How Irish YA and children’s authors embraced LGBTQ+ themes (Hurl alert)

"Don’t worry,” we were told in school, around the turn of the millennium. “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.” A useful reassurance if you’re talking about spiders, but the subject in question here? Lesbians.

This well-intentioned but clumsy incident fits into a broader pattern of regressive messaging in schools at the time. In other girls’ schools, you might have a piece of Sellotape pressed against various arms, then held up once it lost its adhesive power. The sullied piece of tape was a reminder to ‘save yourself’ for (heterosexual) marriage.

Cut to the 2020s, with Progress Pride flags (the updated rainbow) hanging outside schools. A cynic might wonder: which box on the anti-bullying policy does this tick?

But other unthinkable things happen: school librarians have Pride displays, as do bookshops, and young people actually select titles from them. In fact, they’re in the bookshop in the first place trying to find the Heartstopper graphic novels, a series in which almost no straight characters exist.

How did we get here? This era of representation of and for young LGBTQ+ people is made possible, in an Irish context, by the events of 1993. In the history of what was still then simply ‘gay rights’, 1993 marks the year a Victorian law that criminalised male homosexual acts was repealed (thank you, David Norris). But it is also the year that Trinity academic Pádraic Whyte refers to as the first Irish gay bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, was published.

The title in question is When Love Comes to Town by Tom Lennon (the author, who died in 2002, only ever published under this pseudonym). Ivan O’Brien, managing director at the novel’s publisher, the O’Brien Press, recalls that “to use his real name would probably have cost him his job” as a teacher. We might remember here that the prioritising of a ‘religious ethos’ over employee rights in schools would have allowed this to happen as late as 2015.

Lennon’s book, like Emma Donoghue’s lesbian coming-out tale Stir-Fry the following year, was published as adult fiction rather than specifically aimed at teens, though both now fit neatly into the young adult (YA) section of the market. Set pre-decriminalisation, it depicts a Dublin where vocal Catholic-informed homophobia is the norm, where the fear of being ‘caught’ by the gardaí is entirely justified.

Emma Donoghue's lesbian coming-out tale Stir-fry was published in 1994 As a coming-out story, particularly one with a view to enlightening straight readers, When Love Comes to Town is not formally radical in any way. American YA fiction had included gay protagonists since the late 1960s, often treating the coming-out process as the ‘problem’ to be resolved by the end of the story. Lennon’s book follows many of the same patterns, but for Irish readers it presented a much more familiar world.

One might expect a trickle of Irish-published material featuring gay protagonists after this, but no. The country had not changed overnight. This was before divorce was legalised, before the last Magdalene laundry closed, before carrying the internet on a smartphone.

The close relationship with the UK was also a factor. As Little Island publisher Matthew Parkinson-Bennett notes, at this time “there was a feeling that Irish children’s reading in English had — with notable exceptions — been dominated by British books, and there was a movement to publish more Irish books, which resulted in a lot of historical fiction”.

It felt like a necessary counterbalance to the emphasis on the British Empire. Along came books that explored Irish rebellion and the damage Britain had wrought on its nearest neighbour. This wave, which included Marita Conlon-McKenna’s bestselling Children of the Famine trilogy, was a vital development for Irish children’s publishing overall, but much of the contemporary fiction available still came from overseas.

England and Wales decriminalised homosexual acts in 1967, but Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced Section 28, a policy that prohibited “the promotion of homosexuality” in schools from 1988 until 2003. Before this, it had been rare to see teen fiction from a major UK publisher depicting gay relationships in a non-judgmental fashion — one notable exception is Aidan Chambers’s Dance on My Grave (1982) but the closing-off of the schools’ bookclub market made it commercially unviable.

These books existed, but they were few and far between. Lorraine Levis, now buyer at WH Smith Ireland with a focus on children’s and YA fiction, recalls: “When I was growing up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were queer books to be found if you knew where to look and you had a sympathetic librarian or bookseller.” She acknowledges this was not the case for many, who “relied on early internet forums and word of mouth within a community which was often fearful” and in which “a level of secrecy” dominated.

The work from small presses, including those specialising in gay and lesbian literature (such as Alyson Books in the US), might be found in independent bookshops, then later online. Much of it was American; much of it was terrible. Irish-specific content remained scarce, and Irish-published even more so. Jarlath Gregory’s novels featuring young gay protagonists, Snapshots (2001) and GAAY (2005) stand out at this time, both published by Sitric (an imprint of Lilliput Press).

Yet despite the expansion of both the children’s and YA markets from the late 1990s, thanks to popular franchises (Harry Potter, Twilight), Irish teen fiction remained mostly untouched by these changes. (In 2004, Poolbeg Press published my fifth teen novel, Good Girls Don’t, featuring a bisexual heroine, only after much discussion; the impression of it as light and ‘girly’ doubtless had an impact here.)

