by Santana’s storyline with Brittany in Season 2’s “Sexy.” Romee wrote her letter in hope that Glee regains the magic it once had.

Write your own letter or postcard to FOX:

Kevin Reilly
FOX Broadcasting Company
10201 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

GEP letter: Hall and Totes on Brittana

hall-and-totes:

I actually wrote this letter right before the season finale, as a goodbye of sorts. Because I was, and still might be, totally done with Glee. But then I came across the Glee Equality Project, and it kind of gives me hope that something might be done with the way the creators and writers have portrayed Brittany, Santana, and Brittana. 

Anyway, I re-tooled that letter a little, to fit the message of the Glee Equality Project. So here it is, and I plan on sending this to Fox tomorrow.

Maybe they won’t do anything about it, but at least I feel like my voice will be heard.

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The writer explains how she identifies 100% with Brittany and Santana, what their relationship means to her, and that she wants back the Glee brave enough to give an audience that ‘hurt locker’ scene from Season 2.

Write your own letter or postcard to FOX:

Kevin Reilly
FOX Broadcasting Company
10201 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

For the GEP: shanoreily’s letter to FOX

heyerchick:

Posted on behalf of shanoreily

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but just having gay characters on TV isn’t groundbreaking anymore. They’re part of the cultural landscape, and some shows have already taken the next step of treating them exactly like the straight characters. They fall in and out of love, show affection, have families, and live their lives in the same fascinating and complex ways as the straight characters do. Sadly, for all Glee claims to be inclusive and groundbreaking, it’s not one of those shows. It’s ones like Grey’s Anatomy and Brothers and Sisters that have actually walked the walk.

It’s time for Glee to join them, which is what Ryan Murphy famously promised back when he said it wouldn’t require very special episodes for his gay characters to kiss. Only, that’s kind of exactly what’s happened now that those couples exist.

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Strong sentiments and smart arguments. Write your own letter or postcard to FOX:

Kevin Reilly
FOX Broadcasting Company
10201 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

For the GEP: My Letter to Kevin Reilly [FOX]

georgette888:

Dear Mr. Reilly,

I am a 33-year-old straight woman from the UK. I have watched every episode of Glee multiple times; I have bought the DVDs and lots of the music tracks plus some merchandise. I am an engaged member of the online fandom who tweets, tumbles and posts on forums about Glee. Many of my family watch Glee too.

I am especially a fan of the wonderful Chris Colfer. He is a true asset to your show and an asset to society in general. I have a 17-year-old gay relative for whom Chris is a role model and hero.

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Another wonderful, passionate letter to FOX.

Get in the game! GEP call FOX guide and write FOX guide, issues talking points and international mailing & translation service. You can also download our printable GEP Campaign Kit PDF here