For Americans interested in Gay Rights, and marriage laws, Proposition 8 and developments around it are of ongoing importance. Attitudes to gay marriage vary around the world and many countries have a lot of catching up to do. At loveyoudivine we have a number of writers who are GLBT folk, (not just writing about it) making this an issue that we care about a great deal.

Below are a selection of thoughts offered by loveyoudivine authors, two of whom were involved in our To Love and To Cherish anthology.

A View from the North – by Jean Roberta, a contributor to To Love & To Cherish 

 The ridiculous Proposition 8, a bill that overturned a law that had already been passed in California to allow same-sex marriage in that state, has now been overturned on grounds that it is unconstitutional. (I’m sorry if this sentence is confusing, but the one-step-forward and two-steps-back progress of “gay rights” in the U.S. is hard to explain in simple terms!) Those of us who are watching from farther north would like “CA” (California) to join the other “CA” (Canada) in allowing all consenting adults (men, women, undecided or in-between) to have access to all the legal benefits and responsibilities of marriage.

Why did Canada become the fourth nation in the world to allow same-sex marriage? The bill that proposed (pun intended) this option was passed into law in the Canadian Parliament on July 20, 2005. This bill was based on the Canadian Charter of Rights, part of a national constitution which became law in 1982, and which outlaws discrimination based on gender, among other things. Do you see where this leads? If men and women are defined as equals, then heterosexual marriage can’t be a master-and-slave arrangement – not legally, anyway.  And if it is a contract between equals, then no one could reasonably argue for a “notwithstanding” clause to prevent same-sex marriages. (The Conservative Party of Canada argued for this clause, but they were outshouted by smart lawyers. Ha.) 

So there is the key to progress: legal equality between women and men leads to legal equality for people of all sexual orientations. It’s as simple as that, at least under the law. 

 

My rant for the blog – David Sullivan (author of bisexual fiction)

As the author of a book on wisdom and common sense (Wisdom is the Answer, Common Sense is the Way, 2009 by RDR Publishers) I’d like to weigh in on the recent Federal Court ruling that struck down California’s marriage law being for only a man to a woman.

First: think back in history for other prejudicial laws. When one couldn’t marry outside of one’s race? When Asians couldn’t own property in California. It happened to friends of mine, one was American born but 100% Chinese.

Second: some people claim that they want to hold fast to the original idea of marriage: one man, one woman. Ok, but which “original” concept and in which country because they vary from culture to culture. And how far back to go, but let me recall some of the ‘old’ concepts. A man could buy a wife, or parents would pay for a man to marry a daughter. Wives were considered on a par with the livestock. A man could beat or force sex (rape) with his wife and was allowed to beat her with a stick as big as his thumb (the rule of thumb.) In some cultures a man could kill his wife for certain offenses.

Third: In my book I asked people to look deeply within their hearts. Do the beliefs they hold truly hold a valid truth or do readers believe certain things because they were taught that way and are afraid to speak against it. How would you feel if a rule or law was against something you believed in? Ask: Is it fair?

Finally, as a retired police officer I know the US Constitution calls for “equal protection under the law.” No exception for blacks, Italians, women, short people, gays, lesbians or bisexuals.

Those who fail to remember history….

 

Thoughts from To Love and To Cherish editor Lara Zielinsky

Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently enjoining its enforcement;” ~ VAUGHN R WALKER, United States District Chief Judge, August 4, 2010

I was ecstatic that Judge Vaughn Walker overturned Prop 8 in California, particularly with his reasoning (stated above).

The writers of Sapphic Planet united to write our 14 stories in To Love and To Cherish because Prop 8 had taken away the rights given to LGBT couples in the 5 months from June to November 2008, and we needed to vent, to educate, and to share our inner passion about how beautiful, strong, and natural lesbian loving relationships are and how they deserve the rights of marriage.

Judge Walker saw the same reasoning in legal standards as we did in our hearts. Marriage — the desire to love and cherish and build a home and life with someone — is a civil right — and he required the immediate reinstatement of marriage to all California citizens, regardless of sexual identity or orientation.

