Expecting queer authors to be community ambassadors when straight authors get to just be authors is homophobic regardless of who’s saying it

It’s also a recipe for disappointment. I’m out because I want to be, but I’m a messy person who writes novels and the idea that I’m an activist merely for existing is an insult to actual activists

If it’s true that openly queer authors only get limited ‘slots’ while cishet-presenting ones have uncapped opportunities, then closeted authors are actually carving out more ‘space’ for queer writing by putting their work in the limitless space and not in one of the ‘slots’

I happen to think that’s a nonsense premise that flattens the nuances of how different identities are commodified, but if you subscribe to it then the conclusion would be that outing yourself is the action that takes something away from others in the community

‘Publishers don’t even ASK if you’re QUEER when you submit a queer story’ is just what you get if you google-translate ‘publishers don’t violate anti-discrimination law’ into brainworm

Also, parasocial relationships aren’t a person’s entire being, the idea that someone can’t have immersed themselves in any queer community unless they’re out to you specifically is severe main-character syndrome. Go outside

I didn’t think I was going to weigh in on this let alone do a thread, but call me pressed that the dark 2010s ‘is this feminist?’ school of media critique taught us nothing about how fruitless and liberal and BORING it is to atomise individuals rather than examining structures

Also I think everyone weighing in on this discourse should drop the last ownvoices queer book they liked. I liked IN THE DREAM HOUSE by Carmen Maria Machado! Which fascinatingly illustrates how the prudish politics of ‘representation’ can stifle discussion of abuse actually!!

Okay sorry I thought I was done but I think it’s also worth pointing out how unfair it is to accuse closeted authors of ‘profiting off’ anything when the gap between starting a novel and even knowing whether you’ll see money for it is, at minimum, years

We’re all menaced by how we need to generate profit for largely cishet shareholders to get queer media distributed, but narrativising individuals as opening their laptops & going ‘right I’ll commodify queerness roughly 5 yrs from now’ is a wild personification of the whole thing

Oh also I personally find it demeaning to say that queer writers write queerness well because we're queer. I think we write queerness well out of talent and application, and it's really no-one else's business how much of that talent and application came from our own circumstances

Sorry I will just be adding tweets until I die bc my frustrations over how the culture patronises us, and how people within the community police us into playing along, are endless. Much like our capacity to write novels without it tAKING sOMETHING from other queers is endless