Despite all the nice things today, my favourite thing of #DWCon26 today was during the opening ceremony.
They talked about how the con is an inclusive, safe, respectful place for people of all genders, and everyone has the right to be treated with dignity, and to be able to use whichever toilet fits their identity, and the audience burst into applause.
That shouldn't be applause worthy, it should be the bare fucking minimum, but here we are. And I was so, so happy to be in a room full of people who agreed.
It got me to thinking about how much tolerance and love Terry wrote into those books, mostly at a time when it was unusual to do so. During the 90s when it was de rigeur to refer to bad things as "gay", Sir Terry was writing books that taught readers to treat everyone with respect and curiosity. The importance of that can't really be overstated, I don't think.
The books aren't inherently queer, very few of the characters are outright gay, but they teach a tolerance that is so vitally important. That just because someone lives differently to you it doesn't follow that they're bad because of it.
