by
Julie Demoff-Larson
Gay literature has gone
through a gradual transformation over the years as the American population
slowly changed to the acceptance of the gay community. LGBTQ literature began
with subtle hints and innuendos eluding fantasies, trysts, and relationships that
were forbidden. Later, gay literature focused on the "coming out"
story. But these stories were primarily about shame, denial, and hardships the
characters endure when their sexuality is revealed.
Jane Rule’s Desert of
the Heart, one of the first strictly lesbian novels in print, reveals the
desires that consumed those who married out of duty and abandoned their true
nature. This was familiar to many women during most of the twentieth
century. Women and men stayed in marriages that were unnatural to them out of
fear of retribution, ridicule, and alienation. Stories like Desert of the
Heart—poetic at times, and
dated in others—mimicked the social constructs of the day.
Subcultures that existed
in certain factions of society prior to now can be reevaluated in
works such as Invisible Life, by E. Lynn Harris. Even today,
denial has been a big part of gay reality in minority populations. Invisible
Life exposes the secret lives of gay African American men who are in
committed relationships with women. Some characters deny being gay because of
their limited participation in physical contact. But most rejected the label
because of the stigma and distain they would receive from family and friends.
E. Lynn Harris also wrote about the HIV and Aids epidemic that plagued the gay
community during the 80s and 90s. Americans looked the gay community in a very
negative light and some writers tried to attach a human face on the
disease.
We have come a long way
from the days of fear and shame. Today, writers are creating stories and
characters that are gay, but the plot of the story is not necessarily
about being gay. As we strive to normalize gay culture, we no longer
need a description of differences or similarities between hetero and
homo sexuality. Now, we need what writers are actually putting out there—stories
about family, love, loss, happiness, and sadness. The things that make all
of us human.
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