First of all, I’d like to emphasise that the Lamdba have the perfect right to do whatever they like with their awards. It’s their awards, obviously.
Secondly, much of what I’m saying here has already been said on my blog and elsewhere**, and this is just reiterating it for those who have missed it.
Thirdly, I’m not ” a self-entitled straight slasher” as I was recently accused of being on a detractor’s blog. I am not whining at the door of Lambda saying “it’s not fair you aren’t accepting my books,” because I qualify. I’m still not entirely sure what I qualify FOR, though – whether, as a bi female I’m only eligible to enter for the bi female category or whether I’m still “allowed” to enter my gay fiction in those categories. After all, the gay writers who were despairing that they weren’t winning because of the heterosexual writers entering are still going to whine if a bisexual or lesbian woman beats them, aren’t they? I’m not saying I’ll win – I have no aspersions in that way, my writing certainly isn’t the type to win awards, but I know other writers who have writing that may do.
Will Lamdba stick to this – or will they corral the writers even more in years to come? If the self identifying women who enter win in categories outside their obvious field, will they then be prevented to enter for the gay male category? Surely the people complaining that the straight women are winning now, are going to complain if the lesbian, bi or trans women start winning?
I think my main objection to the whole debacle is that, in order to enter (because obviously the Board cannot ask you show them your bits, or ask you to perform sex for qualification) you have to self-identify as GLBTQ – and this – still – might be something that people are not willing to do. I know people who are writing in secret, under pennames because they might be sacked from their employment, discriminated against, bullied – or even worse – if they come out. The world isn’t the UK. Not even America is open. Gays are still be bullied and killed. Forcing anyone to come out, even in this mild way is wrong.
Personally, I’ve had enough of the discussion. Lambda have shot themselves in the foot with this, imo–What will happen is that, like the Golden Crown Literary Awards for Lesbian Fiction (which in a very few years has become a respected merit based award) some bright spark will start up an alternative all-inclusive book award celebrating GLBT fiction, as the Lambdas used to be. And hurrah for that. I’m finally starting a project I’ve had on the boards for 3 years, the Speak Its Name Award for gay historical fiction which will be a merit based award (as the Lammies don’t have a historical fiction category anyway) and Elisa Rolle has started a popularity award over at her blog.
**Finally – here’s a round-up of posts on the matter. I particularly recommend Teddypig, Gehayi and Dusk.
http://linkspam.dreamwidth.org/10297.html
GLBTQ fiction is great. Let’s encourage and celebrate that. After all that was the original remit of the Lambdas. Two wrongs don’t make a right. You cannot ask the world to accept you because you demand that you are same as them–and then, when they do, with open arms, you then say “oh no, we are different.” Let’s work towards a society where we all are equal, shall we – which I thought was rather the point.
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“…obviously the Board cannot ask you show them your bits, or ask you to perform sex for qualification…”
I wouldn’t put money on that. Absurdities tend to escalate, and they’ve started out with a doozy.
I always find reverse discrimination a bit weird. I’ve been discriminated against so I’ll do the same thing back. There.
As if some how doing it is justified. Patting yourself on the back for behaving the same way those you criticized behaved. Hmmm. That’s really moving us forward in the world.
But I know nothing about the awards or what they stand for. I never read a book because it won an award or because it’s on some magical list, so for me its a bit of a non-issue, but I’m sure for some authors it hurts to be told your writing is good but you as a person are not worthy because you’re not like “us”.
“I’m still not entirely sure what I qualify FOR, though – whether, as a bi female I’m only eligible to enter for the bi female category or whether I’m still “allowed” to enter my gay fiction in those categories. ”
Um, no. Not because of what you write vs your gender and orientation, but because there IS no bi-female category. There is ONE bi category. If they get enough entries, they’ll split the category into bi-fiction and bi-non fiction, not bi-male and bi-female. Which is pretty pathetic.
“Gays are still be bullied and killed. Forcing anyone to come out, even in this mild way is wrong.”
