Happy ever after. Happy for now.
Do we still need them?
At an event recently, a young person said she doesn’t mind when there’s a sad/negative ending to a gay character in a book. She said that’s the way stories are.
Admittedly, we were a little surprised. But then, that’s her experience in a generation that, while still fighting against discrimination and rights issues, has never experienced what it is to have no books, no representation at all. They’ve grown up seeing queer folk on tv, in mags, and even in celebrity news. While us older generations remember what it was like to be desperate to see others like us, and when we finally did, it was in books where the gay character died, or was put in an institution, or one of them went back to the man, many young people already have their networks in place. And wow…are they excited to find queer characters in books!
We go to Pride festivals and young people gather in hordes to pick up books. While they don’t need the happy ever after, they’re still desperate for that representation. And isn’t that interesting? With their own groups, networks, social media…books remain a place of safety where they can play in other worlds with people who love the way they do.
Our question for you, as we get ready to release SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5, is this: why do you continue to read LGBTQ fiction? Do you think there’s a difference in the way our generations drink it in? We’d love to know your opinions!
SapphFic Eclectic, Volume 5, comes out on July 1st!
Butterworth Books 
Because it feels like a home, when no-where else does. Between the pages of lgbtqia fiction are safe spaces that everyone can access. Yes, the current outside world may be different in some ways than for previous generations. But perhaps the devil just changed its guise? Social media is rife with keyboard warriors even within our own community, the pressure on young people to ‘fit in’ even within a minority ever increasing. The question mark over rolling back progress to a time many of us didn’t experience, a very real threat.
My own queer education didn’t begin until well into my twenties – I am that middle generation who didn’t see queer people on tv because I didn’t have a network to know any of that existed. Who didn’t know sapphic fiction books existed until I was 28. There is ultimately still a need, a desire for access to these things and in a world seemingly filled with daily hate, intolerance, ignorance, and vitirol there will always be a space for books that allow a person to escape one page at a time, in a world where it is 100% okay to be who you are. To travel the path of life, just as the character of a story does, hoping for a HEA, but content to at least be on this journey with the story version of someone just like you for company. Connection and representation in a world that is intent on division is a power not to be underestimated.
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YES! I could leave it at that – Yes, we still need happy ever after/happy for now, but more needs to be said. I’m 62 years old (how did THAT happen!). I’ve been with my partner Cath for nearly 24 years. We are a happy ever after and in a world where I see teenagers struggling with the myriad of sexual identities on offer, like a smorgasbord or pick n’ mix of alphabet letters, I want them to see their struggles reflected in fictional characters where it all turns out okay in the end. We are foster carers so we see it up close and personal. We see the freedom we never had as teenagers to express sexual identity openly, to discard ‘dead names’ in favour of one befitting a new ‘try it on for size’ sexual preference, like a fashion garment EVERYONE is wearing, aren’t they? In between, we see the nervousness at the transient chaos of changing names and identities. We see the shy smiles as I kiss my partner goodbye for another torturous day as a teacher and head off for the daily school run, asking what do they want for tea. The boring normality of happy ever after needs to be seen and reflected in what we read because it gives hope that there is a steady place to land after flying headlong through the maelstrom of choice and freedom.
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Yes, yes, yes. Perfectly said, and what great role models you are for the kids who might find so much choice and so many options overwhelming. 🙂
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