There have been a series of posts by Aleksandr Voinov this past week. This one in particular, the post he never wanted to write, really moved me. It is gorgeous, raw, gut-wrenching and very affecting. I've read it more than once.

I don't have it in me to go over the controversy from beginning in the end. And even if I did, I don't think I'm in quite the right position to do so. I'm part of the m/m community, in that, among other things, I write it, read it, do occasional chats with other m/m authors (though it's been a while). But it is obvious to me I do not see much of what goes on beneath the surface. While I do range the Internet, from LJ to GR to blogs and Twitter, there are a lot of public spaces, let alone private spaces, I don't know of and don't read. Plus my career is with my one (beloved) publisher, so my knowledge is limited in that way too.

Nevertheless I do have opinions on a few things.

1) I do not believe that having or taking a male-representing name in 2011 is going to in any way significantly boost sales. If you just look around the Internet in terms of Kindle numbers or visibility, you cannot see a pattern of male-named m/m authors bringing in the real money. Sure you'll occasionally hear of readers seeking out male writers. But you'll also occasionally see readers saying they prefer women writers. It is my belief it all comes down to individual writers and their writing.

2) People can't know why someone—well, unless they are a close and trusting friend—has a male pen name, and it bothers me that they speculate upon the reasons. How does someone know that author X has taken on a masculine name to sell books? I'm not claiming this has never happened in all of m/m history (even there, people often do something for more than one reason), but I can't conceive deciding I understand someone in that way.

3) Writers do not owe readers their personal life. That writers are feeling forced to come out in any way is just wrong and makes me very uncomfortable.

Last year, or perhaps two years ago, there were a couple of fairly prominent news articles that described m/m romance as straight women writing for straight women. I just don't think that's true, and I never liked that description. Of course, there are straight women in the genre. But it doesn't take much to observe that there are a lot of women who identify as otherwise. And there are men, including prominent bloggers and successful writers. These articles almost seemed to erase the gay/queer presence from the genre, which was very odd to my mind, and unsettling.

The m/m genre draws romance readers who haven't found quite what they're looking for in het romance. (It draws in other readers too, but a number of readers have talked about coming from romance.) And the reasons for that are incredibly varied and personal, sometimes tied to sexuality, sometimes not. I can't pinpoint why I started writing m/m romance. I continue to write m/f romance too, as I miss writing women when I don't, and I love both genres. But there is something freeing about stepping away from gender expectations of women in romance—in a way I haven't succeeded to so with m/f. My failing, perhaps. I honestly doubt that's the only reason I write what I write. And it's not something I find easy to analyze or necessarily want to analyze.

And I don't need to know why someone else writes what they write, or why they choose the name they choose, or what is going on in their personal lives. I just need to read the books and make my buying choices based on that. I don't feel writers should be pushed to lay it all on the line, even if they are very brave, as Mr. Voinov was, to do so.

I realize there is some concern about appropriation and marginalization in the m/m genre, and I think these can be important conversations. And authors themselves need to use some commonsense in the way they present their persona online. (Persona is not my favorite word in the world, but it exists.) But outing authors isn't the way to go.

In ending, I want to link to a thoughtful post by Sunita/Vacuous Minx, about pronouns and social categories and respect.