Linkdump #7 – Reading and writing February 16, 2010
Posted by zeborah in : links , 1 comment so farIt’s been way too long since I last posted a linkdump, but here’s a few meaty links:
Inspired by the Writers of Color 50 Book Challenge, the Queer Authors 50 Book Challenge has been created to encourage reading books by queer authors. The FAQ includes links to lists of queer sf authors and to zahrawithaz’s list of More than 50 books by Queer People of Color for inspiration.
Richard Norton, a scholar of gay history, has a website of essays on Gay History and Literature – there’s a particular focus on the 18th century (including a sourcebook of hundreds of primary documents from 18th century England) but the essays range from centuries BCE through to the 20th century.
Writing Gay Characters by Megan Rose Gedris covers topics including:
- Why write gay characters at all?
- “Gay Characters” vs. “Characters Who Just Happen to Be Gay”
- Avoiding cliches.
- Romance: How Much is Too Much / Not Enough?
- Gay characters in children’s/ young adult fiction
- Books with Excellent Gay Characters
For more regular linkdumps, please let me know of any interesting links in comments, by email, on the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks“.
Linkdump #6 – Gay literature and TV November 10, 2009
Posted by zeborah in : links , add a commentMiscellaneous
Chris/M-Brane SF comments on the Maine/gay marriage situation and on those who opposed the Matt Shepard law.
A recent conference in New Zealand brought together leaders and youth from sexual minority communities across the Pacific; the article touches on Fa’afafine in Samoa and New Zealand.
On gay literature
Michael Stevens writes about the change in how important gay literature has been to him: “Now there are hundreds of books, by many different authors available. And yet I feel little compunction to follow the latest trends in gay fiction or poetry. It just doesn’t seem to matter to me any longer. Yet once it was central to me discovering who I was and how to negotiate the world.” and “By reading I learnt what it was to be a gay man.”
On LiveJournal community 50books_poc are three recent reviews of LGBT-focused writing:
- M+O4EVR by Tonya Cherie Hegamin, along with a general introduction about LGBT fiction, YA lit, race, and the few other books about African-American queer girls;
- Southland by Nina Revoyr
- “Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the ‘War on Terror’” by Jin Haritaworn, with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem
And GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources “provides an opportunity for readers to express their thoughts regarding fantasy and sci-fi with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered protagonists through book reviews, essays, and reading lists in a non-commercial environment”.
Gay characters on TV
In the Bay Area Reporter, “Going, going, gone!: the case of the missing LGBT characters” looks at the dearth of gay characters on US television. [Though personally I'm disappointed that they describe Thirteen on House as "previously queer" and "now heterosexual" when the show itself has made it clear that she is and always has been bisexual and just happens to be dating a guy at present. The show does plenty else wrong, but - at least as far as I've seen - it doesn't deny her bisexuality.] An interview with writer/director Alan Ball discusses directions for gay characters (both existing ones and new ones) in season 3 of True Blood.
If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks“.
Linkdump #5 – a smorgasbord of good news November 2, 2009
Posted by zeborah in : Uncategorized, links , add a commentLast few days: The Vote No on 1 website lists a whole lot of ways anyone in the US can help defend the marriage equality law in Maine.
President Obama has added gay, lesbian, transgender and disabled people to those protected by US hate crimes law; other promises about gay rights remain in progress or outstanding.
Religious settler comes to aid of gay Palestinian: a young Palestinian man who lives with his partner in Israel visited his parents in West Bank and was subsequently not allowed back into Israel. For fear of his life he couldn’t return to his own village, but a religious Jewish settler agreed to shelter him in his settlement.
Crash director Paul Haggis quits Church of Scientology after 35 years as a member, in protest against its opposition to gay marriage.
Crossed Genres has released their LGBTQ issue (Issue #12)
If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks“.
Linkdump #4 – news and newly published October 28, 2009
Posted by zeborah in : links, news , 2commentsNews
- One last money push for Maine is fundraising for the “No on 1″ message to defend Maine’s same-sex marriage law. The Bangor Daily News reports in Money fueling battle over gay marriage that “No on 1 tops $4M, Yes at $2.6M” – and that “No” has has 22,000 donors, as opposed to about 700 for “Yes”.
- Scholastic Censors Myracle’s ‘Luv Ya Bunches’ from Book Fairs due to language and homosexual content (it remains available in their book clubs). If you live in the US or are willing to fake a zip code, you can sign a petition to ask Scholastic to stop censoring gay-friendly books.
Newly published
- Lacuna: A Journal of Historical Fiction premiers with a table of contents that includes two stories with queer elements.
- Things We Are Not, an anthology of queer science fiction, has been published by M-Brane SF.
- And as reported here earlier, Hayden Thorne’s The Twilight Gods (on the publisher’s site and on Amazon) “is a retelling of Native American folktale called ‘The Girl Who Married a Ghost,’ set in Victorian England, it’s an alternative perspective on a gay teen’s coming-out process”.
If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks“.
Linkdump #3 – Coming Out Day October 18, 2009
Posted by zeborah in : links , add a commentFor October 11, Coming Out Day, the Outer Alliance has encouraged members to write and post on their sites some short coming-out stories. I’m listing below all the posts I know of – if I’ve missed any, please link to them in comments!
