Many months ago, Mae, Eric Raglin, and I had a long conversation about the criticism queer writers have gotten (often by other queer folks) for writing queer characters that aren't socially acceptable and/or 100% morally good. It's an argument that seems to come up over and over again when a book by a queer creator dives into the ugliness of humanity.
I understand the desire to see ourselves portrayed as something more than the queer-coded villain or the overtly queer—but confused—psychopath. And understanding the history of cis-straight men writing or directing or portraying who we are as something ‘other' is absolutely something we should all be aware of. However, leveraging that same criticism towards queer creators for being open and honest about their struggles, their fears, their pain— hell, even just their creativity—is a net negative for the community as a whole, for art as a whole.
And this isn't even touching the history of queer literature and just how many important (and even unknown) queer writers have spent time in the murk of putting shitty people doing shitty things into their work.
Queer writers don't owe you squeaky clean queer characters or stories. They don't owe you the type of representation that we're routinely told is important and revolutionary when it comes to major multimedia corporations inserting a two-second-long chaste kiss between queer characters, then never addressing it again; as if that's meaningful representation.
If that's the only queer representation we're allowed, then we're doomed.
The writers in this book are a solution to that doom. This is a book full of queer representation that is messy and ugly and uncomfortable and painful. It's a book full of queer characters who are cruel and conflicted and complex and interesting. Yes, queer joy, but also: queer rage, queer hostility, queer panic, queer madness, queer violence, queer horror.
We, much like the characters and stories we write, are capable of more in our art than Chaste Queer Characters Have a Good Day. And that's a fucking good thing. That should be seen as a good thing. And if you don't think it is, then maybe you should check in and ask yourself why you demand artistic purity from queer artists.
The Saints in this book are more than the villainous, amoral, monstrous, outlaw queer characters. The true Saints in The Book of Queer Saints are Hailey Piper, Eric LaRocca, James Bennett, Perry Ruhland, Nikki R. Leigh, Joe Koch, Joshua R. Pangborn, K.S. Walker, George Daniel Lea, LC von Hessen, Briar Ripley Page, Eric Raglin, Belle Tolls, and—most of all, for making this whole thing happen—Mae Murray. The true Saints are all the queer writers, artists, and creators who are making art on their own terms.