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LGBTQ Literature: Books on my shelf, including stories of LGBTQ families [1]
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Date: 2022-11-27
LGBTQ Literature is a Readers and Book Lovers series dedicated to discussing literature that has made an impact on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. From fiction to contemporary nonfiction to history and everything in between, any literature that touches on LGBTQ themes is welcome in this series. LGBTQ Literature posts on the last Sunday of every month at 7:30 PM EST. If you are interested in writing for the series, please send a message to Chrislove.
Last time I contributed to this series back in September I wrote about gay romances. After it was posted I thought about a lot of other LGBTQ books I’ve read, enjoyed, and still have sitting on shelves. So this post discusses some of them. There may be more posts in the future.
Several of these books are about LGBTQ people creating a family. Of course, they go about it a variety of ways.
I’ll start with a few books I enjoyed so much I kept them in my bedroom closet rather than on a shelf in the basement. I read some of these up to 25 years so, alas, I don’t remember them well and the blurbs on the back don’t say enough to jog my memory. I mention them because at one point they were special to me.
The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren, first published in 1974. I have the paperback version of the 20th Anniversary edition printed in 1996. Harlan was ejected as a track coach from Penn State and took refuge at Prescott College in Upstate New York. Billy, Vince, and Jacques appear in his office after hitchhiking from Oregon in a snowstorm. They were ejected from their Oregon university for “disciplinary reasons,” though Billy quickly says it was because they are gay.
Billy and Harlan fall in love. Billy trains for the 1976 Olympics and is battered by homophobia all along the way.
There are two sequels. The first is Harlan’s Race, published in 1994. The blurb on the back does say that Harlan is again battered by homophobia. Also, Harlan and Billy had saved sperm and there is now a little boy being raised by others.
The second is Billy’s Boy from 1997. That boy, now not so little, learns about who he is. Again I don’t remember a lot, though I thought the imagery in the boy’s dreams of identity were a bit heavy-handed.
They were groundbreaking reads for me a quarter century ago and are very much of their time. Though after briefly considering them now I prefer my gay romances with a lot less homophobia.
Common Sons by Ronald L. Donaghe, first printed in 1989, is about Joel who grew up Common, New Mexico and Tom, new to the town. I read it maybe 20 years ago. It takes place in 1965. Joel’s parents are accepting but Tom is a preacher’s son. It takes a while to figure out what they’re feeling is love. After that they face the reactions of the community.
I have two sequels. In The Blind Season, Common Threads in Life, published in 2001, Joel and Tom use a surrogate to produce a daughter for them. The title refers to the time when rattlesnakes shed their skin and are, for a while, blind and willing to strike out at anything.
In The Gathering, published in 2006, that daughter, now grown, plus other children Tom and Joel adopted gather because of a tragedy – since I read it 15 years ago I don’t remember details.
Again, the story has a lot more homophobia that I would want in modern stories. I definitely avoided another novel in the series titled The Salvation Mongers. Yeah, it’s about a conversion therapy camp. According to online reviews it thankfully doesn’t involve Joel or Tom, which is why I felt I could skip it.
I had said I am attracted to men with children so this book caught my attention when I saw it perhaps 25 years ago. It is The Boys and Their Baby by Larry Wolff, published in 1988. Adam, who is straight, moves to San Francisco to share a place with his college roommate Huck. Strangely, Huck has an infant son. Where is the mother? It takes a while for Adam to figure out Huck is gay. Soon Adam, Huck, and the baby forge a family. And no, Adam does not come to realize he is gay.
The Kid by Dan Savage was published in 1999. Yes, he writes Savage Love that appears in many alternative newspapers. He has also written about his wedding and a lot about LGBTQ ethics, mostly countering the ethics used to oppress us. This is the story of what he and his boyfriend Terry went through to adopt theirs son DJ. Savage is, as usual, witty as he recounts the strange things gay couples go through to adopt children. I enjoyed it and recommend this book and others by Savage.
In 2021 Trystan Reese came out with How We Do Family, From Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, What We Learned About Love and LGBTQ Parenthood. He’s a transgender man in a gay marriage. He and Biff are parents of three children. Two of them were adopted from Biff’s sister. The third came through Trystan’s pregnancy – and he made sure the medical staff were cool with respecting a man who is pregnant. The chapters have titles like, “How We Do Love,” “How We Do Crisis,” “How We do Marriage,” “How We Do Birth,” and a few more. At the end of each chapter Reese includes notes to explain how another couple might do what they did. I recommend this one. It is an important story of our community.
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel published in 2008. The book is 390 panels of this weekly comic that ran in alternative newspapers, including Between the Lines, the LGBTQ newspaper in Michigan where I read it. What’s in this book are panels that ran from 1987, when it seemed nobody was writing about the lives of lesbians, to 2008. It isn’t just about their love lives (though there is that), it’s about their home lives, jobs, interacting with neighbors and the community, dealing with parents, enduring medical issues, and raising kids – yeah, pretty much like families of straight couples. Which was Bechdel’s point.
The main characters are Mo (the one most likely to rant); partners Tony and Clarice and their son Rafael; the friends Lois, Ginger, Sparrow, and Stuart (yeah, a guy) who share a house; Jasmine and her transgender daughter Janis; plus various lovers and other characters.
