On Thursday night, I and several other activists gathered outside the Acorn Theatre in Manhattan to hand out informational pamphlets and provide audience members with some context for the musical's message. We made the choice for our direct action to be a positive one. We didn't chant or attack people. We were there to give people information and engage with audience members. While we weren't expecting an overly receptive crowd, the amount of hostility and negativity we received in the form of numerous microaggressions really shocked me. Below is a compilation of various microaggressions we experienced:

"Movie producer Bunty Berman has long been the toast of Bombay, but now Raj, his biggest star and best friend, is losing his luster. When their new movie bombs, Bunty must navigate through divas, mobsters and ambitious tea boys to keep his studio alive."

I love the big, boisterous feel of Bollywood films and I'm a Broadway fanatic. This has the makings for a great show! But when I went to see the musical the other day, I was confronted with one of the most ill-conceived, transphobic, homophobic, and culturally insensitive pieces of theatre I have seen in some time.

I will note that my heart goes out to the actors who were caught up in this travesty of a production, as many of their performances were the only glimmers of hope in this dreary offensive mess. Lipica Shah glistened as Shambervi, the studio's rising female star. Her vocals were unmatched amongst the crowd and she brought an endearing sweetness to a potentially flat character. Debargo Sanyal was another standout. Though relegated to the ensemble, his comedic timing was spot on and a real joy to watch. Other standouts include the wonderful costume design by William Ivey Long and the resourceful set design by Derek McLane.

That being said, my thoughts on the troubled production are as follows. I would issue a spoiler warning, but it's hard to spoil something so rotten:

As the talks on immigration reform in Washington heat up, it's vital that as we fight for comprehensive immigration reform we continue to inject our LGBT stories into the debate. At the same time, it's important to expand the discourse of immigration issues in LGBT politics beyond simply the rights of bi-national couples.

The following are the remarks I made at the town hall, along with a video recording of the livestreamed event.

My speech comes in around the 43:30 mark.

Now, with the help of the ever amazing and frequent Whedon-collaborator Jane Espenson (credits include Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood, and Husbands), the very first gay male slayer is being introduced to the buffyverse.

Now, being a gay male fan of the series myself, I can say that I've long fantasized about a gay male inclusion to the slayer heritage (I'm also a loud proponent of male inclusion amongst the Star Sapphires, but that's another post). I even ran a Buffy RPG which resulted in Male slayers (although that storyline revolved around disgruntled former watchers siphoning off Slayer magic, but whatever...). Esponson talks about how the writing staff on Buffy actively considered introducing gay male characters to the show, but many of these ideas never quite made it to fruition.

Check out the full interview with Esponson at Out.com. I've also pasted preview images of the issue, Buffy Season 9 #14, after the break. It is scheduled to hit stores on October 10, 2012.

Now, I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but queer Asian characters are hard to come by in comics. I think I can list them on my hand: Karma, Daken, Grace Choi, Satsu from BtVS. So, the possibility of a queer Asian character linked to a key iconic DC heavy-weight like Alan Scott was really exciting. Sam could be the Kyle to Alan Scott's Northstar.

However, the outlook for Alan/Sam didn't look so great after last month's Earth 2 #2, where after an anemic screen time of a few pages as a couple, Alan and Sam are engulfed in an explosion on their train, just as Scott proposes marriage. The flash of green within the explosion at the end of the issue gave us a hint of hope that Sam might be spared the very "women in refrigerators"-like end he seemed to be set up for. Perhaps Scott would develop his powers in time to save his boyfriend and bring him back from the brink of death.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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