I'm sorry if it's inappropriate, but what you said about Singapore and the guy who asked you how you write gay characters because it made him sick.... how did you respond to that? I mean, how does anybody respond to something like that? I come from a very

I wish I could say I was brilliant and said just the perfect thing, but I was a little stunned and a little angry and may have rambled a bit.

Truthfully, at first, I didn’t totally understand the two sentences together. It took a minute for me to get what he was saying, and then I got angry.

I remember telling him that if he had that closed a mind he probably should consider some other occupation.

The event itself was co-sponsored by the actual Singaporean government, it was even held in a government building…I’m drawing a blank on what it was for, but votes were held there or something?

It was a very strange trip in some ways.

The people could not have been nicer, we loved it, I still love Singapore with all my heart.

But we were the guests of the government. And my own government asked for us to stay some extra days, so then we were guests of the US embassy.

In both cases, we were briefed by government representatives that there were certain things that we were not supposed to discuss in public.

The Singaporean rep said to stay away from politics, to not criticize the ruling government, to not discuss the criminal system and that discussing gay rights issues was to be discouraged.

The US brief was even more serious, we were guests in a foreign country, they wanted us to avoid ANYTHING controversial that could make the US look bad in the eyes of the Singaporean government. They gave us an intimidating red folder with gold print about all the stuff we have to keep in mind NOT to say or do.  I’d never experienced anything like that before.

When the kid said the homophobic  thing, and I remember, he was a super handsome young man with beautiful wavy hair, I had spoken with him several times and he was a big fan and a really nice young man, I instantly forgot everything I had been warned not to talk about, I do remember that.

I told him that first of all, I didn’t share his beliefs in any way, and then I said if he couldn’t write a character unlike himself, that he was not cut out to be a writer.

I was not articulate, I’m afraid. I stumbled because I was upset. Later, I felt like I had let down everyone in the audience, particularly the young man who stayed after who I believe was gay. I tried but I was too upset and off-balance to really say what I was feeling.

I was too upset to be Dorothy Parker. But the message was clear, I’m sure of that. Someone following me on Tumblr must have been at that panel, anyone remember the exact wording?

I don’t really hang this on Singapore. All you have to do to see Americans being homophobic is check out almost any message board that talks about gay characters in comics.

And again, I have to say, on every trip we’ve made there, we’ve met a ton of lgbtq people who are genre fans, they are very like genre fans anywhere and I dearly love them and nowhere on Earth has gone more out of their way to make me feel welcome and cared for. It’s one of the most wonderful places I’ve ever been, and I wouldn’t trade my trips there for anything.