 |
An inveterate Magic: the Gathering player, I pay close
attention to the lore and THIS STORY, Not for a Stranger,
is the one for this month. A toast to Huatli and Saheeli. |
"Hail royal June, sun-bright with poppies crowned"
said John Cowper Powys, the English philosopher, lecturer, novelist,
critic and poet. But I echo that hail today for another reason in
addition to joyous Summer. It is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and with it let
me continue to offer my undying support for the LGBTQIA+ community and
reiterate the role Fantasy literature plays in supporting them by, to start, inviting people to read my LGBTQIA+ in Fantasy page. As I state on the just
mentioned page, I personally am not LGBTQIA+. However, I have students
who are and one
year I told them – quite truthfully, by the way – that I was writing a
Fantasy book in which one of the key characters is lesbian.
Their eyes lit and they were on their feet in less time than it takes to
say it. But it is the moment when I told them that the character is a
Queen that I shall forever remember, for the glow on their faces
out-shown the lights on the ceiling by a leap and a bound. They began
questioning me about the character, wanting to know her name, what she
looked like, all about the land she ruled and, most importantly, when
the book was coming out. To this last I gave them a disappointing
answer, for an unfinished rough draft of a 500+ page book is naturally
years away from publication, and they asked me how they were supposed to
wait that long for a book with a gay Queen. They want to see the rough
draft as it stands and one who has some artistic skill began drawing
this Queen based on my description. The moral of the story?
Representation matters, people. Seeing yourself in literature matters in
a huge way. Indeed, when I found these students they were eagerly
pursuing the school library's LGBTQIA+ Pride Month book display.
Moving on, permit me to quote in full this article from The Hill titled In an era of book bans, sci-fi and fantasy offer an LGBTQ refuge for young readers:
Science
fiction and fantasy are providing an oasis for young readers craving
LGBTQ characters they can relate to as activists and wary parents
increasingly clamp down on material they find offensive. Books featuring
LGBTQ content are disproportionately targeted for bans in U.S. schools
and libraries, with the most challenged titles regularly including
“Gender Queer,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “The Perks of Being a
Wallflower.” But while those memoirs and realistic coming-of-age stories
take the hits, superheroes, space travel and dragons often escape
mainstream notice — and the heat that comes with it. Author TJ Klune
told The Hill he knows some schools have at least a few of his magical,
queer-themed works, including “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” “Under
the Whispering Door” and the young adult “Extraordinaries” trilogy.
Klune said the “Extraordinaries” series, which centers on a gay high
schooler in a world where superheroes are real, has been mentioned in
book-banning conversations before, but he hasn’t seen the full onslaught
faced by other writers.
“It’s strange: Those young adult books
are very sex-positive, in that it has discussions on consent and
boundaries and protection and best practices for younger queer people.
Why those have slipped under the radar, I have no idea,” he said. “I
believe, at least in part, that it has to do with privilege. I am a cis,
white, queer man. Many of the book challenges are from queer/trans
authors of color. If you don’t think the color of my skin is playing a
role in this, you’d be mistaken.”
The American Library
Association says last year saw the highest number of books banned since
it started keeping track of the issue 20 years ago. There were 2,571
unique titles censored in 2022, compared to 1,858 the year before. There
is no clear formula for certain books getting banned over others, but
reasons behind challenges can include genre, prior media attention and
even the directness of a title, said Kathy M. Newman, a professor of
English literary and cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon University who
pointed to Maia Kobabe’s memoir “Gender Queer.”
“It’s
very explicitly about nonbinary identity in a way that some of these
fantasy young adult novels are about a lot of different issues,” Newman
said. Fantasy works can require significantly more effort to sift for
LGBTQ content. “The House in the Cerulean Sea” could be about nearly
anything based on its title; it just so happens to be about a found
family of magical creatures with a gay romance at its center. Newman
said activists go through public records and news articles to get ideas
for what books they should target, regularly hitting ones they’ve seen
censored elsewhere. She also pointed out that sci-fi and fantasy books
for younger readers are often not “taught explicitly in the classroom.”
“It might be under the radar,” she said. Lisa Jenn Bigelow, an
award-winning author who writes children’s books with queer themes,
hasn’t heard of her works — which include “Hazel’s Theory of Evolution”
and “This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us” —
specifically getting banned but said it is important to note the concept
of “soft censorship” in the library world.
“That’s when
gatekeepers might decline to purchase or include a book in classrooms
and libraries because, sometimes, they disagree with the content
themselves, but more often, even they’re worried that the content could
provoke a book challenge from the community. And so rather than take
that risk, they just say, ‘Well, we’re not even gonna bother. We’re not
gonna go there,’” said Bigelow, who also works as a librarian. David
Geiger, a gay middle school English teacher in Virginia, said too many
people treat anything queer-themed as inherently sexual in nature.
“Some
parents think that because a book has LGBTQ characters or is by an
LGBTQ author, they’re automatically inappropriate. I disagree with
that,” he said. Geiger said his school has LGBTQ offerings in its book
club, and he offers some in his classroom reading, specifically
praising, among others, Bigelow’s “Drum Roll, Please.” He said he gives
parents a list of books students are allowed to read in his class, and
if they object to any, he gives the student an alternate reading
assignment.
“I know not to pick books that get into sexually
explicit content,” he said. Geiger said he hasn’t had any problems with
angry parents, emphasizing that LGBTQ representation is particularly
important for young readers. “I try and make sure that as many students
can see themselves in the literature as possible,” he said.
While
authors and schools have been forced to the frontlines of the book ban
issue, some are not concerned about the pushback they could receive.
Bigelow said she expects her titles will come under the microscope
sooner or later, “especially since the book-banning movement is getting
more aggressive and is targeting more
