Gay YA: a question of intent

[utsusemia]

It takes a lot to make me overcome my inertia and actually make a blog post, internets, but that time has come.

So, you might not have heard the YA blogosphere blow up yesterday, but it did! Here are good summaries:

cleolinda makes an excellent and well-reasoned overview of the situation, complete with many links to the major players that you should

Comments

[rachelmanija]

The probable objection to the foregoing is that the justifications matter because it de-emphasizes the remove-the-gay aspects of the critique if they were also asked to remove-the-straight.When changing or closeting Yuki's sexual orientation was brought up, we had quite long argument on the subject. We were explicitly told that we could not have a gay character. When we argued, we were told that maybe we could just not mention his sexual orientation in the book, but have him come out in sequels, should there be any. That was not acceptable to us. (All else aside, his romance is an important part of the story

[rachelmanija]

Sorry for the tl;dr. I really would prefer to talk about the larger issues.

It is obvious from the bazillions of other authors with similar encounters with other editors and agents that this is not remotely an isolated incident involving one "bad guy." It is a systemic social problem which is not, of course, limited to YA publishing. That's just the particular piece of the system Sherwood and I happen to be involved in.

[utsusemia]

Hi! Thanks for the clarifications. You guys have been very professional throughout this, and I hope that some of the immediate, "oh, of course the agency is right!" responses might reconsider when the dust settles.

But you're absolutely right, this issue is systemic and pervasive. I have seen something similar happen in the editing stages (as regards race issues) and I think it's incredibly important to acknowledge and not dismiss these occurrences (because of course the people you know aren't homophobic.)

Which was what I was trying to get at in this essay (speaking of tl;dr, yikes!)

I guess what I mean is, if you give the agency the most absolutely charitable reading of events (because the other stuff you describe here is much more awful), what they did is *still* perpetuating the homophobic trends in the industry. And if someone read that rebuttal and came away with, "wow, it seems like they did nothing wrong," then I don't think they've dealt with the real-life implications and questionable premises of the defense.

[rachelmanija]

I have seen something similar happen in the editing stages (as regards race issues)

Is that something you can talk about?

[utsusemia]

Unfortunately, it happened to someone I know, not to me, so it wouldn't be fair of me to share it publicly.

[oyceter]

++++++, especially especially especially to those last two paragraphs.

[utsusemia]

:) Thanks!

[holyschist]

This is a fantastic analysis and makes a lot of points I haven't seen raised elsewhere; thank you for making it.

[utsusemia]

Thanks :)

[color_blue]

I love this post, especially the last two paragraphs. Thanks for making it.

[utsusemia]

Thank you!