A report om Human Rights Watch lls on the ernment of St. Vcent to overturn lonial-era anti-gay laws that have led to a recent wave of vlence and genr discrimatn on the small Caribbean island.
Contents:
- WHEN WERE FRODO AND SAM FIRST NCEPTUALIZED AS GAY?
- HOW FRODO AND SAM WERE “MOSTLY GAY”
- WAS FRODO BAGGS GAY AND IS SAM LOVE WH HIM?
- FROM TROYE SIVAN TO PADAM PADAM: ATRALIA IS S GAY ERA AND THE WORLD SHOULD THANK
- HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT
WHEN WERE FRODO AND SAM FIRST NCEPTUALIZED AS GAY?
Note: This say ntas discsn of homophobia and mentn of suici.]. Outsi of the safe darkns of the theater, the Mordor-like wasteland of middle school, the movi were synonymo wh the favored sult of the time — “gay.”.
Early-2000s preteen Ameri was a time of gay jok, of “no homo,” of mockg voic and slurs, and secret, punive vlence enacted the locker room agast anyone who had a whiff of otherns.
He never would have wrten about gay people!” But there are exampl of queerns Tolkien’s time and place, and any speculatn is backed by historil ntext. He faced a urt-martial 1918 after one of his letters scribed “homosexual relatns wh men his pany.” Rather than face the nsequenc — rporal punishment and two years prison — and the shame the trial would brg upon his fay, he walked to enemy fire and was killed.
HOW FRODO AND SAM WERE “MOSTLY GAY”
Two years before The Lord of the Rgs was published, war-wng breaker and geni mathematician Alan Turg stood trial for “homosexual acts and gross cency” — that is, beg ught his own home wh another man. Lewis wrote a letter to Sheldon Vanken (later reprted Vanken’s tobgraphy) that Lewis had received a letter om a “p male homosexual [...] but of urse was the sort of letter one tak re to stroy.”.
WAS FRODO BAGGS GAY AND IS SAM LOVE WH HIM?
The only mentn is a bland reference his bgraphy by Humphrey Carpenter: “As to homosexualy, Tolkien claimed that at neteen he did not even know the word.”. Tolkien wrote of the openly gay poet W.H. As scribed by thor Reynolds Price, at least one member of Tolkien’s iend group, the Inklgs, “separated om his wife and lived a quietly homosexual life.” Most tertg to me, Tolkien was a teacher and fan of Mary Renlt, a wrer who spent her life a romantic relatnship wh another woman.
She beme an in the gay male muny for wrg sympathetilly about same-sex relatnships ancient Greece. Bilbo and Frodo’s home of Bag End is scribed by other hobbs as “a queer place, and s folk are queerer” — an adjective which had a strong nnotatn of homosexualy by the late 1800s.
It’s tricky to apply morn labels to people that they did not claim life — but morn labels clu “straight” and “cisgenr” jt as much as “gay” or “transgenr.” All we n do is look at their liv and be open to the possibily.
FROM TROYE SIVAN TO PADAM PADAM: ATRALIA IS S GAY ERA AND THE WORLD SHOULD THANK
One of them was Geofey Bache Smh, a poet whose work is nsired homoromantic by morn rears. “Homosexualy the First World War.” East Ssex WW1 Project. In The Lord of the Rgs: The Fellowship of the Rg's st mentary, Ian McKellen, a gay in his own right who played Gandalf the Grey, revealed that he was rponsible for the cln of a small but ccial moment between Sam (Sean Ast) and Frodo (Elijah Wood) that featured the books but might not have ma to the films whout his suggtn.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT
"When I suggted to Sean that he take Elijah's hand, ” McKellen explas, “ was bee I thought that [] might be missed by two rolutely heterosexual actors who might not appreciate that gay people, like myself, saw a touch somethg, perhaps, more meangful than others might. McKellen’s suggtn exemplifi how The Lord of the Rgs so succsfully rved a niche for self as a part of queer fandom, and why LGBTQ+ fans are so drawn to the Sam/Frodo relatnship the books: Though Tolkien himself likely didn’t tend to the relatnship as gay, the sheer tenrns of the language and the nstant affectn between the two speaks to a kd of timacy that queer fans are able to regnize and ronate wh. Bradley don't seem to agree that the Frodo and Sam relatnship should be classified as homosexual, but she fely floats the ia.
And some wrers --Judh Merril a book whose name I have fotten--glanced on the possibily that future spachip crews or loni on the moon, all-male, would have to pensate for possible reprsed homosexual sir themselv. But mt we now have a rash of stori whose thors feel nsciently obligated to al wh the evable problem of homosexualy 'rearg s ugly head' every spachip story om now on, jt bee that problem is well and tly alt wh one or two such stori? I emphasize this pot bee was forcibly lled to my attentn when a iend suggted that I should clu the last two of the Tolkien seri on my annual listg of fictn alg wh homosexual and variant them.