Along the way is a lot of ranting (much by Mo) against the politics of the day – this stretches from the end of the Reagan era through Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II. Many times the actions of the characters parallel the actions of the government as a way of showing what the government is doing wrong. An example is Stuart replacing the carpet on the stairs because it smells funky while Ginger insists the smell is coming from the wall, then Stuart doing a bad job laying new carpet. Bechdel is clear this describes the invasion of Iraq, though the 9/11 terrorists came from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
One cool thing is these characters are not static, locked into being the same page to page. In particular Rafael grows from an infant in 1994 to a smart-mouth teen in 2008. These comic panels tell a cohesive story of friends over a 20 year period. I enjoyed it.
First Person Plural by Andrew W.M. Beierle, published in 2007. Porter and Owen have been inseparable since birth. They are conjoined twins – so conjoined that they are two heads on one body. Each controls half the body they share. Though they are frequently referred to as PorterandOwen each is a distinct personality. The story is an intriguing look at two minds sharing one body, how they have to negotiate each aspect of growing up, though two heads can sometimes be an advantage.
It is also intriguing because in their teen years Owen begins to understand he is gay. Porter figures it out when their shared manhood reacts to what Owen is looking at. Porter is mostly accepting, though not so much of Owen’s lovers. The story is well told – I reread a chapter and see it is high quality writing. I enjoyed it and recommend it.
In Both Sides Now by Peyton Thomas, published in 2021, Finch is a transgender guy in high school. His debate team partner is Jonah, who is gay. Finch sees doing well on the debate team as a way to get into college. The pair understand a match will require them to debate both sides of an issue. They will compete in the national debate championship. Then the topic is announced: “This House would allow transgender students in public schools to use bathroom facilities of their choice.” This will not be some abstract issue. I enjoyed this one and recommend it.
Winter’s Orbit by new author Everina Maxwell and published in 2021. It is both a gay romance and science fiction – and I like both of those.
Prince Kiem of Iskat is thought of as the most disappointing of his generation of forty cousins. He is called before his grandmother the Emperor and is told he’ll have to give up his playboy ways because tomorrow he must marry Count Jainan of Thea. Iskat and Thea and a few other planets are to sign a Resolution in one month. That Resolution requires a marriage between an Iskat prince and a Thean diplomat. The marriage is the next day because it is the day after the end of the one month of mourning of Taam, who was Jainan’s previous partner.
The Auditor in charge of assuring all aspects of the Resolution are proper is taking way too long to agree the marriage meets requirements. And the palace Internal Security has flagged Jainan. The whole thing smells of cover-up. Figuring out what is being covered up takes our lads that whole month. That does give them time to fall in love before those trying to do the cover-up put them in grave peril.
How much the humans of Iskat and Thea differ from earth humans of today is not explained. Jainan and Kiem are given only sparse descriptions of height and skin color. So I wonder about orientation and gender identity in the society. Kiem admits to bedding both men and women. Jainan keeps his mouth shut.
We get just a glimpse of how the society treats gender because men wear some sort of amulet made of wood and women wear one made of flint. Nonbinary characters wear neither. Does that imply men and women are hard to tell apart? Or is the convention a handy way to alert another person to preferred pronouns? Since Kiem’s bisexuality is not remarked on does it imply a large portion of the population is also bisexual? That aspect of the story isn’t explained, it just is.
As I did last time I’ll mention LGBTQ movies I’ve watched.
The title character of Mario is in a minor league soccer team with good potential to move up. He is asked to room with teammate Leon and they fall in love. Because of the sport’s homophobia Mario is faced with giving up on love or on the game that could provide a comfortable and celebrated life. I enjoyed it. After a while I realized the actor playing Mario reminded me of the cartoon character TinTin (a completely different character than RinTinTin).
Private Desert was Brazil’s nomination for Best International Film in last spring’s Oscars. Daniel was ejected from the police force because of a violent incident. While taking care of his senile father he keeps himself sane by sending nude selfies to Sara, who lives a thousand miles away. But she ghosts him. He abandons Dad to his sister to find Sara. He eventually learns that Sara is transgender and ghosted him when she saw he can be violent. This is a good one.
Heartstopper is a teen romance between Charlie, who knows he’s gay, and Nick, the captain of the rugby team at their all boy school. Considering how young the characters are I was pleased they never went further than kissing. Also of interest is Ellie who had been a regular part of Charlie’s lunchtime group and is now attending an all girl school, which implies she is transgender. It is a sweet story. I watched season 1 and hear season 2 is in production. The show is based on a series of graphic novels.
Young Royals season 2 is out. In my previous post I mentioned season 1. At a boarding school Prince Wilhelm of Sweden falls in love with Simon, a commoner. By the time this is posted I’ll likely be watching episodes 5 and 6 of season 2. When discussing gay romances I said the formula puts challenges on the love. That’s definitely the case here.
LGBTQ LITERATURE SCHEDULE (2022)
If you are interested in taking any of the following dates, please comment below or send a message to Chrislove. We’re always looking for new writers, and anything related to LGBTQ literature is welcome!
January 30: Ushka Waso
February 27: OPEN
March 27: Chrislove
April 24: Clio2
May 29: Chrislove
June 26: Chrislove
July 31: OPEN
August 28: OPEN
September 25: bellist
October 30: Chrislove
November 27: bellist
December 25: OPEN
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE
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