An apology from the RWA?

I hope so. Judge for yourself, and maybe come back here?

What do you think, readers? Does it come too late to rescue the Romance Writers of America, as a vital professional organization?

I hope not.

I am not a member of the RWA. I’ve attended a few meetings, I have a fair number of friends who do belong, and I might join when it becomes financially and professionally viable for me to do so. I say ‘might’ because as a reader and friend of romance novelists, I have a long memory.

Way, way back in 2005, something very slimy happened within the RWA, when a survey asked members to vote on whether romance should be redefined as ‘being between one man and one woman’.

Yes, that phrase.

Understand that in 2005, a digital explosion was happening in the romance field. Gay literary writers were crossing paths with fanfiction and original slash writers. Paranormal Romance and Erotic Romance subgenre writers reinvented the stories they wanted to read and tell…in the process, largely sidestepping the more conservative pearl-clutchers of the Old Guard.

This was obviously a terrifying thing to the pearl-clutchers. Thus, that RWA survey. The aftermath was long and epic. Things did change later. Slowly. I’m very happy to see this notice from the RWA today, in which they collectively say:

The survey, however, sparked a discussion that compelled our LGBT+ members to justify their existence to others and to participate in debates about their humanity and their capacity to love. This incident was a low point from which RWA’s reputation has never recovered. The organization later reaffirmed RWA’s commitment to making sure that “any definition of romance should be broad and inclusive.” This statement, however, did not make it clear that, in issuing the survey, RWA failed its members, its genre and its mission. We want to make that clear now.

Bravo for them. Bravo for the writers who banded together to create diversity-friendly groups inside and outside the ranks of the RWA. And bravo for the readers whose purchases and loyalty made that apology not only honorable, but financially responsible.

But let us be very clear and very blunt: in ‘issuing the survey’ in the first place, that 2005 incarnation of the RWA was not failing its mission at all.

Like their current political cousins, those RWA leaders (who were/are readers, writers, agents, and editors, bear in mind) were playing desperately to their perceived base with every dog-whistle phrase and code word they could dredge up. Enough of them did not like having icky gay writers and immoral menage writers in their midst. They thought they should do something about it. Given the current political climate of the day, they thought they could do something about it.

Why, some of those other writers were even writing stories where the gay and poly MCs had Happy Ever After endings! (You could have gay, lesbian, and poly characters before, of course, just as long as the story didn’t reward them.)

I hate to make romance novels (which are often happily, admittedly escapist) into a political tool, but this season I feel I have to.

We’re at a social crossroads between cosmopolitan and conservative values, not just in the US but all over the world. The still-reviled romance novel sneaks its way into the markets of northern Nigeria, into the youth culture of China, into the rigidly controlled Islamist bureaucracies of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran. The spark of romance can kindle and keep alive other sparks: tolerance, kindness, knowledge, and fortitude.

To quote the late, much-missed Tanith Lee: ‘a cry of love is always a cry of love’.

We who tell stories need to remember that.

 

 

 

1 Comment on "An apology from the RWA?"


  1. I hate to say “It was a different time” because that seems like such a stupid cop out, but I think to a lot of people, gay people didn’t become human until way too recently. The f word was thrown around freely even by people sensitive to gay issues. There were few examples of non-heterosexual relationships in the media. Various groups of people demanding diversity and getting TPTB to listen is very recent. Thanks Obama? 🙂 Look how long it’s taken to get leading characters on TV that aren’t straight, white men. Look how far we have to go.

    Uh…yeah. I had a point.

    So it doesn’t surprise me that the RWA sent out that survey in 2005. I’m glad they’ve apologized for being asshats, but at the end of the day it gets a big ‘meh’ from me. Good for them for showing common decency ten years later. What do they want? A cookie?

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