To celebrate their new book review site Rainbow Book Reviews invited GLBTQ authors to blog on the subject of “What does writing GLBTQ literature mean to me?” for their “Follow the Rainbow Blog Hop.” The following post is part of that Hop.

I write because I want to tell stories but I also want to be read (let’s face it, what writer doesn’t?). But I have no interest in writing common denominator fiction—that is, fiction that becomes popular by appealing to the broadest possible audience. There’s nothing wrong with writing popular fiction that appeals to a broad audience but I want to tell my stories, share my truths—these truths that are borne of who I am, what I have experienced. Writing GLBTQ stories from my perspective as a gay black man, allows me to raise a voice for those of us outside the white heteronormative narrative. That is what writing GLBTQ literature means to me.

There is such a rich tapestry of GLBTQ experience from which to draw, that I feel no need to switch to mainstream fiction. My generation alone has seen so much—Stonewall, the birth of the gay rights movement, the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, AIDS, gay marriage, "Will & Grace," the beginning of a national conversation about GLBTQ people.

I believe writing of the GLBTQ experience from the GLBTQ perspective is important because studies show that people exposed to other races, sexualities, are more likely to support equal rights for these groups. I hope by opening a window onto the GLBTQ world, I can educate, open some minds, change some opinions. The chance to educate, to change minds—that is what writing GLBTQ literature means to me.
I think that people are open, now more than ever, to sharing experiences different from their own even if they don’t necessarily wish those experiences for themselves. This willingness to experience another’s worldview is, I believe, in part responsible for the success of books such as “The Help” and “Fifty Shades of Gray.”

GLBTQ literature could well be the next door to be opened by an insatiably curious, questing, reading public. Thus the time is now. Words have the power to make you feel, to make you see but they also have the power to change. So, I must use my gay voice to speak up, speak out for in silence lies death. Just as you can’t lead change from the back of the bus, you can’t change minds if your story is untold; if you remain silent, you remain invisible. (Read my July 25 blog post about “silence” here: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...)

What does writing GLBTQ literature mean to me? It means I’ve only just begun. There are so many stories to be shared, so many minds to open. With two GLBTQ books already written, I know I must keep writing because, as one of the characters in my current work in progress, says “When I was done fighting the idea that I love you, that I was gay, I thought I was done fighting but, the fighting had only just begun.”

This post is part of the “Follow the Rainbow Blog Hop." Check out why other writers write LGBTQ literature at http://rainbowbookreviews.wordpress.com/

Check out my GLBTQ fiction at http://www.larrybenjamin.com/