YAM blogathon - Fantasy books
For my first post for the blogathon, I decided to look at my first exposure to LGBT entertainment
The very first exposure to LGBT entertainment for me was from fantasy, both fanfiction and the Last Herald Mage series by Mercedes Lackey and the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. Doubtless there were other exposures, but they seemed to have skidded off my mind. I’m not surprised that my first exposure would be from books as they have always been my main form of entertainment.
I was in fanfiction since an early age, but I would have been sheltered from the Kirk/Spock stories (one of my earliest fandoms) because back in those days there was no internet. Most of us were naïve enough to give our honest ages to the people running the paper APA’s and we weren’t allowed to read the zines containing adult stories. They just weren’t mailed to our houses. And if we lied, then I guess it would have been on us, and we’d have to worry about mom and dad finding it. That is neither here nor there, I suppose.
I’m not sure that fanfiction fits the entertainment definition entirely, but it is spawned by various forms of entertainment, so why not? I was particularly active in the Elfquest, Herald, Pern and Star Trek universes in the 1980’s (and beyond). As an older teen, I noticed several gay characters (fandoms at this time were different. You created your own original characters for the fandom’s universe. Only Star Trek allowed you to use their characters and even then, most of the groups I was in had all original characters). I never thought anything about the homosexual characters. They were every bit as intriguing as any other character.
I was friends with several of the APA editors and a few did mention problems with the gay characters; how some people didn’t like them. Of course, it was made out like certain southern dwelling members were to blame for that, working off the gross generalization of white sheets, torches and intolerance of all kinds. When The Last Herald Mage series came out, I learned that it might not have been just those ‘southern’ members with the problem, judging by some of the comments the editors made in regards to that book. More on that in a moment.
I didn’t have too many gay characters and, oddly enough, they were mostly gay men and not lesbians. My own beliefs about sex have always been very free flowing. It never mattered to me if someone was gay, straight or bi and several of my homosexual characters were based on personal friends of mine who were never shy about telling me their sex life. I remember when one character of mine opened up about being bisexual, a couple friends reading my work were taken aback. ‘He’ll never be taken seriously now,’ they said.
I thought about that criticism long and hard. It never made sense to me and at the time I did ask why they would think that. Oh, I knew the implications, of course. You couldn’t take gays seriously, and that they weren’t as good as ‘normal’ people. That I shouldn’t have a gay character because it would be marginalized (in Elfquest, fandom worked like a shared universe where all the characters were up for grabs for anyone to write or draw with permission of the creator). No one would want to use my gay characters, was their basic point. It made me very uncomfortable. It was the first time I had to deal with homophobia in my own social circle. It was the late 1980’s and, certainly, people were a lot less open about their sexual orientation at that time. I could hardly blame them. I entered medical school in 1989 and they were still calling HIV ‘that Gay disease.’ I had never thought about the fact that some of my friends could be homophobes and in turn, I’m sure they never thought that I would have no issues with same sex love.
Also in 1989, Magic’s Pawn came out. While over in the Pern universe, homosexuality between the mostly male dragon riders was hinted at, it wasn’t really a main part of the story. However, in Lackey’s Herald books, we had an openly (if conflicted) gay character in Vanyel Ashkevron. It was one of the first books I could remember that had a gay main character. There was no lacking of homophobia in the book as well.
Sadly, that homophobia spilled over into the fan-base for the books. I can remember the uproar this caused. Fans all over were very upset by it. If you did admit to liking it, you could end up ostracized by the fan groups, at least at first. The series did win over many fans in the end but before it did, I heard those words again, ‘how can we take him (Vanyel) seriously now?’ or worse, ‘How can we take Lackey seriously now? No one will buy her books any more now that she’s writing about gays’ (okay they used a much more derogatory word, but I’d rather not).
Obviously, writing a gay character did not end Lackey’s career, but from the early buzz, you would have thought it might. In the end, Vanyel and The Last Herald Mage trilogy ended up being one of the first series that I can remember in the fantasy genre that featured a gay character, as I mentioned earlier.
I liked Vanyel a lot. I didn’t end up liking the series, though (which had more to do with a publishing schedule that allowed for very little polish between books. I thought they were weak plot-wise). I wanted to write characters like Vanyel, but that wasn’t going to happen until several years later (there was that pesky little thing called medical school sucking up my time). I’ll talk about that more this week. Regardless of what I ended up thinking of Lackey’s series, The Last Herald Mage was the start of something. I still don’t see a lot of mainstream fantasy stories with gay characters, but a few are slowly cropping up (though more in urban fantasy than high fantasy). If you can think of any, drop me a line.
