Writing in the Closet (HAHAT - Giveaway)

Welcome to Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia 2014! Today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (or IDAHO, as it's called). Even though the names don't contain "Biphobia," we're fighting against that as well.

I've thought long and hard about what to write about this year. The purpose of the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia is twofold: To spread awareness of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic discrimination, and to stand together against discrimination of our LGBT books. I'd like to address both today.

There's been some nasty development of LGBT rights (or lack there of) in the world since last year's hop: 

Russia passed an anti-gay law that prohibits all “propaganda” of homosexuality to minors. That means that people can’t do a gay pride or hold an LGBT poster out on the street because someone might take a picture of it and post it on the internet where a minor might see it (this actually happened and the sign-holder got arrested). As a result, violence against LGBT people in Russia has increased (watch this video at your own risk). The Olympic Committee decided to let Russia host the winter Olympics despite their charter’s principle 6 that says “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.” Way to stick to your guns, Olympics Committee. Athletes and audience risked fines and possible imprisonment if they wore anything to the games that could be considered LGBT support (basically rainbow stuff). Some did it anyway, either discretely or blatantly. Power to the ones who did!

I posted about Uganda’s “Kill the Gays Bill” last year, and the Ugandan parliament has accepted the bill. The first thing the papers did was post a list of known LGBT people who are now in grave danger not only from the police but also from the general public. This law is inhumane, to say the least! It’s extremely hard to fight it because apparently the majority of Ugandans support this law. All I can do is continue to spread the word and donate money. I'm making another $50 donation to Icebreakers Uganda in honor of the day.

On the other hand, defeats are often met with victories. Russia, for example, watched the Eurovision Song Contest (the largest song competition in the world) and saw Conchita Wurst win. That’s the beautiful lady with the beard. Conchita was born a man but identifies as gender neutral. So, a lot of Russian minors watched a gender neutral person win, despite the creator of Russia’s anti-gay law 's insistence that Russia boycott Eurovision because of Conchita, claiming that Eurovision was gay propaganda. Conchita’s speech? “This night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. You know who you are. We are unity. And we are unstoppable.”

That’s right, Conchita!

Some of you would be amazed to know that a lot of authors of LGBT literature write in the closet. Some can’t tell their bosses because they might get fired, some can’t tell their families or they might get ostracized. Some readers can’t even tell their significant other that they’re reading LGBT literature. These are mostly heterosexual people, by the way.

Copyright: NinaMalyna via DepositPhotos

I’m halfway in the closet, so to speak. My friends and family know about my books and fully support me. I think that most Icelanders would support me, however, I live in a small town and that’s why I’m afraid to fully come out. Twice this year, families have been driven out of town because of social media bullying by the inhabitants. Once because a man was posting naked pictures of himself on the internet where he was playing with his butt (or putting stuff up it). People went nuts online even though the guy wasn't targeting anyone with those pictures, the national media got involved (it's a small country...) and he ended up moving away. A more recent example is a teacher who was found guilty of bullying a student. The teacher's entire family – including his two young daughters – was bullied so bad that they've sold their house and are moving to the city (again, the national media got involved). This is why I’m afraid to announce on my private facebook account that I a) write, and b) write books that contain erotic elements. If you’re different, you’re talked about and it can either become a quiet gossip or turn into vulgar media violence and disdain. I don't care if I get talked about, but what I fear is that my young sons will get bullied. As you can see, my town doesn't exactly have a good track record and it appears that the national media (albeit the more gossipy papers) loves to shine a light on my little home town. I can only see the headlines: "Single Mother of Two Young Boys Writes Porn" and a quote in the gossipy paper "I'm outraged. My kids have been playing with her boys!" I don't know, maybe I'm just being paranoid. I'll never truly know how people will react until I reveal it. 

So, the question remains, do I risk my sons getting bullied or do I come out and announce that I’m a proud writer of gay-male romance? It’s a difficult choice, one that I keep debating in my mind. Some days I feel like writing a coming out post because it’ll be liberating and I'll be able to stand tall, but other days I can’t bear even thinking about it because of my 6-year-old sons. Unlike LGBT people, I do have a choice here. I can tell you this though: If I lived in the city, I would've announced it ages ago. Gotta love the anonymity in populated places.

So, this is a bit disjointed post, but I wanted to include bits from both purposes of the hop. Now for the giveaway part: 

I'm giving away eBook copies of every book I've written that contain the subject of homophobia (internal or external) to one winner. That's a copy of:

A Life Without You (internal homophobia)

Black Hurricane (internal)

Hot Hands (external) - this one is actually free for all

Cold Hands (internal/external)

Grade-A-Sex Deal (external)

Welcome Brother (external)

Little Stalker (internal). 

That's seven books of twelve that contain the subject of homophobia, so obviously the subject is dear to me. What you have to do is leave a comment below and a way for me to reach you (disguised email address, e.g. emailaddress at gmail dot com, or a link to your facebook page). I will use random.com to choose the winner on the 25th and contact him/her myself.

There are 130 other people taking part in this hop, so please check them out:

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia: Holocaust

Most people have heard of the Holocaust that took place under Nazi German rule between 1933-1945. Millions of people were brutally killed by guns, gas chambers, and concentration camps. Most were Jews, but there were also other groups that ended up in those camps. The lesser talked about were the estimated 100,000 homosexuals (mostly men) who were arrested, over half of which were sentenced to the camps or simply murdered. Like the Jews and all other groups, the homosexuals were forced to wear a triangle. Theirs was pink. I doubt it's a coincidence that the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia's symbol is a pink triangle with an exclamation mark in the middle:

Take action against homophobic and transphobic discrimination!

