For me, this is not about Lexa dying. It’s not even about the way she dies, victim to cheap tropes. Yes, Lexa was a badass character, a lesbian that was so much more than her sexuality. She was written with so much (probably coincidental?) nuance and was wonderfully acted out. She made me proud to be queer, it felt good to have her represent me out there in TV land.
But it’s not why I’m fighting now. I’m fighting because Lexa the character introduced me to a community of amazing people, real people who are like me and like kissing other girls. They also make the best jokes and listen to the violins and they CREY EVERTIM. My hometown is a fairly LGBT friendly place, but it’s not large and there isn’t much of a community, so I find myself feeling out of place a lot.
Suddenly that didn’t matter, because I had found my people. So when killing off this character caused such despair in our little minority group, I realized just how influential TV really is. How important it is to be represented and be represented well. To not see yourself die on screen over and over again. To not find solace in fiction only to have it destroyed carelessly. To not see people in charge of mainstream media be ignorant and uneducated. The utter loss of hope and self-blame was heartbreaking to witness and I will do everything in my power to never see it happen again.
I’ll donate to the Trevor project some more, write letters and postcards, I’ll lose sleep trending and trying to make media hear us. I’ll make Photoshop masterpieces full of candles and chips, talk about why diversity on TV matters with friends and family. It may have started because of yet another meaningless queer death with the added bonus of some really disgusting baiting. But it doesn’t end with this one mediocre show. The issue is systematic, it’s all over TV and it’s time to make a change. Our fight is not over.