Though the fight is not over — this thing still has a trip to the U.S. District 9 Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, I am very hopeful that the day is close at hand when marriage will be established as a civil right for ALL U.S. Citizens.

Sincerely,

Lara Zielinsky
co-editor, To Love and To Cherish
(2010; loveyoudivine)

 

At loveyoudivine we know that ‘equality’ means everyone. It doesn’t mean equal rights only for people you happen to like and feel comfortable about. It doesn’t mean accepting prejudices rooted in ancient religious laws. Diversity is a good thing, and we celebrate humanity in all its complexity. We hope for a brighter, more tolerant future.

 Jean Roberta came to lyd as part of the To Love and To Cherish project. So I didn’t know much about her when we started the interview… she’s a fascinating person…

 

 

 

 

 

Bryn: Hi Jean, I see from your column at http://www.erotica-readers.com that you write philisophical essays as well as erotica. Which did you embark on first, and is there common ground between the two?

Jean: I’ve had a very varied writing career! I’ve always loved writing rants, um, opinion pieces. I did this long before I worked up the nerve to write stories with explicit sex scenes in them. No one knows this, but I’ve had at least as much non-fiction published (mostly in local publications that are eventually used to line bird cages) as fiction.

In the early 1970s, when electric typewriters were the cutting edge of office technology and I had only taken a few university classes, I got a job as a kind of apprentice journalist with a local public relations company. It was a fascinating introduction to the media world.

I wrote a book review column for a monthly publication, The Credit Union Way (journal of all the credit unions in the Canadian province where I live). I reviewed several groundbreaking books of feminist theory when they were new and widely discussed. (This was the dawn of Second Wave feminism.)

Years later, in the mid-1980s, I was an unofficial regular reviewer for Briarpatch, a leftist magazine that sent me books and tickets for live performances. For two years, I had at least one review in every issue. I was thrilled when my name was mentioned in an article in the national edition of The Toronto Globe & Mail (”Canada’s national newspaper”) in a series of articles about small, grassroots publications throughout Canada. According to the G&M, there were 2 good reasons to read Briarpatch: my writing and that of another regular contributor, a male political theorist who wrote lead articles.  

I wrote “mainstream” (for lack of a clearer word) short stories and poems for years while I also wrote articles and reviews for magazines & newsletters and the occasional skit. In 1985, I wrote and performed in “The Caucus Meeting,” a political spoof with dialogue in rhymed couplets for The Funny Pages, a cabaret-style evening of local theatre. (This is probably no excuse, but I was influenced at a young age by Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.)

In 1988, a paperback collection of my lesbian stories was published between slick, hot-pink covers by a one-woman publisher in Montreal as Secrets of the Invisible World. Alas, the publisher went out of business soon after, so my book went out of print. Several lesbian friends who said they liked my stories also complained that I was a “tease” – i.e. they wanted more sexual description.

Erotica in general was gaining in popularity and becoming combined with other genres. I wrote a few explicitly sexual stories which were accepted for anthologies which never materialized (as far as I knew). In the late ’90s, I joined the on-line Erotic Readers and Writers Association, read their calls-for-submissions and began submitting stories to editors and publishers who produced actual books and magazines.

So, to draw this epic to a close, I’ve actually been writing non-fiction much longer than I’ve been writing erotica. They’re very complementary. A flaming opinion and a hot sex scene can both relieve frustration, depending what kind it is.   :)

 Bryn: Wow! that’s quite some writing history. How ‘out’ are you about writing erotica?

Jean: I’m actually very “out.” I now have a business card, featuring the photo of me that accompanies my column at ERWA (www.erotica-readers.com), which includes the words “erotica,” “fiction,” “reviews,” articles,” “workshops” in that order (top to bottom).

I’m very lucky to have a tenured teaching position at a local university with a history of liberalism, so my published erotic fiction counts as “publications” when I report my accomplishments every year on a Faculty Review form, or apply for funding to attend a conference or a reading in some city that I can only reach by plane.

