The Bilerico Project

Queer Asians: Coming Out & Coming Together

Jason Tseng — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Last night, I sat in the kitchen of my 90 year old grandmother in Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. She asks me how I am, how life in New York is, and most importantly: if I've found a girlfriend yet. A slight twang of pain rings in my chest as I tell her, "Not yet, Nai Nai."

I desperately want to tell her about my boyfriend, our new life together, and how happy I am, but between my broken Chinese, her broken English, and my father's mandate forbidding me to come out to her... I just smile and ask about her health.

But as she talks to me about how she came to accept the relationship of my cousin and her much older boyfriend (a relationship her parents have yet to fully come to terms with), I am filled with hope that one day soon, I will be able to share my full self with my grandmother.

Continue reading "Queer Asians: Coming Out & Coming Together"...

Scarlet Betch Episode 62: The Return of the Betch

Jason Tseng — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:00:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We're back from an extended hiatus! We're so sorry for being gone for so long but compounded challenges of moving, crazy work schedules, and technical difficulties led us to where we are now. But we're so excited to be back recording and we've jam packed this episode with all the betchy news you've been waiting for! We gripe about the changes and cancellations at Marvel, the inconsistency of Wonder Woman in the New 52, zoosexuality in Our Love Is Real, and much much more!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Go Purple for Spirit Day on October 20th!

Jason Tseng — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:00:00 -0500

A few days ago, Ottowa teen Jamie Hudley fell victim to bullying and ended his life. Hudley's death follows another Jamie, Rodemeyer, who's heartbreaking loss inspired celebreties like Lady Gaga and Zachary Quinto into action. Both these Jamies documented their struggles with bullying and loneliness on the internet. And both eventually fell victim to the bullying that permeated their lives.

Every lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teen deserves to be able to live their authentic selves. When I came out to my conservative Christian parents in high school, I was only able to do so after years of painful soul-searching; resolving my religious upbringing and my fledgling identity as a gay teenager. I remember spending countless hours at night reading my bible, searching for loopholes or a theological justification for what I was. I became increasingly desperate the more I read, until I found support from an unexpected source...

During my church's youth group retreat, I confessed my orientation to my youth pastor. He was one of the first people I ever told, and where I expected condemnation, I got a surprisingly compassionate response. He told me that it was not his place to make any judgements and that all he could do was show me love. It was people like my youth pastor who helped pull me out of the downward spiral I had been on. Supportive teachers, friends, and family members set me on the path to fully living my authentic self.

Every child deserves that kind of support, but not everyone can get it. Which is why you should go purple for Spirit Day on October 20th. It may seem like a seemingly small act, putting on a purple shirt, or changing your profile picture... but it can start a conversation that could help a LGBT teen, a parent, a friend.

Scarlet Betch: Hurricane Edition

Jason Tseng — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:30:00 -0500

Hurricanes can't get a comic nerd down! Anthony and I battle the odds and the elements to bring you this special hurricane edition of Scarlet Betch!

We chat about Uncanny X-Force (fave line: "Some hot Wolverine-on-Wolverine action!", also anyone else notice how everyone but Psylocke has a healing factor), the X-men Anime, X-men: Legacy (or how Magneto is a bad parent), how Havok has the most canon beefcake of them all, and much much more!

Be sure you let us know what you think or if you have anything you want us to cover! Tweet us at @scarletbetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch: Hurricane Edition"...

Scarlet Betch: Sexy Furries!

Jason Tseng — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:30:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We're back this week discussing the latest and greatest in gay comic book news. We get down and dirty with all the sexy furries out in the nerdverse recently. We chat about the new Thundercats reboot, the latest furry adventures of Wolfsbane and "The Pack" (also, Guido and Monet, sitting in a tree!), questionable advertisements in comics (marvel sleepwear with no sleepwear in the ad...), how the Ultimates are really big douchebags, The Atom is Asian again, and much much more!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch: Sexy Furries!"...

Scarlet Betch 56: Spectacles Edition!

Jason Tseng — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:00:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We're back this week discussing the latest and greatest in gay comic book news. Anthony and Jason decide to rock out with the spectacles out and expose you all to the lovely glare of our computer screens. We chat about Wonder Woman #612 (and the best hat in comics this week! Eat your heart out Hela!), Scorpina vs. Goldar, Uncanny X-force and it's rapid descent into poor writing and skeptical comic book science, X-men Legacy (hooray hot Legion! boo boring big bads!), the premier of Thundercats (HO!) and how undeniably awesome it is!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com.

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch 56: Spectacles Edition!"...

Scarlet Betch: It Gets Really, Really Worse (For Mutants)

Jason Tseng — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:00:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We're back this week discussing the latest and greatest in gay comic book news. Jason was brilliant and left his comics at work without reading them, but we're keepin' calm and carryin' on! We chat about the JSA (with all the Star people), Retro Wonder Woman, Daken: Dark Wolverine (and wtf is going on with Taskmaster?), effed up JLA previews, annoying miscolorings (Wiccan and Sleeping Beauty... not in the same book... but we've already seen that Wiccan likes to play dress up), Generation Hope (and joins the Its Get Better bandwagon), and much much more!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com.

Video is after the break.

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch: It Gets Really, Really Worse (For Mutants)"...

Scarlet Betch Episode 54

Jason Tseng — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:00:07 -0500

Hey Betches!

