Less Than Magic by Kimberly Gardner

The past few days have been less than magic for writers of LGBT romance since the Romance Writers Ink chapter of RWA decided to exclude same-sex entries from their 2012 More Than Magic contest.

A few years ago Romance Writers of America tried to redefine romance as being between one man and one woman. Tried and failed because the attempt was greeted with outrage and anger by not only a large percentage of the RWA membership but others all over the romance writing community and beyond. As a result, RWA’s own web site now states the following,

“Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending. A Central Love Story: The main
plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants
as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.”

“An Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle
for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.

“Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality—ranging from sweet to extremely hot. These
settings and distinctions of plot create specific subgenres within romance fiction.”

In the interest of full disclosure, let me state that I am a past-president of the Rainbow Romance Writers, RWA special interest chapter 217. As you can probably guess, our special interest is LGBT romance. Our chapter has approximately 100 members who identify as either LGBT or straight allies. What we all have in common is that we write romance featuring same-sex pairings.

This past week, it came to our attention that another chapter of RWA, the Romance Writers Ink, is holding a contest for published authors. It’s the More Than Magic contest and right there on the contest information page is the following statement,

“1. All entries must be book-length romance fiction.
Includes novellas of at least 15,000 words.
– Note: MTM will no longer accept same-sex entries in any category.”
source:

http://rwimagiccontests.wordpress.com/rwi-contests/2012-more-than-magic-rules-information/

All I can say is what the hell?

Well, I could say a lot more but in the interest of avoiding a rant let’s move on.

Several members of RRW emailed the contest coordinator to ask about this rule change since in past years same-sex entries were not only welcomed but did very well in the MTM contest.

The response our members received essentially said — and I’m paraphrasing — RWI had decided to exclude same-sex romance because some of the chapter members felt “uncomfortable” and like same sex romance was just “too much.”

Oh the poor things with their delicate sensibilities!

Appalled by this blatant discrimination, several RRW members wrote to the national office of RWA and inquired whether this type of bigotry wasn’t against some organizational policy. They were told that each individual chapter was free to make its own decisions about contests and programming, in accordance with the special interests and sensibilities of its members.

And here we go with those delicate sensibilities again.

So according to the RWA national office it is perfectly okay for any chapter to discriminate against anyone or anything about which that chapter feels “uncomfortable.”

You know what, RWA? Discrimination makes me damn uncomfortable. Your hands-off attitude with regard to the activities of the individual chapters in no way exonerates you when one of those chapters puts in place a rule or policy that discriminates against those of us who are dues paying members in good standing of the national organization.

It makes me sad and sick and angry that this post is even necessary. I wonder if a chapter tried to make exclusions based on race, ethnicity or religious affiliation what would the national office’s response have been? Suppose instead of “no gays need apply” the rule said “no African Americans need apply” or “Only white Anglo protestant pairings need apply.” It’s the same thing. Discrimination is discrimination.

As members of RWA on the national, local and special interest level we are all romance writers. If a romance really is “a love story between individuals … with an optimistic ending” then the pairing shouldn’t matter.

As RRW chapter members we are required to belong to RWA on the national level which means paying annual dues to the organization on the national level. Therefore as a dues paying member of RWA, we should be treated with the respect and professionalism due to *any* dues paying member of RWA

I love the Rainbow Romance Writers and my sisters and brothers in that chapter. I don’t feel any particular allegiance to RWA on the national level. I pay my dues because I am required to in order to belong to RRW, but I have never felt like the national organization is interested in advocating for me as a writer of LGBT romance. This incident and RWA’s response which is to attempt to wash its hands of the issue has only confirmed my feelings of being somehow less deserving of RWA’s attention and advocacy.

RWI’s attempt to exclude LGBT romance from the MTM contest and RWA’s response have gotten a lot of attention and that’s as it should be, because in shining a light on this discrimination we can hopefully let everyone know that we as LGBT romance writers are not less and we won’t be marginalized because who we are and what we write makes some people “uncomfortable.” As writers we pride ourselves in our ability to show all the faces of love in its full rainbow glory.

So those who would push us aside had better get over themselves because we’re here and we will not be silent in the face of discrimination.

If you write or read LGBT romance and you support our position, please blog and tweet and facebook about it. Help us shine the light and banish the darkness of bigotry and discrimination.

Written by Kimberly Gardner

As early as the seventh grade, Kimberly remembers slashing her favorite rockstars and reading romance. So it’s not surprising that her two passions, romance and putting pretty boys with other pretty boys, should come together in her writing. Moliere said, “Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, then for a few close friends, then for money.” Kimberly is delighted to finally be doing it for money.
Visit The Author's Website