Be Gay, Do Crime: 20 Mt-Read LGBTQ+ Crime Novels

Contents:

• GAY TE CRIME BOOKS
• BE GAY, DO CRIME: 20 MT-READ LGBTQ+ CRIME NOVELS
• THE GAY MEN FREQUENTED MANHATTAN PIANO BARS. SO DID THEIR KILLER.
• QUEER TE CRIME STORI OF THE PAST SHOW HOW THE PRS STOKED FEAR OF GAY MEN
• ‘LEG’ REUNTS GAY MAN’S EXPERIENCE WH CEREBRAL PALSY

GAY TE CRIME BOOKS

Meanwhile hate crim, cludg murrs of gay, trans and non-bary people are on the rise. Jt Lg had been vtigatg the disappearanc of multiple men Toronto’s gay village for three years before Bce McArthur was officially arrted 2018 and charged wh three unts—and eventually eight unts—of first-gree murr. The se of Richard Rogers, the killer who preyed on gay men New York Cy the late 80s and early 90s was overshadowed by the AIDS epimic a time when homophobia was the norm.

BE GAY, DO CRIME: 20 MT-READ LGBTQ+ CRIME NOVELS

Like Bce McArthur, the Last Call Killer was targetg middle aged gay men, often pickg them up gay bars. The murr of Gianni Versace 1997 ma headl all over the world, but the spected killer, Andrew Cunanan—who was gay—had already killed four people before that.

Usg exampl of s that employed the “gay panic fense”, Polch illtrat how people who mted hate crim were able to succsfully turn the tabl and blame the victim for their own murr. He also shows how the language ed by the media poted the fger at gay men blamg them for any vlence they suffered.

THE GAY MEN FREQUENTED MANHATTAN PIANO BARS. SO DID THEIR KILLER.

Polch then explas how activists ed the discrimatn they experienced to build the gay rights movement and beg fightg back.

One reviewer poted to the story’s ncealed “homosexual attachment” between the killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smh.

QUEER TE CRIME STORI OF THE PAST SHOW HOW THE PRS STOKED FEAR OF GAY MEN

“Perhaps the key to Capote’s failure is the mutg of the homosexual theme, ” wrote the New York Tim reviewer.

Such criqu suggted that homosexualy self explaed the killers’ gome murr of a Kansas farm fay on a November night 1959. This ia was well sued for Cold War Ameri where homosexualy was a nstant threat to social life.

While today we read the book’s simmerg homosexual unrton more nuanced ways (particularly those between Smh and Capote himself), at the time Capote had to let them lger the margs and between the l, somewhere between facts and fictns.

‘LEG’ REUNTS GAY MAN’S EXPERIENCE WH CEREBRAL PALSY

While some queer crim were sensatnalized on the ont pag, they were ually stori of vlent, psychopathic, killers wh homosexual tennci. Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn.

Central to the story Filer tells is the historil arc of queer activism that emerged the aftermath of the fire, mobilizg the cy’s LGBTQ populatn the s that followed, and the eventual crimalizatn of homosexualy the state 2003. In tailg this fotten crime, Delery illtrat tersectg prejudic of homophobia and anti-Mexin racism on the lol and natnal level Cold War Ameri.