I'm reading a book of short mysteries with gay themes or references, and so far I've been anything but impressed. I just finished one that was so obviously a rip-off of Deathtrap, I couldn't believe it got published. I guess making the intended victim a flaming queen as opposed to a woman with a heart condition or bisexual writer, and the killer a vaguely homophobic straight man instead of a sociopath is all the difference it takes.
I'm probably being too harsh. These stories were all written in the 80s, when being gay was akin to being Typhoid Mary for the AIDS epidemic. I've read other books of the time, and they tend to be circumspect in a lot of things, whereas now a lot of it's in your face. But I find it interesting that so far none of them have addressed that. At all.
Of course, I only make passing mention of it in my work. References to condoms and testing and how ex-cons are taking it home and infecting their wives and girlfriends. I think the harshest comment I make is Curt refusing to think he could be HIV positive, in HTRASG, as he's about to rape a man. But it's not invisible; it's just a fact of life.
Oh, well...I'm through 170 pages of 500+ in my new slash and mend. I know I'm missing some adjectives that could be removed, but I'm going through the story, once more, to do a cleanup and then I'll be asking for feedback.
Something that's happened during my re-styling is Jake facing the fact that his uncle did not want him to come out to Palm Springs after he was disowned by his parents. Never even suggested it as a refuge from the state's homophobia. That's something he's itching to address, and the reasons for it...I dunno if they work yet. Won't know till the end of the story, when all is revealed.
If I ever get there...
I'm probably being too harsh. These stories were all written in the 80s, when being gay was akin to being Typhoid Mary for the AIDS epidemic. I've read other books of the time, and they tend to be circumspect in a lot of things, whereas now a lot of it's in your face. But I find it interesting that so far none of them have addressed that. At all.
Of course, I only make passing mention of it in my work. References to condoms and testing and how ex-cons are taking it home and infecting their wives and girlfriends. I think the harshest comment I make is Curt refusing to think he could be HIV positive, in HTRASG, as he's about to rape a man. But it's not invisible; it's just a fact of life.
Oh, well...I'm through 170 pages of 500+ in my new slash and mend. I know I'm missing some adjectives that could be removed, but I'm going through the story, once more, to do a cleanup and then I'll be asking for feedback.
Something that's happened during my re-styling is Jake facing the fact that his uncle did not want him to come out to Palm Springs after he was disowned by his parents. Never even suggested it as a refuge from the state's homophobia. That's something he's itching to address, and the reasons for it...I dunno if they work yet. Won't know till the end of the story, when all is revealed.
If I ever get there...
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