The Outsiders by Aubrey Diamant

I have been honored with the appearance of a wonderful guest to talk about the stigma following LGBTQA books and authors; about the issues he has come across with his work. These are his thoughts and feelings...

Russia passed a law today banning gay 'propaganda', Arizona had tried to have Transgender people arrested for not using the bathrooms of their birth sex and many more fight for the right to live and love in a world that kills them everyday. I have heard it a million times "We get it you're gay!".

I am an activist in the LGBTQA movement, first and foremost. I am one of those who have put everything on the line for equality- not special rights but just equal rights and not just in marriage, but in everything from employment to housing. Its a big deal for me, I was made homeless, disowned and bullied out of a job for one reason only. I could no longer live a lie, when I came out I lost it all. I am gay and a gender non-conformist, meaning I do not stay within the binary stereotype.

Where does this even begin to have to do with the novels we write? Yes, my brother too is like me, we're gay and under the Transgender umbrella happily. We write a world that we have lived and continue to live in, our friends are gay, straight, bisexual, pansexual, polyamorous. They are also cross dressers, Drag Queens, GenderQueer, Transmen, Transwomen, Gender outlaws and androgynous. Yes there is a difference in everyone I listed.

We live in a world were variety is the spice of life in everywhere but the publishing world. We have been rejected by straight publishing firms for being "too gay" and from gay publishers as "not gay enough". We have had our book offers rejected for "making people uncomfortable" with the unapologetic open sexuality of our characters. In the world we write we want people to focus not on the sexuality of the characters but on the stories of love, friendship, infidelity and loss. They are men and women who have families, who have spouses and want the same thing as we do, someone to love them, want them and make them feel attractive.

As a gay man I like the same thing on a man as a straight woman right? We both admire the form of a handsome man, and want the same thing and yet this is somehow wrong enough to keep people from reading my books? Touch is touch, love is love, devotion is devotion. We all feel the same way about someone we desire.

I read books with heterosexual couples, and I see the romance and passion is the same, I can look past their sexuality, why can't you? I'm not saying I will always exclusively write gay or straight- I will write what comes to my mind. I just do not want to be penalized for it. I am tired of looking from the outside in, I am tired of being afraid of losing readers or likes the second they see a disco ball or rainbow. I'm tired of being in the closet that is why I came out in the first place and nearly lost everything. Don't push me back in there because I and my novels make you uncomfortable, society has made me ashamed and uncomfortable my whole bloody life.

Written by Aubrey Diamant, all around co-author extraordinaire.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I feel your struggles and hope that one day these things will not matter. That someone can write without being judged, can date and live without having hate in their ears. Will be following you darling, keep writing!

Find his activist page here: https://www.facebook.com/UmbrellaBeyond