Rainbow Warriors and an out of touch old lady

[Nephylim]

Hey all.

 

I have a blog called Rainbow Warriors. It's a YA blog separate to my adult one. It's mission statement is

 

To bring gay characters into the mainstream and make them simply characters, as we are simply people.

 

but as well as to promote YA work - mine and others (so anyone who has a YA published book, or story here on Ga you'd like to promote I'd be happy to host you - I want it to be a place to promote gay youth.

 

The problem is, I'm completely out of touch with gay youth, especially since I'm not so active on the forms. Therefore I need your help!!

 

Please, please help me with views, ideas, blog posts, interviews, art  - anything and everything. The doors are open to you

 

http://cherylheadford.blogspot.co.uk/

[C J]

I can't talk for other people, but I don't look at myself as gay. I don't want to be looked at as gay. I think that if I set myself apart as being gay then so will other people. I'm not hiding my sexuality, but I don't make it an issue because it's people making an issue of it that causes problems to start with. I like to think that I'm making it a non issue because that's what I want others to do.  The few times that someone has tried to make it an issue with me I ignored it for the most part, and it never became an issue.  I'm sure people talk about it in private, but I'm treated with the same respect that I treat others with, and I'm accepted as just another person anywhere I go.  Some people may not like me but they don't have any allies to help them so they keep their thoughts to themselves.  Some people will never accept the idea of someone being gay, so getting them to shut up and act like it's OK is fine with me.

 

I think that in these types of situations the best thing to do is ignore the negatives and go about your life just like everyone else.  Sometimes trying to counter someone's attitude only seems to strengthen it.  I live in farm country full of country people and I don't think there are very many of them that care whether or not I'm gay.  If I was pushing it in their face then that would probably change.  I suppose it's possible that I'm just lucky, but I don't think so. 

[Nephylim]

That's fantastic. I totally agree that labels aren't helpful, but sometimes they are necessary. The world is full of books with strong characters and the huge majority of them are strictly het. That is, if there is any kind of relationship it's always male/female. Which is fine. Except the world is not just full of relationship that are always male/female.

 

It's not just about assigning labels, it's more about people being able to pick up a book and find characters like them and relationships just like their own. I'm wouldn't dream of presuming that I'm the only one who can write those books, I know absolutely I'm not. There are many others out there, so many better than me, that write fantastic books with strong gay, bisexual, transexual, transgender, asexual, gender fluid, and all the other shades that make up our rainbow. The problem is, these books are not readily available and we're all trying to do our bit to drag them out into the mainstream so that anyone, not just gay people, who want to read them know they're there and can find them easily.

 

My dream is that one day there will be gay, lesbian, transexual gender fluid and all kinds of other characters in series that have the success of Harry Potter and Twilight. I'm not conceited enough to think I'll write them, but I want to play my part in paving the way for them. In doing that, I want to give other people a voice because I've banged on long enough