WTF RWA?
I'm going to let Kari Gregg explain since she does it better than I could.

RWA defines romance as:

A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. (Emphasis mine. Full text)

Two individuals. In no respect are those individuals differentiated by gender or sexual orientation. LGBT romances are no less romances than stories with heterosexual couples, according to RWA’s own definition.

And yet some still insist on excluding LGBT romance from general romance categories.

Romance Writers Ink(RWI) is a Tulsa, OK based RWA chapter that sponsors an annual contest, More Than Magic (MTM), for published writers. In recent years, LGBT romances have been accepted as contest entries. Many have scored well in the contest, finaled and even won.

This year, MTM’s rules & regulations were changed to state:

– Note: MTM will no longer accept same-sex entries in any category.

No reason for this change is given.

So…I emailed the contest organizer to ask why this change was enacted. The contest organizer replied that RWI chapter members were “uncomfortable” with accepting same-sex contest entries. “Same-sex was just too much.”

Yeah, you read that right.

I don't about you guys, but discrimination makes me pretty 'uncomfortable' too.

Other links:

Online petition.

MTM's rules.

Heidi Cullinan's response.

Stephani Hecht.

Edit: Smart Bitches Trashy Books weighs in.

EDIT 2: RWI responds. They're taking their toys and going HOME because y'all are meanies for complaining about their homophobia. Also, banning YA novels from the contest is totally the same thing as banning same-sex novels. Totally.

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harumph
2012-02-05 06:32 am UTC (link)

My first instinct was to check if the Smart Bitches had anything to say, and of course they do: here. In response to some of the comments in that entry, SB Sarah also started a separate entry for people to rec lesbian romance, which makes me very happy. So at least some small good has come out of this whole mess, at least tangentially?

Otherwise, yeah, this is just makes me sick. Or "uncomfortable," I guess.

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	platedlizard 2012-02-05 07:52 am UTC (link)
	Thanks for the link. And rec list. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	white_tean 2012-02-05 12:55 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks for posting that! My bookshelf has felt so bereft without lesbian romances. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

keri
2012-02-05 08:16 pm UTC (link)

:D

I was SO HAPPY that Sarah saw my plea and started the GS vs STA thread! I'm going to sit down later this evening to go through the comments.

Sadly, you know, it was on Fandom_Lounge that I'd asked for lesbian romance in the past (I think it was - may have been in a subthread instead) and got hardly any response except things like Emma Donoghue or Sarah Waters or "My Name is Annie" or whatever those titles from the '80s were. I've never been connected enough to book blogs or lesbian blogs (partly because I'm mostly asexual and have been mostly content to not bother, except for when it gets to be a bugbear and then I give up when I don't know where to look or only find shit for porn fantasies), so i really had no idea about Best Strokes Books or Bella Books or anything. And now I do! :)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	jat_sapphire 2012-02-05 09:19 pm UTC (link)
	I recced over there like a crazed reccing thing, btw. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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