Gay Harrasment

Q: For what it's worth, which probably isn't much, out of about 40 ex- and current members of my LG, only one was openly gay. Personally, I don't see much of a correlation (positive or negative) among fandom in general, although it is inarguable that there is a correlation in 'published fandom'. I remember being rather offended at Paul C's assertion (in License Denied) that 'the vast majority of INTERESTING who is gay' (his emphasis) as it seemed to be a form of reverse bigotry,

A: A section of the book I found incredibly insulting (not being gay) to the point that I had trouble getting past it. I've still not completed the book, finding it soo skewed towards anti-heterosexuality and - to be frank - too boring as far as I've read. Which is a bit silly really, given that Who wasn't much about sex at all. Personally I wish that his foreword had been on the sleeve - I'd have made a far more informed decision after reading it about whether to cough up for the book or not. The man's fiction, however confusing it may at times be, is much more to my taste than his real-world opinions apparently are To be fair to Paul, the 'offending' passage read to me as an understandable overreaction from someone who probably had had his fair share of abuse from homophobic 'fans' - one ex-member of the LG is vehemently anti-gay and his opinions offend my sensibilities much more than Paul's comments. FWIW, I thought then, as now, that despite this and one or two other jarring pieces License Denied was an excellent compendium of fan writing from the early 90s. As a reactionary statement, either to people complaining "we're not gay, we're not gay" (presumbably in much the same tones as "we're not lepers, we're not lepers") or to "gay harrasment" it seems even more designed to offend. That'd make the statement a response along the lines of "yeah, true - but you're not worth anything either". Still - we all have our off days, and it certainly hasn't put me off buying books he's written, or anything like that

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