Taking action is exactly what May 17th is all about. You can help by posting about homophobic and transphobic discrimination, reading about it, donating to LGBT charity organizations, and just get the word out there. Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia is the effort of nearly 180 writers, publishers, reviewers, and cover designers to spread the word and to try to get our readers active during the day and for ten days thereafter. Please stop by and read our messages. A prize will be given at each stop.

Back to the topic: a holocaust is a thing of the past, right? Wrong. LGBT people in all countries (even in tolerant Iceland, although it's not very frequent or visible) have to face homophobic and transphobic discrimination. In some countries, they are killed, either by officials or the public.

There are many, many countries that imprison people for their sexuality. One such country is Uganda, but they want to take things further. They have been on the verge of a homosexual and transsexual holocaust twice now, trying to push through the "Kill the Gays Bill". Politicians want all homosexual and trans* people imprisoned, and everyone who helps them in any way (this includes their landlord for renting them a roof over their heads). They want the public to point out who's gay or even displaying homosexual/transsexual behavior. If this bill ever goes through, one must make certain never to touch an individual of the same gender for too long or they run the risk of being accused of being same-sex oriented, and thereby thrown in jail or hanged. If this bill goes through, it will be a modern-day holocaust.

Currently, the bill's been put on hold, but if you ever see it prop up again (it's on the agenda for 2013), I beg you to sign petitions against it and do whatever you can to stop it. Every little bit helps. 

In honor of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, I'm donating $50 to Icebreakers Uganda, and will make it my choice of future donations when I have more money. If you have money to spare, this is a great cause. Frank Mugisha and his people have been working hard to stand up for LGBTI rights, but it's like swimming upstream with all the public and political prejudice in Uganda. They need all the backing they can get.

Now, if you leave a comment below along with your email address, you may have a chance to win a book from my backlist. I will use Random.org to choose, announce and contact 3 winners on May 28th.

Thanks for stopping by!

February 2012 Recap

February 2012:

I started the month setting up reading goals...which crashed an burned spectacularly! What can I say? I was busy with edits.

I was also busy expanding on my m/m-only blog hop idea. Originally, it was only supposed to be a giveaway of m/m books only (since I'd taken part in many blog hops where I'd had to wade through m/f books to find the few m/m books to sign up for). However, once I read about the International Day Against Homophobia, the goals changed, and my friend K-Lee Klein came up with the name Hop Against Homophobia. N.J. Nielsen was also a part in the organizing. The goals were now "to help create awareness against homophobia and to stand together as an m/m genre (authors, publishers, reviewers AND readers) to try to help the world see gay fiction as first class literature, not second class." We felt it was important to stand together as a community of m/m because RWA had grossly discriminated against m/m by excluding same-sex stories from a contest of theirs.

February 17th was a release day! Some readers didn't seem as keen on Grade-A-Sex Deal as they were on Hot Hands, mainly because of the subject (teacher-student relationship) and the darker theme of the story. However, there were a number of "I didn't think I'd like this story because of the subject, but...".

Paypal started censoring books and I felt they were sniffing around way too close to m/m, which only reinforced my determination to make Hop Against Homophobia a success. I didn't want m/m books to be pushed under a dirty carpet as some form of indecency! These were great books that had to be seen. So now, the HAH team didn't want to make a splash anymore, we wanted to make a tsunami.

Hop Against Homophobia: David Bahati, Author of Uganda's "Kill the Gays" B...

Hop Against Homophobia: David Bahati, Author of Uganda's "Kill the Gays" B...: In addition to yesterday's post about the "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda, there are excellent Youtube videos of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's interview with David Bahati, the author of the bill. These are from last year when David Bahati came to the USA to try to find understanding among the Americans (as in, educating USA about the necessity of this bill).

(Please click the Hop Against Homophobia link above to see the videos).

Hop Against Homophobia: Witch Hunt in Uganda: "Kill the Gays"

Free stock photo by Jason Aaberg.

I'm re-blogging this message from the Hop Against Homophobia site. Please, please go there and sign the petitions to prevent this bill from passing - or if it passes, to take action against Uganda to try to force them to change their minds.

Hop Against Homophobia: Witch Hunt in Uganda: "Kill the Gays": ... a horrible bill is being pushed through the Ugandan Parliament and is expected to go into effect this December. They call it a Christmas gift to the Ugandan nation. The bill's been referred to as "Kill the Gays". This is not only terrible, horrible news for the LGBT community, but also disastrous to humanity and human rights.

...

Death penalty:

- to repeat offenders of homosexuals acts

- to people who engage in homosexual acts with a minor

- to people who are suspected of "aggravated homosexuality" and have HIV

Prison sentence:

- to those suspected of homosexual activity

- to those who do not report homosexual activity within 24 hours

- to those suspected of "promoting" homosexuality

- to anyone who aids and/or abets a homosexual (e.g. renting to a homosexual)

In addition:

- all people suspected of homosexual activity and arrested must undergo HIV testing.

- former residents suspected of homosexuality may be extradited and sentenced.

That's a witch hunt!