Todd Cleary Stereotypes

The 2005 film, Wedding Crashers, portrayed a young gay man named Todd Cleary. Todd is the brother of one of the main female characters. The character Todd Cleary applies to Vito Russo’s thesis pertaining to LGBTQ characters should be feared. Todd Cleary is an artistic recluse, often hunched over, wearing all black with a menacing look on his face. He is treated like an outcast in his family, disturbed, and less intelligent than the rest of the family. In one scene, one of the main characters, Jeremy Grey, played by Vince Vaughn, is woken up in the middle of the night by a mostly naked Todd Cleary stroking his face. Jeremy is unable to move because Todd has tied his hands and feet to the bed. Todd then directs Jeremy’s attention to the nude portrait he has painted of him. Todd is portrayed as predatory, unstable, and

Some people who have had little exposure to people different than themselves, may only have film portrayals to expose them to what these individuals are like. This generalization is tragic, but it’s hard to fault people who judge based on all they know. The media’s creation of LGBTQ roles in which the community are either feared, pitied or created to be laughed at has contributed to a general misperception and has led to the creation of HB2. The thought of allowing people to use the bathroom of the gender in which they identify has sparked a fear that this simple act of human rights will lead to criminal acts against cisgender people. Transgender individuals are misunderstood and are therefore downgraded to not having the same rights. Although, the fear of people that are cisgender posing as transgender for devious acts is an entirely unrelated situation that has added to the panic behind the new legislation. Regardless, that argument is also lacking because there have been few (if any) assault cases involving a cisgender male identifying as a