From Brew Maxwell, author of the awesome Foley-Mashburn saga:
When the guys who run this Web site asked me to write something for gay,
lesbian, bisexual, straight, and questioning teenagers, I didn’t know what to do.
Even though I write a lot, I write stories because I tend to think in stories. I
don’t usually write essay-type material with topic sentences and such, so don’t
be disappointed if this is a little rambling.
The last eight months have been an incredible time in history for non-straight
people in America. First, last June the Supreme Court struck down the laws that
made sex between two people of the same gender illegal. Then Queer Eye for
the Straight Guy started coming on TV. It was a mega-hit almost instantly and
that notched up the way people look at us. Personally, I wish the Fab Five
would pay my partner and me a visit, but I really don’t see that happening.
The next big news came in November when the Supreme Judicial Court in
Massachusetts ruled that it’s unconstitutional in that state to ban same-sex
marriage, and last week they “clarified” their ruling to say that so-called “civil
unions” won’t cut it. Tonight before I checked my email, I read a story on Yahoo.
com that said they started issuing marriage licenses today in San Francisco and
started having gay weddings. The first two same-sex people married in the
United States were two women, ages 83 and 79, and they were married today.
They’ve been a couple for over 50 years. Incredible!
Right in the middle of all the good news, though, came some pretty depressing
news for me. Gay people in Florida are not allowed to adopt children, and a
week or so ago the court upheld that law. You see, we live in Florida, and
someday we’d like to adopt a kid or two.
The issue of gay adoption is what got the Foley-Mashburn Saga started. My
partner, Rob, and I have talked about kids for a couple of years. I started
wondering: What would it be like for a young, college-educated, financially
comfortable gay couple to raise kids? In the real world, the war in Afghanistan
was just getting started, so I decided to write “Tim” about a boy who had to
stay with a gay couple while his dad was off in the war.
The more I wrote, the more I wanted to write. For me, writing is a way of
discovering what I know about a subject, and I discovered that I knew quite a
bit about being a parent. The boys in my story are basically happy kids. They’re
all gay, and almost all of them come from terrible backgrounds, but in the house
on North Lagoon Drive, in the mythical town of Emerald Beach, Florida, most of
them eventually find acceptance and happiness.
What are some of the things that cause that acceptance and happiness? Well,
let’s see if I can tease those out.
First, I would say, is a good sense of humor. The boys in Emerald Beach tease
one another constantly, but it’s always in good fun, never in meanness. Kyle is
always threatening to cut Justin’s nuts off, and Justin is constantly threatening
to kill Kyle. My older brother and I, and our friends, said stuff like that to one
another all the time when we were kids, but just as Kyle and Justin would fight
to the death for each other, the same was true for us.
Second is a tough skin. Those boys tease each other about being “queers” and
“fags” and “homos,” and they even tease the straight guys in their lives the
same way. If people call them those names, they react with humor, and not
with anger or hurt.
Third is not to be ashamed of who you are. One of my favorite characters is
Gage. Gage is a total flamer who arranges make overs for people and who is
everybody’s shopping consultant. Gage can “act straight” when he wants to, but
he doesn’t want to. He’s gay, and he wants everybody to know that fact about
himself.
Fourth, have a close circle of non-straight friends. There is definitely strength in
numbers, and the boys in Emerald Beach have the support of knowing they are
not alone.
Fifth, and finally, be competent and don’t be lazy. Kyle was elected president of
student government at his high school because he knew how to get in there and
work to get something done. His college fraternity put him in charge of their
volunteer service program, and the president, Skeeter McGhee, even said Kyle,
and not himself, should be president. It might be hard when you’re in high
school to realize this, but people are accepted and respected in the adult world
on the basis of what they know and what they can do. Their sexual orientation
is mostly irrelevant.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. I hope you’ll read my stories, too.
Brew Maxwell
February 12, 2004