I didn’t set out to wre thrillers wh gay characters. I see the world through a gay man’s eye, and there are tobgraphil elements all my work.
Contents:
- ON WRG GAY CHARACTERS THRILLERS
- WRER GAY CROSSWORD CLUE
- 25 MOST INFLUENTIAL GAY AUTHORS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
- THE LBIAN WRER AND HER FLAMBOYANT GAY HBAND
- A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
ON WRG GAY CHARACTERS THRILLERS
* writer and gay *
That revolutn, brilliantly documented by Christopher Bram Ement Outlaws, had already been fought—and won, to the extent that gay wrers uld be open, and their gay characters, too.
WRER GAY CROSSWORD CLUE
Fd out the 25 Most Influential Gay Authors You Should Know About 1. Osr Wil 2. Jam Baldw 3. Tennsee Williams 4. Gore Vidal 5. Edmund Whe. * writer and gay *
Often homosexualy was suggted but never articulated, hidn between the l for savvy rears to gus, nveyed through plsible scen between straight men but homoerotic at the same time. I did know what kd of books I wanted to wre: spenseful yet character-driven, thoughtful about social issu whout beg msage-lan, and wh a gay element.
25 MOST INFLUENTIAL GAY AUTHORS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
That’s the challenge, of urse: how to make a gay character ccial to a story, and not makg an appearance only for diversy’s sake.
None of my books would have been the same whout a gay character, and each has been part of an important event wh a gay twist that changed the directn of a story. None of the events would have occurred the same way, and the plots wouldn’t have turned on the same pot, whout a ccial gay moment.
Usually women have been portrayed as iatg the ce to wheedle rmatn om a lover or set him up to be blackmailed, but there’s no reason n’t be a gay character siarly ensnarg a gay antagonist. In polics and relign, they’re equently the most vol spearheadg efforts to ny gay rights; or so we fd out, when they are fally ught flagrante licto or outed some other way.
THE LBIAN WRER AND HER FLAMBOYANT GAY HBAND
My gay CIA agent fely explos his antagonist’s shame over his sexual preferenc, which admtedly are a ltle kky and eventually brg about his downfall. Jt like straight brothels are unlikely settgs for gay stori, gay bathho and sex clubs are unlikely venu for scen a pletely straight story. In my novels set Turkish or Arab lotns, I’ve set scen tradnal hammams which are atmospheric and homoerotic but rarely overtly sexual.
Thirty or forty years ago, was some variatn on limp-wristed hairdrsers wh a lisp; or, someone “light their loafers” as a natnal news magaze notorly scribed homosexual men.
A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
The world of thrillers and crime fictn is still largely unhabed by gays, though that’s changg thanks to the wrers like John Copenhaver, Michael Nava, Neil Plakcy, and Christoher Bollen (to name a very few). Havg gay protagonists is also a way to ph back at the genre’s stereotype, which is so prone to gratuo vlence agast women that, three years ago, the ternatnal Stnch Book Prize was lnched “for thrillers which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploed, raped or murred.