Bury Your Gays

by Chuck Tingle

“In film, in TV, in books … the queer characters never get a happy ending,” I press. “Sometimes they’re the first to go, other times they make some brave sacrifice in the finale, but it always ends in tragedy and death. That’s why it’s called bury your gays.”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m sure the board has already calculated that stuff. Cost-benefit analysis is a real mystery sometimes.

There are scary things in the world, that’s just a fact, and if you pretend they’re not all around us then you’re in for a rude awakening. Horror offers a chance to recognize this truth, to explore dark places in a safe way.”

“But ghosts aren’t real,” Seth argues. “He wasn’t actually in danger.” “Zombies, Leatherface, and space invaders aren’t real, either,” I counter. “But racism, factory farming, and unchecked corporate greed are.”

“John McClane didn’t ask to be responsible for Nakatomi Plaza, either. Nobody has to be a hero for anyone else, that’s kinda the whole point.”