I’m not going to be a dick and link to it, but I read an opinion piece by an m/m romance author that has left me feeling pretty conflicted. The gist of it is, “Those poor heterosexual romance writers! They don’t get to mine the depths of homophobia, self-hatred, closeted living, and confused gender roles that m/m romance writers do! We have so much more wonderful angst from which to draw, and it generates automatic conflict that makes books in this genre easy to write.”

I’ll be generous and assume that it was not their intention, but I have to say that that sentiment makes me feel, as a gay man, pretty damn exploited. I won’t ignore the fundamental facts there – GLBTQA life can be pretty damn complicated, with a host of issues that heterosexuals never have to even think about. Maybe it’s just the underlying gleeful attitude I read into it. I don’t really have any solution there, but it just really bugged me.

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