In environments like those, I’d imagine writing gay fiction even as a straight is going to get you into trouble, because people that backward probably believe you can’t read/write/enjoy LGBT books without being queer yourself. I’d think for them, the very act of entering an LGBT contest (even if it wasn’t a tacit coming out by the author as LGBT) is probably not something they’d openly do. I know that even before I came out, the fact that I write f/f led many acquaintances to believe I was at least bi (and in this case, they were right, heh). If I’d been scared of how the community would react, I’d have kept the writing, the pen name, all of it secret. That’s what pen names are for, after all.
And no one’s forcing anyone to come out. Even setting aside the fact that an author can hide her real identity from the public by using a pen name, no one is forcing anyone to enter the contest. I know I have no real interest in it, but that’s more a function of how they treat bi books (toss two cookies in a room, in they all go and then yay! we can close the door on them and continue to pretend they’re underrepresented in fiction and not just misrepresented as gay/lesbian).
All that said, I do agree LLF is burning bridges the LGBT and straight communities have taken a long time to build. I don’t think it’s necessary–though I do believe that they think it’s necessary. And it’s something LLF has every right to do, no matter how shortsighted it might be. Just because I can understand their reasons and can even sympathise and defend their right to run the contest any way they want, doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea.
It might help LGBT authors in the short term, but it sets LGBT/straight relations back, at least in the sphere of literature, and is as problematic as voluntary segregation and protectionism always are.
But honestly, I just don’t have the energy to be pissed about this. I think I used up all my umbrage when I read those categories and realized how many books with bi characters would end up entered in the gay/lesbian categories because that’s the only decent option LLF provides, and how that only contributes to our invisibility within the group that’s supposed to serve us. Bleh.
I don’t think Lambda is burning bridges between the GLBT and straight communities. I think it’s burning bridges between Lambda and those in the wider world, GLBT/QQ/I/2S (as it’s often written in Canada–queer, questioning, intersex, and 2-spirits (1st-Nations term) who don’t think that a writer’s sexuality is particularly relevant when it comes to the quality of a work.
For those who see discrimination as creating “safe space…” well, good for them. For those who see it as claustrophobic, we can just say so and move on. We won’t be the first to walk away, and eventually Lambda can define itself so narrowly that everyone who chooses to deal with them will be members of their clique. In the long run, I know who I see as losing out in that game.
I haven’t really got into this debate, being someone who’s just new into this community and being a wuss who hates arguments anyway.
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But I have to wonder if this was some kind of hasty decision, because it certainly doesn’t bear the hallmarks of something that’s been well thought out. The reactions were surely predictable to anyone who sat down and thought about the likely implications.
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If they feel there’s an problem I’d expect a better solution than one that comes across like a peevish kid turning around and telling the other kids they can’t play anymore because they score too many goals.
Many thanks for including the link to Likespring’s LJ post, which was most enlightening.
Hmmm, the difficulty for me in all this – and I’m only going on what I’ve read on various sites – is not that there is an awards program only open to GLBTQ authors, but the way it’s been gone about in this particular case.
*
That is, the Lambda powers-that-be have redefined the eligibility criteria for an established awards program without seeming to consider the repercussions or perhaps even investigate other possibilities such as the creation of new categories. Thus, they have given the impression that it is a bit like sour grapes, not to mention reverse discrimination.
*
No, not well thought out at all.
Look, I’m late at this as I was late at everything including coming out (49) and at publishing my first gay writing (69), but I must admit being suprised at finding so many M/M writers, as well as all of our most valid critics, being women…and so often heterosexual women. (The argument on twitching penisus taught me that.) I decided to check out the lesbian sites, thinking maybe I’d find some guys there…no luck. But in the final analysis (that phrase shrinks love to say) who cares? Erastes and Jesse Wave have constructed wondrous sites….thoroughly gay sites…fine critical sites. Onward and…for want of a fine gay phrase…upward.
I find the emphasis of the whole “females posing as gay men” thing a bit silly. In truth, I know at least 3 gay men who not only write gay fiction, but do so under FEMALE pennames! It’s the same in the “straight” romance industry…there are more men writing under female pennames than people are aware. So ruling out books strictly on the basis of who is supposed really male and who is supposedly really female is absurd.