Monthly Archives: April 2013

“What’s a gay guy doing editing a bisexual anthology, anyway?”

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I ran into this on Kickstarter and it really struck a chord with me. From the Anything That Loves: Comics Beyond Gay and Straight Kickstarter page:

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

While I was on the phone with Matt, talking about the gay and straight people that had such a problem believing he was a bisexual man, I had something of an epiphany.

Some of the people in this study I read about in the Times, it occurred to me, could well be gay, but wasn’t it more likely that most were bisexual? Think about it; why would someone cling to the myth of “it’s a choice” unless they really felt, deep down, that they had to make one?

Could the refusal to accept the existence of bisexuality be the major obstacle to ending homophobia altogether?

I’d always felt really removed from the concept of bisexuality; I’d been supportive of them and their challenges, but they felt like another letter in the list, another smaller category, banding together with us in the battle, out of necessity.

Now I was faced with the prospect that our failures as a gay community and as a broader culture to more fully embrace bisexual people could be actively hurting all of us.

With that realization, I knew I had to change my thinking about the binary nature of sexuality, and rethink the oppositional nature of my gay identity. I had to find a way to welcome everyone who would embrace queer people as sisters and brothers, and tear down the divisions that hurt us and the people we care about.

Why does it say “I’m just this queer guy who occasionally writes science fiction, y’know?” instead of “I’m just this bisexual guy who occasionally writes science fiction, y’know?” in the “About Me” section in the sidebar on the right? Because I feel like there’s a queer identity where there’s not really a bisexual identity, and if I’m trying to explain myself to people it’s a hell of a lot easier if I frame it the first way. There are yet more complicated ways to say it — “I’m a bisexual guy who’s in a monogamous relationship with a guy,” “I’m a bisexual guy who’s been in a monogamous relationship with another guy for about a year, but dated girls before that,” etc. I don’t know which of those identities is the “true” me, so I smash it all up and stick the label “queer” on it and that mostly works. I really wish that there were something more like a bisexual identity — it was something I went in search of which I still haven’t found. In the mean time, eh, “queer” works, but I’m excited to see other people exploring the same space.

The comics look awesome, and I’ve backed at the level to get the T-shirt too, because that’s pretty much how I feel about it.

Fiction: “The Fun Police”

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No Clowns

More fiction.

This was the story I wrote during Viable Paradise (my “horror-that-was-Thursday” story).

My classmates liked it! Steven Brust liked it!

All the markets I submitted it to sent it zinging back with polite little “nope, sorry, not for us” notes.

So it goes.

That means you get to read it here!

The prompt involved a grab-bag draw, from which I received a red foam-rubber clown nose, and asked us to write a story about a future in which a thing that is presently legal has been banned…

Continue reading →

Quote for the Night

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Behind all the political rhetoric being hurled at us from abroad, we are bringing home one unassailable fact — [terrorism is] a crime by any civilized standard, committed against innocent people, away from the scene of political conflict, and must be dealt with as a crime….

[I]n our recognition of the nature of terrorism as a crime lies our best hope of dealing with it….

[L]et us use the tools that we have. Let us invoke the cooperation we have the right to expect around the world, and with that cooperation let us shrink the dark and dank areas of sanctuary until these cowardly marauders are held to answer as criminals in an open and public trial for the crimes they have committed, and receive the punishment they so richly deserve.

– William H. Webster, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 15 Oct 1985

Quoted in Patriot Games, by Tom Clancy.

It’s raining in Boston, as though to wash the past five days through the city’s pores and out, down the Charles, to the sea.

Boston is drinking, as though to wash the past five days through our collective pores and out, down the Charles, to the sea.

Here’s to MIT Campus Police officer Sean Collier, 26, who died protecting us. Here’s to the unnamed MBTA Transit Police officer who was wounded in the line of duty. Here’s to the hundreds of Boston police, firefighters, and EMTs who put their lives on the line for us this week. Here’s to everyone in Watertown who spent the last twenty-four hours living in fear of their lives. Here’s to the Dunkin’ Donuts employees who came into work to keep the city awake and alert despite the danger.

When the ticker at the bottom of the news screen in the burger bar changed from “2nd Marathon suspect in Watertown and alive” to “2nd Marathon suspect in Watertown, alive, and in custody,” my friends and I raised our glasses.

“To the rule of law,” I said.

“To the rule of law,” they replied, and we clinked our glasses, and got on with the business of living.