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this is an extremely bad opinion that should be completely disregarded https://twitter.com/gabydunn/status/1303917426719899648
this whole thing conflates the simple act of creating a thing with lbgtqia content and achieving some kind of central, powerful role in the community which is a completely unthinkable chain of events for the vast majority of people.
instead of being cruel and exclusionary we can offer closeted creators advice and tools to refine their work to compensate for experiences or community they haven’t been able to access.
i guess i have to come back to this over and over again, but the wachowskis, and like i don’t know what their internal sense of self at the time was, hired susie bright to get the lesbian sex scenes right in a way that was out of their experience at the time.
if what we’re worried about here is closeted creators accidentally putting out derogatory or counterproductive work then there’s ways to avoid that. you can work with a queer editor like @se_fleenor or hire consultants with the corresponding life experience.
if what’s going on here is some bizarre professional jealousy based on the idea that a closeted writer somehow has an advantage in building an audience, then that’s a you problem and you need to work on that.
this is also extremely acute for trans people. i wasn’t out until i was 25 and couldn’t start hrt for another ten years. i’m part of the first generation to transition outside of the stealth era. gen x trans people didn’t have the informed consent model.
we’re maybe thirty years away from the HIV crisis that shattered at least two generations of queer art and left millennials with a desiccated community and shredded history that we’re still recovering and your response is to gatekeep closeted writers? absolutely monstrous.
if you’re closeted and making art just know that you’re valid, i love you, and you deserve the time and space to determine if and when you can be out.
