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I'm going to admit that I don't understand the idea that we can't ask about author identities because doing so will keep closeted authors from writing about queer characters.
"I had to lie about my identity in order to stay in the safety of the closet" is...what the closet is. It's why closets suck and are harmful and aren't a secret privilege. Having to lie to ourselves and others to stay safe is awful.
It's *also* harmful to keep having publishing slots going to nonqueer people making bank while writing about the queer experience. And the only way to prevent *that* harm is to allow the ask of, well, Are you claiming a queer identity in public?
If the answer is "no, I'm not claiming a queer identity as the author of this queer book" then readers are...going to discuss that situation.
Because there IS an imbalance in who gets published. Because there ARE harmful representations of us.
Because there IS an imbalance in who gets published. Because there ARE harmful representations of us.
I can well believe that it's harmful to stay in the closet and watch people discuss your apparent nonqueerness! But we can't just never again mention that nonqueer people are favored in publishing because some of those folks *might* be closeted.
And I frankly find it very weird to write a coming out post that seems to be blaming everyone for, like, making you come out of the closet because folks kept believing you when you said you weren't queer?
I saw people saying folks "forced" an author to come out, and like?
I saw people saying folks "forced" an author to come out, and like?
All that fame and success was garnished with some criticism about queer stories being told by an apparently unqueer author, and that criticism "forced" them out? That doesn't compute to me at all.
Being in a closet isn't a privilege, but I don't think it's fair to expect every nonqueer person in the world to be treated as Probably Secretly Queer in order to protect closeted folks from the pain of being treated as nonqueer by the queer community.
We're allowed to want to have our own spaces, to spend our money on our own creators, and to ask that we be represented by our own voices.
To ask that we treat everyone on earth as queer, even as they deny it, is to ask us to dissolve our community.
To ask that we treat everyone on earth as queer, even as they deny it, is to ask us to dissolve our community.
I think it's valid to realize you're queer as part of your writing. I didn't realize I was trans until AFTER I noticed I was writing a LOT of trans characters.
Reviewers talking about my cisness (at the time) didn't force me out of the closet. I was coming out at my own pace.
Reviewers talking about my cisness (at the time) didn't force me out of the closet. I was coming out at my own pace.
If I'd gotten to be a major bestseller on a book about trans masc issues, it would've been very relevant to talk about this "cis" author who was profiting off of stories that weren't "hers" to tell, I think.
That wouldn't make me less trans masc, and it wouldn't make my book bad, and it wouldn't make the reviewers talking about my cisness bad.
It's just...part of the messiness of coming out and realizing you've been wrong about yourself for years.
It's just...part of the messiness of coming out and realizing you've been wrong about yourself for years.
It's why I'm not even sure the Closet metaphor applies here. "Closet" suggests knowing you're queer and hiding it.
"I didn't realize I was queer, but I am" is a different thing that most of us went through.
"I didn't realize I was queer, but I am" is a different thing that most of us went through.
"I didn't realize I was queer, but I am, and I feel pressured to tell everyone now so that the criticism of my books will stop" is a thing, clearly, but I don't see a queer party at fault here.
It's a side-effect of nonqueer society assigning you a nonqueer identity at birth.
It's a side-effect of nonqueer society assigning you a nonqueer identity at birth.
Last of all, "forced out of the closet" means something, and what force ISN'T is "some people didn't buy my book / criticized it".
That's not forcibly outing someone. Choosing to come out in the hopes that your books won't be criticized isn't being forced out of the closet.
That's not forcibly outing someone. Choosing to come out in the hopes that your books won't be criticized isn't being forced out of the closet.
Hell, choosing to come out so that people will stop calling you nonqueer isn't being forced out either. "Forced" means you didn't have a choice. It means the choice was made for you by someone else.
If your choices are to come out of the closet or to endure a thing you don't like--being assumed nonqueer, being criticized, being reviewed through a certain lens--then you have a choice to stay in that closet.
That it's a choice doesn't mean the closet is comfy. It never is.
That it's a choice doesn't mean the closet is comfy. It never is.
So I'm a little puzzled at the accusatory tone of "I didn't want to have to come out like this but I GUESS I HAVE TO" when the alternative was.............that people continue to believe you're not queer, like you previously said and/or let them believe. I puzzle.
But I'm just one queer person on the internet, and my brain is often a little broken, so if it makes sense to you then that's what matters.
In closing:
"I felt I had to step out of the closet so queer people would spend money on my books" is NOT a problem queer people caused.
"I felt I had to step out of the closet so queer people would spend money on my books" is NOT a problem queer people caused.
Queer people don't owe our limited income to anyone who writes a queer book? We're allowed to spend money on folks who are openly and publicly part of our community? Other people have other criteria of how they spend their money.
Addition: Folks have asked what people who are forced into the closet should do, and I can't answer that because my own experience was that being forced into the closet meant I couldn't write queer characters even as an "ally".
My best advice if you're in a situation where you're (a) forced in the closet but (b) allowed to write best-selling books and movies about queer people is:
- use the money to get safe.
- come out while flipping off the people who forced you into the closet.
- give them nothing.
- use the money to get safe.
- come out while flipping off the people who forced you into the closet.
- give them nothing.
The only reason I'm able to write books with queer people in them is because I told my family not to read them because "it's a romance novel with sex in there". They don't know my books are queer and I stay safe.
So, yeah, closets suck and I'll be the first to admit that. Sigh.
