Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: determined

Poke a Bigot in the Eye: Romance Writers Association

Romance Writers Association has officially come out as homophobic and discriminatory, banning same-sex romances from their contest. Okay, anyone who makes a contest can make up the rules for it. But it's more than a little counterproductive for a genre based organization to cut out part of its own content, just because it makes some people "uncomfortable." You know what makes me uncomfortable? Bigotry. That's as romantic as a knee in the crotch.

A good way to express such disapproval is with a boycott and a round of Poke a Bigot in the Eye. Instead of writing and reading a het romance, write or read a queer one instead. Instead of giving money to RWA for dues or anything else, take the same amount and put it somewhere queer.

Maybe drop something into the fundraiser for Plunge, a webzine dedicated to queer women in genre literature. Fund a few verses of my poem "The Morose Mascot," where two lesbians help a porcupine escape his evil mistress. [Unknown LJ tag] has Nadia, a vampire who prefers female partners; in this project characters may be adopted, stories requested, stories sponsored, etc. ("Morgan - First Feed Part 1" is a Nadia story waiting for sponsorship to become public.) Looking for a sweet male romance? Check out "The Less Than Epic Adventures of T.J. and Amal," currently in the running for a Rose & Bay Award in the Webcomic category. Over in Torn World we have various options including the adorable series about Dini and Lalya by [Unknown LJ tag] (most of which are public, one waiting for sponsorship) and my story "Owlheart" about Tekura and Osro (also waiting for sponsorship). There's plenty of romance in alllll combinations in the crowdsource fandom Schrodinger's Heroes. Feel free to play with any of the characters. "French Military Victories" has male/male romance; it's a crossover fanfic and thus not fundable, but you can read it and giggle. [Unknown LJ tag] has all kinds of queer characters spanning various superhero soap opera plot threads.

Want more queer romance? Ask for it in any prompt call where it seems to fit. (See a list of February crowdfunding projects.) The February Creative Jam here has a theme of alternative sexualities / QUILTBAG -- my, how timely! Bring your prompts, your muse, and your money. Torn World Muse Fusions are always wide open. [Unknown LJ tag] is running an asexual romance fest for Valentine's Day, spanning Feb. 7-21; if you like queer romance for its own sake, without expectation of sex, there's an opportunity to celebrate it. My Poetry Fishbowl this month has a theme of "wild animals" and I'm open to covering any of the thousand or so species that are homoactive.

Do you run a crowdfunded project? Consider setting "queer romance" as a theme, or touching on this topic in your ongoing work.

You could also look through the Rose & Bay Award nominees to see which ones have queer content; there are several.

I've thrown out a handful of examples here, stuff I've written or read regularly or remember off the top of my head. If you write, draw, filk, or otherwise portray queer romance and want to promote your project then please describe it in a comment.

Romance is for everyone. In crowdfunding, nobody has to take "you can't play" for an answer. So let's give the dirty laundry a good steam-cleaning!
Tags: activism, cyberfunded creativity, gender studies, poke a bigot in the eye, reading, romance, writing
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  • 10 comments
fayanora

fayanora

February 5 2012, 04:50:37 UTC 9 years ago Edited:  February 5 2012, 04:51:02 UTC

You have a number of "[Unknown LJ tag]"s showing up in this entry. At least five, by my count.
ysabetwordsmith

Yes...

ysabetwordsmith

February 5 2012, 05:30:02 UTC 9 years ago

Sorry about that. Those are Dreamwidth user tags, not LJ ones. Sometimes they transfer fine and other times they crash like that; I don't know why.

Deleted comment

ysabetwordsmith

Thank you!

ysabetwordsmith

February 5 2012, 06:24:44 UTC 9 years ago

Your folding vote for tolerance is much appreciated.

Perfect icon, too!
ysabetwordsmith

Yay!

ysabetwordsmith

February 5 2012, 07:32:48 UTC 9 years ago

There are now 10 new verses in "The Morose Mascot," in which the lesbian heras Aldornia and Zenobia are protecting Horace the porcupine from his former mistress.
ideealisme

Ugh

ideealisme

February 5 2012, 15:12:55 UTC 9 years ago

Tweeted the link you provided. Barely clicked send and to my surprise it's being RT'ed like wildfire. People are hopping mad and I'm not surprised. "Uncomfortable" - that just gives me the shivers right down to the bone.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Ugh

ysabetwordsmith

February 5 2012, 18:52:05 UTC 9 years ago

Yay! I'm glad that the discussion is attracting so much attention. Might you be willing to tweet this post too? Or any of the petitions and other actions? It's helpful to give people ideas on how to respond to the offense.
lb_lee

lb_lee

February 6 2012, 16:28:36 UTC 9 years ago

I love that you exist.

And sorry for dropping off the face of the planet while discussing donating to you; my health really, REALLY hates me right now.

Also FUCK YEAH TJ & AMAL

--Rogan
ysabetwordsmith

Thank you!

ysabetwordsmith

February 7 2012, 06:44:09 UTC 9 years ago

>>I love that you exist.<<

Aww, that's so sweet! *hugs*

>>And sorry for dropping off the face of the planet while discussing donating to you; my health really, REALLY hates me right now.<<

It's okay. When the body is the battleground, everything else tends to get swept off the field.

>>Also FUCK YEAH TJ & AMAL<<

They really are adorable together.
cissa

cissa

February 13 2012, 07:21:18 UTC 9 years ago

Yay! I hope this works, because i thin RWA are being assholes here.

I LOVE a good romance, and I don't care of the people involved are MM, FF, MF, FM, human/alien, or any subset or multiple set of the aforementioned. The ROMANCE is the key!
ysabetwordsmith

Well...

ysabetwordsmith

February 13 2012, 08:34:24 UTC 9 years ago

There are some very sweet M/M and F/F romances appearing in the Asexy Valentines Fest.

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