So for the past few years, there's been a small buzz in the queer
romance community about the Rita Awards. Nothing major or life-changing, but
just a hanging question that gets brought up now and again (For those who don't
know, the Rita awards are like the Oscars, but for romance books.): Should
there be a category for queer romance in the Ritas?
Now, most of the straight authors doing queer romance offer
a resounding "Yes, of course!" when this question comes up. But I
think more interesting is the answer of people like me: a queer person writing
queer romance.
And the answer 95% of us seem to have is, "Well, I'm of
two minds, really." But I think the perspective on why queer romance
authors feel that way is worth looking at. This isn't a question where I'm
going to arrive at answer by the end of the blog post. I just think it's worth
a mention out and about. It's worth seeing what #ownvoices queer romance
authors think about the Queer Romance Rita category. I'm not just presenting my
thoughts on this, but what I've heard echoed back over and over, from myself
and others.
Pro-Category: It would immediately ensure that a queer book
is present in the slate of Rita winners every single year going forward. In a
genre that struggles immensely with
diversity and inclusion, that's awesome. It would also encourage writers of
queer romance to submit their books, rather than making them feel like the odds
are against them from step one. And since it's going to be treated as a
separate subgenre of romance anyway, why not even the playing field and make it
a separate category, like they do with paranormal and romantic suspense? It
opens up opportunities for publicity that were really quite lacking, and still
are, for queer romance stories.
Anti-Category: The publishing industry has already made
queer romance its own thing. While it might make it easier for queer folks to
find books that help them feel represented, it also makes it so that readers
are never challenged to accept queer people as full and the same as the
straight characters they would otherwise be reading. Judging queer romance
alongside its non-queer peers is the right, just, and fair thing to do, since
everyone is equal. And from a Rita judging standpoint, allowing people to opt
out of reading queer romance is allowing people to opt out of the existence of
queer people, even in that small way. When we're trying to increase diversity,
not smother it, that's not exactly the right move, don't you think?
And yes, I've ignored the opinions of cis-hetero authors
writing queer romance, because the hang-ups tend to not be there as much, at
least in my experience. But for queer authors writing queer romance? It's a
struggle between commercial success and looking at things as an author, and
looking at it in the larger scale of acceptance and diversity.
And even after laying this out, I still don't know. But I
think it's important to keep queer voices in the discussion, right up until a
decision is made one way or another. And I think it's also important for
readers to keep informed on what's going on behind the scenes in the genres
that they read.
Raven
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