David Avery's Blog, page 2
January 14, 2017
State Department Apologizes For Decades Of Anti-LGBT Discrimination
In case you didn't see it, the U.S. State Department formally apologized this week for its systematic discrimination against LGBT employees in the department and for those it denied employment there. As the article I linked to below from NPR.org notes, as recently as the 1990s the State Department sought to drive out LGBT people on the grounds that they were security risks.
It is moving for me to note this acknowledgment, because I wrote about such discrimination in MY BARE NAKED HEART. The main character in my novel is a college freshman in 1957 who dreams of a career in the U.S. State Department. He knows that can't happen, however, if his secret same-sex desires and burgeoning love affair with the hunky guy down the hall were to be become known.
In the 1980s, I also thought about the State Department as a career when I graduated from college, but ultimately decided against it. It didn't play into my reasons for not going, but I remember clearly wondering whether I would be able to pass the security clearance and whether the customary lie detector test would reveal the secret crush I had on my high school best friend and the fumbling encounter I had had with a freshman roommate, and whether that would have disqualified me.
Anyway, thank you very much, Secretary John Kerry, and here's a link to an article about it:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-wa...
It is moving for me to note this acknowledgment, because I wrote about such discrimination in MY BARE NAKED HEART. The main character in my novel is a college freshman in 1957 who dreams of a career in the U.S. State Department. He knows that can't happen, however, if his secret same-sex desires and burgeoning love affair with the hunky guy down the hall were to be become known.
In the 1980s, I also thought about the State Department as a career when I graduated from college, but ultimately decided against it. It didn't play into my reasons for not going, but I remember clearly wondering whether I would be able to pass the security clearance and whether the customary lie detector test would reveal the secret crush I had on my high school best friend and the fumbling encounter I had had with a freshman roommate, and whether that would have disqualified me.
Anyway, thank you very much, Secretary John Kerry, and here's a link to an article about it:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-wa...
October 24, 2016
Thousands of Men to Be Pardoned for Gay Sex, Once a Crime in Britain
Last week, the British Government announced it was going to pardon, both posthumously and to the living, tens of thousands of men who were convicted of being homosexuals.
As the New York Times wrote: “The men were convicted — tens of thousands of them — of crimes like buggery, gross indecency and loitering with intent. They had been arrested in bars, coffee houses and public bathrooms, and sometimes in the privacy of their homes and with their partners. In many cases, their only offense was seeking intimacy with another man.” (full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/wor...)
It is not without controversy, as many people think it doesn’t go far enough and some want apologies and not pardons.
I post this here, because one of the central themes of my book and what motivated me in part to write it was the horror of criminalizing men for falling in love with other men. And how challenging it must have been to live under the fear of arrest for being who you are. It’s difficult for people to believe today, but it really happened there and in the US (and still happens today in so many places in the world).
People are calling this “Turing’s Law,” after Alan Turing. He was the secret hero of World War II who had a profound role in saving civilization from Nazi Germany by cracking the Enigma Code. Yet – (and it makes me teary-eyed to write this) – he was convicted of the crime of homosexuality in 1952 (just 7 years after the war’s end) and committed suicide in 1954, the same era as my book. I salute you, Alan Turing, and all of the others who suffered and endured in those horrific times.
And here’s a link to the follow-up editorial by the New York Times’ editorial board: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/opi...
As the New York Times wrote: “The men were convicted — tens of thousands of them — of crimes like buggery, gross indecency and loitering with intent. They had been arrested in bars, coffee houses and public bathrooms, and sometimes in the privacy of their homes and with their partners. In many cases, their only offense was seeking intimacy with another man.” (full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/wor...)
It is not without controversy, as many people think it doesn’t go far enough and some want apologies and not pardons.
I post this here, because one of the central themes of my book and what motivated me in part to write it was the horror of criminalizing men for falling in love with other men. And how challenging it must have been to live under the fear of arrest for being who you are. It’s difficult for people to believe today, but it really happened there and in the US (and still happens today in so many places in the world).
People are calling this “Turing’s Law,” after Alan Turing. He was the secret hero of World War II who had a profound role in saving civilization from Nazi Germany by cracking the Enigma Code. Yet – (and it makes me teary-eyed to write this) – he was convicted of the crime of homosexuality in 1952 (just 7 years after the war’s end) and committed suicide in 1954, the same era as my book. I salute you, Alan Turing, and all of the others who suffered and endured in those horrific times.
And here’s a link to the follow-up editorial by the New York Times’ editorial board: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/opi...
October 20, 2016
Goodreads Giveaway Winners - MY BARE NAKED HEART
Congratulations to Bob of Rapid City, South Dakota and Matthew of Hampshire, England for entering the Goodreads Giveaway for a paperback copy of MY BARE NAKED HEART - you are both winners! Thanks to both of you for entering and to the approximately 1100 total entries in the 2 promotions. I really appreciate the interest. I have sent out the winning paperback copies today and hope you enjoy them!
It is so tough for gay male voices to be heard in the gay fiction world, particularly ones like mine that have a gay love story that is central to the book but falls outside the confines of the m/m romance market and, at the same time, has too many references to bodily private parts for the tiny mainstream gay commercial or literary fiction markets.
Writers like me who have poured so much of themselves and their own experiences into their work can only hope that these labors of love can have a little life and be read. It means so much to me as I sit here in Manhattan to know that MY BARE NAKED HEART is traveling across the Atlantic to England, to the US heartland of South Dakota, and that I have had reviews come in from California and even New Zealand on the other side of the world. Thanks to everyone for the interest!
It is so tough for gay male voices to be heard in the gay fiction world, particularly ones like mine that have a gay love story that is central to the book but falls outside the confines of the m/m romance market and, at the same time, has too many references to bodily private parts for the tiny mainstream gay commercial or literary fiction markets.
Writers like me who have poured so much of themselves and their own experiences into their work can only hope that these labors of love can have a little life and be read. It means so much to me as I sit here in Manhattan to know that MY BARE NAKED HEART is traveling across the Atlantic to England, to the US heartland of South Dakota, and that I have had reviews come in from California and even New Zealand on the other side of the world. Thanks to everyone for the interest!
October 14, 2016
My Book Has Launched Today!
Hi, Everyone - I am very excited to announce that MY BARE NAKED HEART was released today in paperback and on Kindle on Amazon. If you have Kindle Unlimited, my book is in the Kindle Unlimited program, and you can currently read it for free. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks again for your interest and support! David Avery
https://www.amazon.com/Bare-Naked-Hea...
https://www.amazon.com/Bare-Naked-Hea...
