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I'm signal boosting here. Romance Writers Ink, an Oklahoma chapter of the Romance Writers of America is running a writing competition, 'More than Magic'. Last year, and in other years, winners have included books featuring same-sex couples.
Not this year. They've stated that for the 2012 "More than Magic" competition for published writers, they will "no longer accept same-sex entries in any category."
Rules are here.
When people asked them why not, they were told that the judges felt "uncomfortable" reading even the mildest same-sex romances and that once sex was involved it was "too much".
The irony is that they say this on their page about those judges:
OUR JUDGES:
Our judges are all romance readers. Within that group are RWI chapter members and members of other RWA chapters. We recruit judges nationwide and even worldwide (for e-books) and our only requirement is that they are regular romance readers.
They tell us which categories and what “heat” level they prefer to read, so our entrants’ books get into the hands of people who might give them the most favorable rating.
Our final round judges are chosen for the diversity of their romance reading interests and enjoyment, sense of fair comparison across all categories, and knowledge of the romance genre.
Umm. Right. I know that though it's growing in visibility, m/m romances are still viewed as suspect by traditional bodies like the RWA. Sure, they don't go as far as their chapter has here, but they're not -- as yet -- condemning this action either.
Enough's enough. The genre of traditional, for want of a better word, romance contains dozens of sub-genres, some of which also fought to be included, and so do same-sex romances, which are as legitimate as any romance and the writers as in love with the HEA ending as any other romance writer out there.
There's a round-up post on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books here and many, many authors are posting about it on their blogs.
Time for this to stop. We're here, we're not going anywhere, and we're part of the romance family.
There's a petition here
ETA Tweaked this a little because one of the petition signatures pointed out that same sex romance isn't a genre which, yes. It isn't. Apologies.
Not this year. They've stated that for the 2012 "More than Magic" competition for published writers, they will "no longer accept same-sex entries in any category."
Rules are here.
When people asked them why not, they were told that the judges felt "uncomfortable" reading even the mildest same-sex romances and that once sex was involved it was "too much".
The irony is that they say this on their page about those judges:
OUR JUDGES:
Our judges are all romance readers. Within that group are RWI chapter members and members of other RWA chapters. We recruit judges nationwide and even worldwide (for e-books) and our only requirement is that they are regular romance readers.
They tell us which categories and what “heat” level they prefer to read, so our entrants’ books get into the hands of people who might give them the most favorable rating.
Our final round judges are chosen for the diversity of their romance reading interests and enjoyment, sense of fair comparison across all categories, and knowledge of the romance genre.
Umm. Right. I know that though it's growing in visibility, m/m romances are still viewed as suspect by traditional bodies like the RWA. Sure, they don't go as far as their chapter has here, but they're not -- as yet -- condemning this action either.
Enough's enough. The genre of traditional, for want of a better word, romance contains dozens of sub-genres, some of which also fought to be included, and so do same-sex romances, which are as legitimate as any romance and the writers as in love with the HEA ending as any other romance writer out there.
There's a round-up post on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books here and many, many authors are posting about it on their blogs.
Time for this to stop. We're here, we're not going anywhere, and we're part of the romance family.
There's a petition here
ETA Tweaked this a little because one of the petition signatures pointed out that same sex romance isn't a genre which, yes. It isn't. Apologies.