YAM magazine's LGBT Blogathon
The very first exposure to LGBT entertainment for me was from fantasy, both fanfiction and the Last Herald Mage series by Mercedes Lackey and the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. Doubtless there were other exposures, but they seemed to have skidded off my mind. I’m not surprised that my first exposure would be from books as they have always been my main form of entertainment.
I was in fanfiction since an early age, but I would have been sheltered from the Kirk/Spock stories (one of my earliest fandoms) because back in those days there was no internet. Most of us were naïve enough to give our honest ages to the people running the paper APA’s and we weren’t allowed to read the zines containing adult stories. They just weren’t mailed to our houses. And if we lied, then I guess it would have been on us, and we’d have to worry about mom and dad finding it. That is neither here nor there, I suppose.
I’m not sure that fanfiction fits the entertainment definition entirely, but it is spawned by various forms of entertainment, so why not? I was particularly active in the Elfquest, Herald, Pern and Star Trek universes in the 1980’s (and beyond). As an older teen, I noticed several gay characters (fandoms at this time were different. You created your own original characters for the fandom’s universe. Only Star Trek allowed you to use their characters and even then, most of the groups I was in had all original characters). I never thought anything about the homosexual characters. They were every bit as intriguing as any other character.
I was friends with several of the APA editors and a few did mention problems with the gay characters; how some people didn’t like them. Of course, it was made out like certain southern dwelling members were to blame for that, working off the gross generalization of white sheets, torches and intolerance of all kinds. When The Last Herald Mage series came out, I learned that it might not have been just those ‘southern’ members with the problem, judging by some of the comments the editors made in regards to that book. More on that in a moment.
I didn’t have too many gay characters and, oddly enough, they were mostly gay men and not lesbians. My own beliefs about sex have always been very free flowing. It never mattered to me if someone was gay, straight or bi and several of my homosexual characters were based on personal friends of mine who were never shy about telling me their sex life. I remember when one character of mine opened up about being bisexual, a couple friends reading my work were taken aback. ‘He’ll never be taken seriously now,’ they said.
I thought about that criticism long and hard. It never made sense to me and at the time I did ask why they would think that. Oh, I knew the implications, of course. You couldn’t take gays seriously, and that they weren’t as good as ‘normal’ people. That I shouldn’t have a gay character because it would be marginalized (in Elfquest, fandom worked like a shared universe where all the characters were up for grabs for anyone to write or draw with permission of the creator). No one would want to use my gay characters, was their basic point. It made me very uncomfortable. It was the first time I had to deal with homophobia in my own social circle. It was the late 1980’s and, certainly, people were a lot less open about their sexual orientation at that time. I could hardly blame them. I entered medical school in 1989 and they were still calling HIV ‘that Gay disease.’ I had never thought about the fact that some of my friends could be homophobes and in turn, I’m sure they never thought that I would have no issues with same sex love.
Also in 1989, Magic’s Pawn came out. While over in the Pern universe, homosexuality between the mostly male dragon riders was hinted at, it wasn’t really a main part of the story. However, in Lackey’s Herald books, we had an openly (if conflicted) gay character in Vanyel Ashkevron. It was one of the first books I could remember that had a gay main character. There was no lacking of homophobia in the book as well.
Sadly, that homophobia spilled over into the fan-base for the books. I can remember the uproar this caused. Fans all over were very upset by it. If you did admit to liking it, you could end up ostracized by the fan groups, at least at first. The series did win over many fans in the end but before it did, I heard those words again, ‘how can we take him (Vanyel) seriously now?’ or worse, ‘How can we take Lackey seriously now? No one will buy her books any more now that she’s writing about gays’ (okay they used a much more derogatory word, but I’d rather not).
Obviously, writing a gay character did not end Lackey’s career, but from the early buzz, you would have thought it might. In the end, Vanyel and The Last Herald Mage trilogy ended up being one of the first series that I can remember in the fantasy genre that featured a gay character, as I mentioned earlier.
I liked Vanyel a lot. I didn’t end up liking the series, though (which had more to do with a publishing schedule that allowed for very little polish between books. I thought they were weak plot-wise). I wanted to write characters like Vanyel, but that wasn’t going to happen until several years later (there was that pesky little thing called medical school sucking up my time). I’ll talk about that more this week. Regardless of what I ended up thinking of Lackey’s series, The Last Herald Mage was the start of something. I still don’t see a lot of mainstream fantasy stories with gay characters, but a few are slowly cropping up (though more in urban fantasy than high fantasy). If you can think of any, drop me a line.
YAM magazine's LGBT Blogathon