And then in the last decade, something exploded. Writer Meg Grehan recalls being unable to find queer YA until “late into her teens”, and then only by UK or US writers. “Now, though! There’s so many more. Queer books by Irish authors are getting a lot of love and support. It’s such a joyous thing to see.”

Grehan’s own titles count among these, including her recent sapphic vampire novel Baby Teeth. She is one of several Irish YA writers whose regular inclusion of queer protagonists and relationships has turned it into a defining feature of the field; others include Ciara Smyth (romantic comedy), Moïra Fowley-Doyle (magical realism), CG Moore (contemporary fiction/memoir), Helen Corcoran (high fantasy), Adiba Jaigirdar (romance) and Caroline O’Donoghue (urban fantasy).

Tellingly, all of these writers experienced a post-decriminalisation adolescence, and doubtlessly benefitted from greater LGBTQ+ representation in the global media.

The impact of the marriage equality referendum in 2015 cannot be understated either. While it did not create a rainbow utopia overnight — as observed brilliantly in Jarlath Gregory’s What Love Looks Like (2021), the first of his books labelled as YA — there was another cultural shift.

Even 10 years ago, books with LGBTQ+ themes were unlikely to be promoted in spaces younger readers might visit. In recent years, though, as children’s bookseller MaryBrigid Turner notes, “parents are coming in asking for books” with LGBTQ+ themes, often to “explain those types of families” to their own children, who have a classmate with same-sex parents. (It is, of course, the openness about different family structures, rather than their existence, that is new.)

The role of positive representation here is not simply about encouraging tolerance. British-born Bob Johnston, who many book-lovers will know as the owner of the Gutter Bookshop, “grew up believing that I could never be happy or settled as a gay man”, under the shadow of Section 28. He wishes that books like his own recent Our Big Day, illustrated by Michael Emberley, “had been available back then to show me that LGBTQ+ lives can be just as happy, fulfilling and valid as any other kind”.

It is fitting that this picture book about a same-sex couple getting married, post-referendum, is published by O’Brien Press, moving from Lennon’s rather grim novel to a joyful celebration of love. Across various age ranges, the “pretty bleak future” that Grehan recalls from her youthful reading has been supplemented with “more hopeful and happy queer lit popping up on shelves”.

Johnston notes that there’s “certainly a lot more work to do in providing positive role models, especially for trans, non-binary and bi youth”. It’s a familiar refrain in children’s books. The question of who is ‘entitled’ to tell these stories is also still a thorny issue, particularly in our outrage-loving social media age. Illustrator Margaret Anne Suggs, currently working on a picture book about a family going ‘home to vote’ in the 2015 referendum, worried: “Is it my place to tell this story?” For her, identifying her own position as an ally helped clarify the story and message, how “all kinds of people believed it was worth the effort to get home and cast a vote”.

And it becomes less of a concern as this sector of children’s and YA fiction expands, relieving any one book or writer of the impossible task of representing a wide and diverse community. The question changes from “why have a queer character?” as we move closer to such inclusion to reflect the world we live in, to “why not?”

All around the world, the Days of Lot.

Even thus shall it be in the Day when the Son of Man is Revealed.

Luke 17:28-32

King James Version

28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

31 In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

32 Remember Lot’s wife.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A28-32&version=KJV

Basically what I was gonna say at first glance.

Matthew 18:6
King James Version

6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018%3A6&version=KJV

Luke 17:1-2
King James Version

17 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!

2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17%3A1-2&version=KJV

Both true, unfortunately.

The godless, for thousands upon thousands of years have never believed that the God of Heaven would act. They have no fear of Him in their eyes; their minds are reprobate.

Psalm 33:18
King James Version

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+33%3A18&version=KJV

Romans 3:18
King James Version

18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A18&version=KJV

AND NOW, THE SOLUTION:

Romans 3:19-26
King James Version

19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A19-26&version=KJV

At your service

This world is hurtling down the road to Hell embracing this stuff.

Preparing themselves for the Strong Delusion that comes with the debut of Satan’s anti-messiah.

I’m sure the mocking elite laugh it off.

We don’t need no education,
We don’t need no thought control,
No dark [perversions] in the classrooms,
Teacher, leave those kids alone...

HEY! TEACHER! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!!!

The supreme irony of the lyrics written by Roger Waters as I guess he thought there would be conservative indoctrination in the schools.

Yep. I knew things would happen rapidly; Scripture tells us this. (birth pains)

Still I thought some of this madness would hold off until after the Church is removed.

It’s jaw-dropping what we’ve seen already.

For a few weeks I’ve been here wondering, and have said so, ‘When will they restart “Peace and Security”?’

For it must surely come in an official 7-year form.

Time is certainly going to tell.

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