But first, on a brief related note: USans can get your free Queer the Census sticker from CREDO Action partnering with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 
Coming Out Day posts culled from the mailing list:
- Alex Jeffers posts an excerpt from chapter three of his work in progress the unexpected thing (blog banner mildly NSFW)
- Kyell Gold posts an excerpt from “Waterways”
- Inanna Arthen posts an excerpt from forthcoming novel “The Longer the Fall”
- Katherine Beutner posts on bisexuality in response to Malinda Lo’s essay in “After Ellen“
- K L Richardson posts an excerpt from “Heart Sense”
- Sophie Gail posts an excerpt from her work in stasis
- Hayden Thorne posts a light-hearted excerpt from “Masks: Evolution”
- Mel Green posts on current events in Alaska
- Jarla Tangh posts about her friendships
- Chris / M-BraneSF writes about “a few times in my life where I basically outed myself by other behavior short of a “formal” coming-out”
- Drew talks about Philly Outfest and queer bookshop Giovanni’s Room (image heavy)
- Kevin shares about the night of his Senior Prom
- Natania Barron writes about discovering her POV character was gay
- Alan Yee writes about being semi-out of the closet
- Keffy writes about coming out as trans and his mixed feelings about “Coming Out” day
And more Coming Out Day posts found with a blog search:
- yond_cassius writes a short piece of Coming Out Day spec fic
- Cheryl Morgan posts a roundup of news that has caught her attention this week
- John Coulthart posts a couple of art pieces he’s been working on (mildly NSFW)
If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks”.
Washington domestic partnership law under attack October 6, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : announcements, links , add a commentPlease visit this page and read Jen’s post about the looming deadline to save the state of Washington’s new domestic partnership law. People who live in Washington (and people who do not) can get active now and make sure that the Referendum 71 vote succeeds. The forces of bigotry and lunacy frequently try to use these off-year referenda and special elections to advance their evil (a similar thing is afoot in Maine). Let’s not let it happen this time.
The passage of Proposition 8 in California last year established a terrible precedent. The forces of bigotry were emboldened because, yes, it turns out that voters will, in fact, vote to take away people’s rights. This is a relatively rare concept in this country. Generally, once civil rights are conferred they are not taken away. But now it’s routine to try to do exactly that.
Linkdump #2 – Lambda Awards and Banned Books October 5, 2009
Posted by zeborah in : links, membership , add a commentI don’t have as many links as last week, so instead I’ll point to someone else’s linkdump – elf’s Lambda Literary Awards linkspam, collecting posts about the controversy around Lambda’s new/clarified guidelines for their awards.
The American Library Association (ALA) celebrated Banned Books Week from 26 September – 3 October this year. Their 2009 list of challenged/banned books (PDF, 8.4MB) includes “And Tango Makes Three”, “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding”, “King & King”, “Girl, Interrupted”, “The Joy of Gay Sex” and “The Lesbian Kama Sutra”, among others. (Speculative fiction books included “The Golden Compass” “The Great Tree of Avalon”, “Brave New World”, and more.) For the curious, past lists of challenged/banned books are also available.
If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks”.
Hal Duncan @ BSCreview on the Outer Alliance October 1, 2009
Posted by Natania in : The Outer Alliance, announcements, links , add a commentSince the Outer Alliance came into existence last month, we’ve grown rather large rather fast, and we’ve already seen some surprising controversy and discussion. Outer Alliance member Hal Duncan recently wrote an article for BSCreview entitled “Notes from New Sodom: To the Water Fountains” which contains within a rather remarkable reflection on some of what we’ve been able to achieve in the last month and change. I was particularly taken with his reflections on the FFO issue and its aftermath.
But in place of another fucking FailFail, what we ended up with was not just a host of impassioned but level-headed criticism and statements of support, but tangible positive outcomes, with the rejected ad being displayed on scores of blogs and journals and free advertising space being offered by at least one major site. No shitstorm. No FailFail. This was a Win.
You might well agree; I sincerely hope you do. Or if you disagree, I hope it’s because you’re a bolshie motherfucker yourself, and think that shitstorms are exactly what’s called for in the face of prejudice. That’s fair enough. Still, even amongst those who agree, I’m kind of curious, to be honest, as to how much these sort of issues hit others in the gut and how much this sort of result just gives… a warm glow of affirmation that, yes, we can all be nice to each other and make the world a nicer place.
When I first sent out the call for members for the Outer Alliance, this is exactly the sort of justice I hoped we’d achieve. Did I think it would happen so swiftly and within our first few weeks of being? Well, no. But that it did just brought us together and affirmed that yes, this group is needed and is absolutely essential in the speculative writing community.
Thank you, Hal! And thank you all for being part of the Outer Alliance.
Linkdump – the inaugural edition September 27, 2009
Posted by zeborah in : links , 1 comment so farGreetings all! Each week I’ll be compiling whatever links people bring to my attention as likely being of general interest to those following the Outer Alliance Blog. The links for the first linkdump are…
Benjamin Solah reviews Tom Cho’s short story collection Look Who’s Morphing.
As part of a series on American women athletes, the Angry Black Woman writes about transgender athletes.
- Benjamin Solah also blogs about the recent media circus surrounding Caster Semenya.
- On the same topic, Chris / M-Brane SF says Do we ask if Michael Phelps is really a human male and not half fish?
Anna Caro writes City of Possibilities as part of New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week.
The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced changes in its board of trustees and its executive director position. These have coincided with a clarification of the Lambda Literary Award guidelines (see the guidelines at the LLF website).
Coming Out in Middle School in the New York Times explores the trend of gay and bisexual middle-schoolers increasingly being able to come out to friends, family, and adults at school. Benoit Denizet-Lewis talks to students, parents, and educators:
Though many of the parents I spoke to needed a period of adjustment before accepting their children’s announcement that they were gay or bisexual, others offered immediate and unequivocal support. “The biggest difference I’ve seen in the last 10 years isn’t with gay kids — it’s with their families,” says Dan Woog, an openly gay varsity boys’ soccer coach at Staples High School in Westport, Conn., who helped found a gay-straight alliance at his school in 1993. “Many parents just don’t assume anymore that their kids will have a sad, difficult life just because they’re gay.”
If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks”.