FOR READERS & WRITERS
Tomorrow, President Obama leaves office, and President Trump and a unified GOP government becomes a reality.
I don’t want to get into the politics of it all here. There are plenty of other places to do that. And tomorrow we will offer alternative programming. But I do want to discuss something that’s been much on my mind of late.
What impact will this have on our little corner of the universe? Will queer romance and LGBTIQA fiction continue toi grow and flourish, or will there be a chilling effect? Will new laws targeting our community in general also have an impact on the queer writing community in particular?
Or will resistance foster new growth?
What do you think?
As someone who is releasing his first full length novel a month into this strange new era, I am a little obsessed with the answer.
I think continuing to write, and thus being very publicly out, is a form of resistance. We won’t go away!
“Will queer romance and LGBTIQA fiction continue toi grow and flourish, or will there be a chilling effect?”
There already is a chilling effect on the QUILTBAG community. I’ve been hearing since November that people are being less out than they used to, or more careful about what they post and where.
“Will new laws targeting our community in general also have an impact on the queer writing community in particular?”
Inevitably so. People can’t write as much if they get thrown in jail, kicked out of home, lose their job, etc. and those things are all likely to increase.
“Or will resistance foster new growth?”
Happily, this has been happening too. I don’t know whether the chilling effect or the resistance will prove larger.
Also, I miss having these discussions on Facebook. It’s not a great site, but at least it’s more convenient to read than here. The threading is better. And at the moment your right sidebar won’t stop moving from the ads and is driving me nuts.
Elizabeth,
I installed AdBlocker and it might help with the sidebar ads, just fyi. :)
I’m terrified of what will happen, but I’ve already revealed myself. Plus, I’m tired of hiding. I hope with all my heart we will continue to grow. In the meantime, I’m going to keep on working and writing.
At the age of 70, I have watched our community go through period of outright illegality, through Stonewall, demonstration for equal marriage rights and even the right to adopt. While I cannot promise that this -the horrifically homophobic new government- I do feel that given our history of making positive changes take place I feel confident that this too will be overcome. By all means, write. It was through standing up for ourselves and our community that we became stronger, I am certain that through staying strong and united we can remain so.