We're back this week discussing the latest and greatest in gay comic book news: X-men Schism, House of Mystery, Legion of Superheroes (hooray Power Boy and Gravity Kid! DC has its own superhero boyfriends!), Birds of Prey, Alpha Flight (Northstar saves the day!), Batgirl (also known as The Grey Ghost is dead.... wait what?!), Wonder Woman's pants controversy aka Pantsgate, the return of Ultimate X-men (and why we're excited about it... mainly because we're aching for some Ultimate Colossus gay beefcake and cuddles with crippled Ultimate Northstar).

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com.

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch Episode 54"...

Scarlet Betch 53: Scarlet Flight, Canada Edition!

Jason Tseng — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:00:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We are back at it again... in the same place! We chat about the latest in Avengers: Children's Crusade (aka Wiccan has mommy issues), Wonder Woman (not actually the end, j/k! Solicits lie!), Glee, Doctor Who and much much more! Did we mention that we're in the same place? Holy Uncommon Occurrences, Batman!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Video is after the jump.

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch 53: Scarlet Flight, Canada Edition!"...

Scarlet Betch Episode 52.1: All New! All Different!

Jason Tseng — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:00:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We continue our first week with crossposting on Gay-Nerds.com. We totes forgot to introduce ourselves, so consider this our 0.1 issue, which can help you catch up! We chat about Daken Dark Wolverine (and his continued queerness), Batgirl (the last of the Steph Brown issues, plus Squire! Brits!), Alpha Flight (hooray Canadians! Queer Quebecois! Kyle's adorable!), X-Factor, Generation Hope (finally gets interesting!), and much much more!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch Episode 52.1: All New! All Different!"...

Scarlet Betch Episode 51: Green Lanterns and Guests!

Jason Tseng — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:45:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We're back with a special surprise! We welcome special guest commentator and Wikipedia aficionado Sarah! We say hello to all of our new friends at Gay-nerds.com and review the latest summer superhero film, Green Lantern (AKA that movie with Ryan Reynolds' abs).

Stay tuned for more coverage this week of recent comics that came out in the past few weeks and our thoughts!

Let us know what you think! Plus, if you think we missed any comics in our coverage, let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or an email at scarletbetch@gmail.com.

Video is after the break.

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch Episode 51: Green Lanterns and Guests!"...

Scarlet Betch Episode 50: Scarlet Crisis! Epic Sized!

Jason Tseng — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:30:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

It's our 50th episode! Thank you to everyone of you viewers who have kept with us from the beginning. You helped us move from an audio podcast to video podcast and sat through all those hours of us gabbing about our favorite fictional spandex wearing heroes!

In this episode, we chat about the new Kevin Keller mini-series, Birds of Prey (and the lesbi-tension between The Question and Huntress), The DC Relaunch aka DCnU (and wtf is going on with Oracle/Batgirl/Babs, also what happens to all our fav queer DC characters?!), X-men Legacy: Age of X Aftermath, X-men First Class, and much much more!!!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch Episode 50: Scarlet Crisis! Epic Sized!"...

Batwoman #1 Confirmed for DCnU Relaunch

Jason Tseng — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:00:00 -0500

When DC announced last week that it was relaunching their entire comic book line-up with new #1 titles, the fan community erupted in speculation. Many of us in the fan community who are more diversity/social justice-minded know that these kinds of events have a tendency to reduce diversity rather than increase it. Many feared the worse for the various successes at diversifying the DC Universe that have been won in recent years.

Among these speculations, many thought that the delay-plagued and highly anticipated Batwoman title (penned and drawn by phenomenal artist J.H. Williams) would surely be victim of this continuity reboot, as the prospect of having a Batman with a similarly aged Batwoman seemed dubious and inconsistent with the character's re-launched history. For those of you out of the loop, Batwoman was reintroduced into the DC Universe in recent years as a butt-kicking lesbian former marine. Her run on Detective Comics, written by Greg Rucka with art by J.H. Williams was critically acclaimed.

Despite audible groans from many Barbara Gordon fans at the rewinding of Oracle back to Batgirl, Kat Kane fans should rest assured that their "Dark Red Angel of the Night" will indeed be returning to the pages in the revised DCnU line-up, as reported recently by Newsarama.

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Scarlet Betch: Super Soap Operas!

Jason Tseng — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:00:00 -0500

Hey Betches!

We're back for another week of reviewing the latest in queer comic book news. We chat about Astonishing X-men (the storyline with Armor... we don't read the other one), Daken: Dark Wolverine 0.1, X-men: Legacy (aka Rogue has daddy issues, also yay Frenzy and her butch haircut!), and Generation Hope (hoorah for Laurie's speed mode!).

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Continue reading "Scarlet Betch: Super Soap Operas!"...

(Un)heard: Transmasculine People of Color Speak

Jason Tseng — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:30:00 -0500

Asher Kolieboi, being black, trans, and living in rural Ohio, is not what you usually think of when you think of the LGBT movement. Many will conjure images of gay urban enclaves in New York City, San Francisco, Austin, and the like; mostly white faces; mostly male. This is the exact kind of thing that Kolieboi is trying to combat with his audio/visual documentary photo project (Un)heard: Transmasculine People of Color Speak.

In this series Kolieboi seeks to empower transmaculine people of color to speak for themselves and document their histories. While the trans community has come a long way there are still substantial gains to be made in terms of visibility and awareness of the full spectrum of the trans community.

Kolieboi believes that one of these under-represented populations is transmasculine people of color. Transfeminine folk of color have been featured in reality programs like America's Next Top Model, I Want to Work for Diddy, and Rupaul's Drag Race (It should be noted that the drag queens who appear on Drag Race are not transgender, but are gender transgressive in the performance of drag), whereas transmasculine folk of color have yet to make similar marks in the media and general consciousness.

Continue reading "(Un)heard: Transmasculine People of Color Speak"...