The Clexa Fandom’s Fight Continues to Receive Global Attention

Since May, I have written about the Clexa fandom’s successes numerous times, documenting their amazing charity donations (at the moment $158,464 has been raised for the Trevor Project), their billboards, ClexaCon, and their poll winnings, and here I am writing about them again eight months after they started their movement against the harmful representations of LGBT characters in the media.

Clexa fans are still gaining global attention even eight months after Lexa’s death on The 100.  Various media sources, such as Vanity Fair and CNN, are writing about the most recent GLAAD “Where We Are On TV” report about LGBT representation, with Lexa as one of the most used images representing the issue.  The fight of the Clexa fandom has become the face of the movement which continues the much-needed conversation about equal representation in the media.

Though there have been numerous LGBT characters that have been killed off this year, two deaths started this necessary conversation by gaining the attention of global media outlets: Lexa’s death on The 100 and Denise’s death on The Walking Dead, both of which were “accidental” shock-value deaths.  Lexa was accidentally killed by her “father figure” because of her relationship with Clarke.  Denise was accidentally killed after giving a moving speech about how Rosita and Daryl are good people and how she’s afraid to tell Tara that she loves her.  Not only was her death meant for shock-value, but Denise’s death was also used to further Daryl’s overused storyline of feeling immense guilt.  (Like Denise, Glenn was another minority character killed off for shock value which will once again directly impact Daryl’s storyline.)

To the Clexa fandom: You are still making an impact, you are still being heard, your fight is still relevant and powerful, and I am still incredibly proud to be a part of this fandom.  In a previous article, I wrote about your strengths, and I said that given all of your achievements, you are a legendary fandom.  This most recent accomplishment, having your fight and your passion as the major face of this movement, proves that you are making history.

Thank you to the fans for starting this conversation, for continuing their work, and for being outspoken about an issue that is still plaguing the media today.  The fans started this conversation, and they are responsible for this global attention.

Just something to think about: I just received my custom-made sweatshirt that says, “One of my favorite characters was killed off for shock value…again” and all of the deaths that prompted this sweatshirt were of minority characters.