From: Mekerr13 at aol.com <Mekerr13>
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 17:45:43 EDT

My first gay character in YA lit was Charlie Gilhooley in I'll Love You When You're More Like Me (1977). Harper & Row. Now out of print.
"Charlie was sixteen when he started telling a select group of friends and family that he believed he preferred boys to girls. The news shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone who knew Charlie even slightly. But honesty has its own rewards: ostracism and disgrace." Charlie was a very stereotypical gay character, with a good sense of humor about his plight. He was effeminate and undefended, very much like gay boys I knew in my small town. (There were 3). Then Miss Blue, &Me Me Me Me Me touched on homosexuality a bit but not in a major way until Night Kites. That was the first novel adult or young adult with a gay male acquiring AIDS (Kaposi Sarcoma) from homosexual activity. ( I am quite sure of that, but if anyone knows one I might have overlooked, I'd like to know about it) Night Kites came out in 1986. I think it was Charlotte Zolotow who braved that book into publication, with very little changed. I went to ALA the year it came out and I remember a few chilly remarks one pertaining to the subject matter not being fit for young people and another accusing me of exploiting the situation for my own gain....It was a book I was often asked not to mention when I spoke to kids. To this day, now and then, a school principle will meet me in the parking lot and say everyone loves my books but Night Kites, Deliver Us From Evie, and Hello, I Lied, are better left out of my remarks. I don't put up a fight because I realize it's out of the control of whoever's hosting me. I know kids can find these books, sometimes in the library of the very school I am visiting. Word gets out...and now with the internet kids find whatever interests them easily. For the most part, reviewers have liked these three books and they've made the important lists. But they don't get on master lists of school reading. I think AIDS was the catalyst that began me identifying myself in print as a gay. Although I have always been politically active, and chaired The East End Gay Orgainzation's(EEGO, with a 600 male/female membership)beginnings in the Hamptons (1976), I never went out of my way to make it clear I was a lesbian as Kerr. AIDS made me decide it was important to be visible, and since I couldn't imagine a gratuitous announcement, I was glad when Roger Sutton asked me if I'd write the introduction to his Hearing Us Out, 1994. I remember somebody asking me when I was going to write about homosexuality under my own name, knowing me only as Kerr, not realizing my book for adults, Shockproof Sydney Skate was a Marijane Meaker. I can see why some people think one uses a pseudonym because they're not proud of what they've written, but as you all know by now, I love naming myself. I wonder how many young adult authors there are who use pseudonyms, besides me and Lemony Snicket. Are there others? mekerr
Received on Mon 24 Jun 2002 04:45:43 PM CDT