Here is where fiction and non-fiction fit together nicely. In 2000, some anonymous person complained to the secretaries in the English Department about the stuff I was running off on the office printer. I’m sure there were rumors about what I actually did in my office when the door was closed.

So I composed a 40-minute talk on the history of erotica (a sprint through the material) and got myself added to the schedule for the “OMADs” (Orlene Murad Academic Discussions, named for a departed colleague), a series of discussions by department members that are open to the public but usually attended only by fellow department-members.

I gave my talk, quaking in my shoes, in 2001. My parents were there, even though my father hated “porn.” (Later, he said he liked my talk. I don’t think he understood it.)  I used the overhead projector to show my audience an illustration (cartoon-like naked heroine), done in 1915 by American artist Clara Tice, for an English-language edition of Mademoiselle de Maupin, a classic French erotic novel. The talk was very well received – not a single person was offended, and several scholars in the crowd (my role models!) said they learned new things.

I developed my talk into an article which was published in several places, and spun it out into a talk on the history of censorship. I gave the censorship talk (without illustrations but with a free book list and historical outline) in February 2009 at a local chain bookstore as part of the “Coffeehouse Controversies” series, a joint project of Chapters Books and the local university. My talk was videotaped and shown numerous times on Community Channel TV.

I’m scheduled to give the same talk at a public library later in February 2010 as part of Freedom to Read Week.

At all these events, I’ve been honest about writing the kind of material which has been banned in various times and places. Once I put it in a social and historical context, no one threatens to put me in the stocks! (The publisher of Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure was threatened with this in 1749, but that is another story.)

It seems that my youthful reputation as a slut has been eclipsed by my current image as an intellectual. Life is good.  

Bryn: That’s excellent! I feel very strongly that being a slut and being an intellectual should not be deemed as incompatible anyway! Who do you like to read?

 Jean: OMG, that’s a hard question to answer because I have many favorite authors, both living and dead.

One of my favorite (relatively) non-erotic authors at the moment is the historical novelist Emma Donoghue (originally from Ireland but now living in Canada). As one of her reviewers said, “She inhabits the past.” Reading one of her novels or stories set in a past century, you feel as if you’re there.

I tend to like writers who have broken new ground. So I like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (first published 1818) and Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (first published 1978), which set off the current craze for vampires as complex, almost-human characters, not just Evil personified.

I like the erotic fantasies of Pat (now Patrick) Califia, who helped found the real-life BDSM community of San Francisco as well as the current popularity of erotic fiction in general.

I like the erotica of M. Christian because he boldly goes where few other writers venture – into a whole variety of genres and sexual orientations, and always (to my knowledge) with respect for communities he doesn’t personally belong to. 

I like reading (and sometimes teaching) lesser-known books by authors who are better-known for something else.

Examples: 1) Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Caroll, 19th-century author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

2) The Third Life of Grange Copeland by contemporary U.S. author Alice Walker, who is probably best known for The Color Purple (made into a movie and then a stage musical).

I also admire a whole slew of other erotic writers, but I don’t want to start compiling a list because I’m afraid I would forget to include someone important.

 Bryn: A very interesting list. I did some anthology stuff with M Christian some years ago. A very engaging person. One final question then… where can people find you online?

Jean: I have a site that needs updating (I need help with that – I am so not a techie), but it still has a lot of information about me and my writing: www.JeanRoberta.com

My opinion pieces can be found every month in “Sex Is All Metaphors” here: www.erotica-readers.com (in the Smutters Lounge gallery).

 I am a staff reviewer here: www.eroticarevealed.com - look for my new review on the first of each month. My reviews can also be found here:  www.kissedbyvenus.ca

www.goodreads.com

www.velvetmafia.com

www.cleansheets.com 

& various other sites.

 I blog on Livejournal here:  http://lizardlez.livejournal.com. Or just type in “Jean Roberta” and see what comes up!