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.
The overall theme of this post is that LGBTQ people are in a wide variety of fiction. In previous posts I’ve written about gay romance, families headed by gay couples, and even mentioned gay people in science fiction. This time I’ll mention mysteries featuring gay private detectives, gays in historical fiction, gay composers in classical music, and LGBTQ people just living their lives. As I did before I’ll mention some of the LGBTQ movies I saw over the last year.
I’ve read a few mysteries, though a turnoff for me is that usually someone dies and characters are in grave peril. However, I did read the ten books in the Dick Hardesty (yup, that’s the name the author gave him) mysteries by Dorien Grey. They were published 2001-2005. Each book is about 200 pages and is a breezy read. I enjoyed them enough that I eagerly bought and read all ten.
In addition to the mystery is the ongoing developing romance between Dick and Jonathan, a stray youth Dick takes in. Each book also explores one aspect of gay life, such as the bar scene, the arts, or the master-slave relationship of some gay couples.
I also read five of the eight books in the Russell Quant Mysteries of Anthony Bidulka, published 2003-2012. I stopped there because the area LGBTQ center closed its lending library.
Yes, Quant is gay. He works out of an office in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He does have a personal life and love life. Through his cases he travels the world. If murder mysteries are your thing, these are pretty good.
One book I’ll briefly discuss is Sundowner Ubuntu, number 5 in the series. The case takes Quant to South Africa and includes time in Soweto Township. Some of his equipment is stolen and his guide easily gets it returned. Here’s a quote from the book that caught my attention because it fits with my vision of what I’d like life to be:
“For the same reason these people in the townships live so harmoniously together, for the same reason the children were not scared of us today, for the same reason everyone waved at you as we passed by,” Joseph told me. “They know that without the community, without the care and watchfulness and help of their neighbors, they are nothing. If a man takes a thing that is not his, such as the young foolish boy did today, he cannot get away with it. The community cannot let him get away with it. To let him keep it is to say it is okay for this boy to steal from others, and if you steal from others you can also steal from me and my brother and my cousin, because we are all the same.” He looked at me hard. “Even the two of you.”
“But we’re not part of this community,” I countered.
“But you are. You were there today. Do you realize what most visitors to our country never visit a township? They are afraid. They don’t understand. You will be surprised to learn that many city people, people who live right next to us as neighbors, many Afrikaners, have never come to our townships to see what it is to live here.” He downed some beer, then continued. “The people in the community know that if they see you with me, they know you are paying me to bring you, and they know the money you pay me is returned to the township and the community.
“So today when that boy stole the case, many others saw this thing happen, there are always others who see, and there are always those who know who did this thing, so I simply told these men where we would be having dinner tonight and I knew if they could find this boy, and the thing he took, it would be returned to us, just as they would want us to do for them in return.” He smiled. “Ubuntu.”
My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame is a two volume manga novel. Yaichi lives in Japan with his daughter Kana. His twin brother Ryoji moved to Canada to escape homophobia and married Mike. After several years together Ryoji died. Mike has come to Japan to get to know his brother in law and learn about Ryoji’s youth. Kana is delighted in having a foreign uncle. But Yaichi needs time to get used to his twin’s homosexuality standing right in front of him and to understand Mike is a good guy. It’s a simple story with quiet scenes, effectively done.
Now two books, one sequel to the other written by two different authors. The first is Following Foo: The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man by actor BD Wong. He and Ritchie Jackson, his partner at the time, start a family through surrogacy. The mother goes into labor ten weeks early. Of the twin boys Boaz doesn’t make it and Jackson Foo Wong spends three months in intensive care. The book is the email updates Wong sends out to family and friends and several hundred others who ask to be on his mailing list. The baby faces one difficulty after another and Wong relates it all with a great deal of love and a lot of humor (especially the update supposedly written by the baby).
Eighteen years later BD and Ritchie have separated and Ritchie and husband Jordan have been fathering Jackson. When Jackson comes out to his fathers as gay it prompts Ritchie to write Gay Like Me, A Father Writes to His Son. In addition to telling some of his own story Ritchie tells his son such things as: Being gay is awesome. Celebrate your otherness. There will be bad parts to being gay. Learn your gay history. Know the gains we’ve made can be taken away, so protect them. Help make the world better for future LGBTQ people to lead rich and safe lives.
The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimmons is the story of Spencer. He’s transgender. Bullying at his previous school was so bad he’s now at the most liberal private school in Ohio. From his previous experience he doesn’t want anyone at his new school to know he’s trans – he wants to pass as cisgender. He’s great at soccer and makes it onto the boys team. He even finds love – a boy from a very conservative family.
But this is still Ohio and eventually the coach demands to see his birth certificate. Spencer has to decide how much of his past he wants to keep hidden.
