An Open Letter to RWA

Dear RWA (Romance Writers of America):

I have been a member of your organization for some time now, but never have I felt such sadness in that membership until recently. Through a number of different blog posts and online articles, it has come to my attention that at least one of your chapters openly discriminates against the LGBT community both in general and in excluding them from contests based on the genre. By allowing this type of blatant and open discrimination in your organization, you're effectively saying that love between men or love between women is invalid.

Mitch Vaughn and Spencer Williams (From Spencer's Facebook page)

Based on that kind of determination, I'd like for you to meet Spencer and Mitch. These two sweet and endearing men entered into a civil partnership just a few months ago because a marriage between them wouldn't be recognized. Does their love look fake or invalid to you? To me, they look like two men committed to each other who have just as much right to be together as any heterosexual couple.

Does their story not deserve to be told?

If the chapter in question is allowed to discriminate against us because of the content of our work, where does it end? Will they be allowed to censor multi-racial or multi-cultural couples in fiction? Can they discount BDSM books because of their bias? We should be thankful that it's the digital age so that they can't actually burn the books that they disagree with.

It angers and disgusts me that this kind of hatred and bigotry has found its way into the romance genre. We are supposed to be writing about and glorifying love, ALL kinds of love, not just the kinds that the religious right has deemed acceptable.

 

With regret and sadness,

J. P. Barnaby

Proud member of the LGBT community

Proud author of gay romance