Queer · and · Loathing · in · America

Several months ago, I was asked by a fan of mine, Eric Russell, to come speak to his high school Gay-Straight Alliance. (He's a faculty advisor for the group.) At the time, I was a little wary. "Are you sure this is okay?" I kept asking, over and over again. After all, Virginia is a red state; Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. He assured me he'd cleared it through his principal, and not only were the students excited, but the librarian was as well. So, I found myself, whenever I thought about it, kind of bemused at my own prejudices about Virginia, and red states in general. Obviously, my preconceived notion that red states are hotbeds of intolerance, ignorance, and hatred masquerading as Christianity and 'family values' was pretty off base.

Yesterday, after coming home from a three hour, eleven load ordeal at the laundromat, I checked my email to find one from Jonathon Harper at Lambda Book Report, stating that a reporter from the Richmond Times-Dispatch was trying to reach me about my appearance next week, and that he'd given him my contact information, How nice, I thought, shaking my head again at my own ignorance and preconceived notions, they are actually going to interview me for the paper, something my own local papers have never done.

Of course, the next email in my inbox was from the reporter, Julian Walker, and so I clicked to open it and started reading. "Dear Mr. Herren, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am pretty certain no one else has contacted you yet..."

As I continued to read, my emotions went up and down the scale. Horror, shock, anger, outrage. My visit to the campus was being cancelled as 'inappropriate.' A 'concerned parents group' had circulated an email call-to-arms to keep the homo out of their school. The text of that email is as follows:

Dear Parent and concerned citizen,

The Gay and Straight Alliance club at Manchester High School has announced that they will have speaker and author Greg Herren speak during third period on March 11. Mr Herren writes gay erotic fiction and gay and lesbian psychodrama. His books include Upon A Midnight Clear Queer Christmas Tales and Fratsex, and he has written for the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, the Washington Blade and Unzipped Monthly.

The memo that was sent out by the sponsor of the Gay and Straight Alliance at Manchester, a teacher named Mr. Eric Russell, says that Mr. Herren will have two 45 minute sessions in the library and that a luncheon will follow. He also says that the author will be available to sign copies of his books which will be available for purchase. Mr. Russell also says that members of the Gay and Straight Alliance will be with him all day.

Is this appropriate material for our children? Is this an appropriate way for school time to be used? Are students allowed to miss class all day for any other speakers? Who appproved this speaker? Who is picking up the tab for this event?

A student was suspended this year at Manchester for downloading pornography at school. If you view the enclosed attachment, you will wonder why that student was expelled when this author is welcomed.

If you believe that Mr. Herron's presence at Manchester High School is inappropriate, please let your voice be heard.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. The 'enclosed attachment' was actually a link to an author page about me on www.murderexpress.net, a website which covers mystery authors; and the author page (which I did not design myself or have anything to do with its design) had not been updated in two years; the bio listed for me was severely out of date. It does come up if you do a google search of my name, but so do any number of other ones--including ones that are more current. However, this particular site and bio included some of the porn anthologies I've contributed to over the years...while the others don't. Don't get me wrong, I am not disavowing my erotica writings nor my erotica anthologies that I have edited. Yet it was interesting to me that in their email, one of the books they mentioned was UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR, which is not an erotica anthology.

Julian Walker conducted an interview with me via email about this situation, and his article can be found at www.timesdispatch.com.

Despite the stupidity of the email circulated, and its inaccuracies, the thing that bothers me the most about this situation is that I was never given an opportunity by the school board or the superintendent (Billy Canaday) to express either my opinion, or was even asked what I was planning on talking about. I am a gay man, who sometimes writes/edits porn, and therefore I am 'inappropriate'. No, the event was simply canceled...and Mr. Canaday did not have the courage to stand behind his decision and contact me himself, which leads me to believe he doesn't really think he was doing the right thing in bowing to pressure from a group of 'concerned parents.'

What was further insulting to me was the insinuation that, as a gay man, I am either too stupid or too perverted to know what is appropriate or inappropriate to talk to high school students about.

I was invited to talk to this group because I am a published author with a small degree of success. What I was going to talk to them about was being true to yourself and following your dreams. I can certainly see why this would be considered incendiary and 'dangerous.'

I have also discovered that since this entire brouhaha began, Manchester High School allowed a preacher to come on to the campus to "pray" for the gay students, and 'drive the gay demons' out of them. Being gay, perhaps I am too perverted to fully understand this, but at the very least it seems like an egregious violation of the students' civil rights, not to mention a school-sponsored violation of the separation of church and state. As part of my tax dollars also go to pay for public education, despite the fact that I have no children, I personally would like a refund from the government. This is not how I want my tax dollars to be spent--but then, I'm just a gay man, and under the current administration in Washington, I have no rights.

As someone who went to high school in an extremely repressive school myself, my heart breaks for the kids at Manchester High, particularly those who have had the courage to be openly gay and join the Gay-Straight Alliance. The message being sent here by their school superintendent, and the 'concerned parents', is clear: gays are bad, gays are evil, and they must be stopped at all costs. How this will effect the students psychologically, I don't know...but if there are homophobic and gay-bashing students at this school, they've just been given a stamp of approval.

If the superintendent and the 'concerned parents' had read my work and then decided I was not an appropriate speaker, I would have gladly let the matter drop. If they read my work and decided I was a terrible author, well, painful as that would have been, I would have accepted it. But I am terribly resentful that the entire reason I was dropped was because a group of homophobic, Christian hoodlums decided, without reading anything I've ever written, based on a bio that is two years out of date and does not remotely even come close to covering everything I've written or written about, that I was a 'danger.'

And yet, somehow the right calls liberals 'elitist' and manage to do so with a straight face.

I am going to Richmond anyway, and am meeting with the GSA off-campus, at the MCC's worship space. I am going because the students are outraged, because the local media have covered this controversy fairly (apparently, I was all over the evening and late night news) and partly because the Times' Dispatch's online poll about it currently is running 60 for my appearance, 39 against, and 11 with no opinion. If I were to cancel the trip entirely, it would be sending the wrong message to those brave queer youth who have the courage I didn't have to be out and proud in their high school.