Brave Face, How I Survived Growing Up, Coming Out, and Depression by Shaun David Hutchinson is pretty much what the title says. Not many books start with a content warning and contact info for lifeline services (the book came out before 988 became the national crisis line).
He’s in high school in the 1990s, a time of AIDS, the Defense of Marriage Act, and the military Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As Shaun comes to realize he is gay he sees nothing good in the way society treats gay people. He figures by the time he’s an adult he’ll be lonely, sick, addicted, or dead. And along with that he has undiagnosed chronic depression.
Drapetomania by John R Gordon begins with a definition of the title word: “The pathological psychological condition wherein a slave feels compelled to escape his master, however well that master treats him. Recommended treatment for this condition: firm discipline.”
I hadn’t previously encountered a story about gay slaves. Yes, the concept of a gay orientation wasn’t known at the time. Even so, men did fall in love. Cyrus is a field slave and falls in love with Abednego, a house slave. The plantation suffers a severe setback and Abednego is sold. Cyrus has plenty of reason to escape his master – he needs to find his lover.
A good chunk of the story is the journey Cyrus takes. There are lots of times he must decide whether to trust a white person. Another chunk of the story is what happens when Cyrus and Abednego are reunited (what, you thought they wouldn’t be?). Abednego’s plantation has a reputation as the cruelest. The life expectancy of a slave is about five years because the owners concluded it is cheaper to buy replacement slaves than to adequately feed the ones they have. It’s a worthwhile story.
The last book is about music history. Remember the commercial “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner?” Remember the music used in the commercial? It’s an excerpt from Rodeo by Aaron Copland. It was used because it is a distinctly American piece. A few composers from the middle of the 20th century were key in establishing a sound and style that was American and not European. Those few composers were all gay.
In the book The Queer Composition of America’s Sound, Gay Modernists, American Music, and National Identity Nadine Hubbs focused on that group of Manhattan-based gay composers – Aaron Copland, Virgil Thompson, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Paul Bowles, David Diamond, Ned Rorem, and life partners Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti. Hubbs shows how being gay was a major component in the creation of a sound that still signifies “America” in commercials, movies, radio and television, and the concert hall.
During the pandemic lockdown I started streaming a movie every Sunday evening. In 2023 about half of what I watched had LGBTQ central characters. Here are some of the more interesting or unusual movies and I recommend all of them. A wide variety of queer stories are now being told.
Dear Ex is set in Taipei. I didn’t record the names because we don’t relate to them, so I’ll use relationships. Father has died and Mother and teenage Son go to Father’s gay Lover’s apartment complaining Lover has stolen the life insurance money that was to pay for Son’s college. Lover won’t give it back. Mother is so insufferable Son takes refuge in Lover’s place.
No Straight Lines is a documentary about queer comics and their authors start in the age of censorship when gay and lesbian comics were underground. The rise of LGBT newspapers in the 1990s was a boom time. The rise of the internet meant authors had to find another way to get their work seen.
The English film Tucked is about Jackie, an aging and dying drag queen who befriends and helps out a much younger queen named Faith. Jackie reminds us that not all drag queens are gay men. Some straight men like to wear women’s clothing and he made a lounge act out of it. Faith has a great deal of style and is somewhere between male and female. It is a touching story of Faith helping Jackie bring some resolution to his life.
The Blue Caftan is a film from Morocco. Halim and his wife Mina run a caftan shop. He makes the elaborate outfits of satin and silk, spending six weeks on each one. They hire Youssef as an assistant and Halim begins to see Youssef might be receptive to his overtures. The movie does not go where we would expect an American movie to go. This was Morocco’s submission to the 2023 Oscars for Best International Feature Film.
Tu me manques is about Gabriel’s father trying to understand his son. Gabriel moved from conservative Bolivia to New York, where he fell in love with Sebastian. After Dad learns about Gabriel’s death he comes to find out what happened to his son. Dad’s eyes are opened and he wants to nudge Bolivia out of its homophobia. He does so in a way that’s quite powerful.
Cowboys is about Joe, a preteen transgender boy. Father Troy gets it, mother Sally does not. Troy, who has mental health issues, and Joe flee (through beautiful northwest Montana) heading for Canada. Sally tells the police Troy kidnapped Joe.
Time Out is a Bollywood movie about Guarav, who is 14 and has an older brother Mihir, about 18. In addition to the usual issues of being 14 Guarav struggles to figure out what it means to have an older brother who is gay.
Orlando, A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf in which a young nobleman becomes female overnight. The French movie Orlando, My Political Biography is Paul Preciado’s reply to Woolf, saying it doesn’t work that way. Twenty trans people stage scenes from the book and scenes from their own lives to explain what Woolf got wrong.
Movies from Taiwan, England, Morocco, Bolivia, India, and France. Isn’t the internet wonderful? Without it I would not have been able to see many of these films.
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