{"id":1620,"date":"2012-05-16T22:02:05","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T02:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2025-11-17T12:23:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:23:48","slug":"hop-against-homophobia-freedom-of-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/?p=1620","title":{"rendered":"Hop Against Homophobia: Freedom of Expression"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hop<\/a>
Hop Against Homophobia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visit other authors in the blog hop here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Freedom of Expression<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello.\u00a0For this blog hop against\u00a0homophobia, I wanted to talk about why I write GLBT romance and offer an opinion on freedom of expression, not only in fiction but in everyday life.<\/p>\n

I write GLBT romances for the same reason I write paranormal, historical, sci-fi and just about every other type of story I\u2019ve written\u2014because it\u2019s what I enjoy reading. Over two decades ago, when I first started reading romance novels, I had no problem finding stories focusing on heterosexual relationships. While I enjoyed them, I generally didn\u2019t relate to the characters, in particular the heroines. I looked for romantic GLBT fiction, but most of the offerings were exclusively erotica. Though I enjoy erotica, I wanted to read stories that dealt with actual romance, not just sex. Nowadays there\u2019s a variety of GLBT stories that focus on more well rounded relationships.<\/p>\n

For me romance has always been about people in a loving relationship who are respectful of and dedicated to each other. I\u2019ve never placed much emphasis on gender and was raised to believe people shouldn\u2019t have to fit into certain categories. I write and read all types of romance because I don\u2019t believe in any particular set of rules regarding gender. That in itself offends or confuses some people.<\/p>\n

Growing up, being honest with my family about my sexuality was never an issue for me. I was very lucky because they loved me as I am and weren\u2019t surprised, upset or in any sort of denial about having a child who didn\u2019t fit into the \u201cnorm.\u201d Any issues with homophobia or exclusion I had or have come from outside my immediate family, whether it\u2019s deliberate or unintentional comments, misconceptions or \u201cjokes\u201d from others. Despite being raised in a supportive family environment, it took years for me to fully accept and understand myself.<\/p>\n

Finally I\u2019ve reached the point where I can say I don\u2019t care what others think about my sexuality or my viewpoints on gender, meaning their fears, skepticism and misconceptions have no influence on how I feel. If they don\u2019t understand or appreciate my perspective or my work, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t fine is people trying to prevent other people from being themselves.<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t that everyone needs to be exactly like everyone else. That won\u2019t ever happen. The problem is that some believe everyone should be the same and if you happen to be different and express it, you shouldn\u2019t enjoy the same basic rights and privileges as the majority.<\/p>\n

People have various ways of channeling their creativity. My outlet is writing stories with characters I can relate to, regardless of whether or not other people approve. Someone else might have another way of expressing themselves.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is people are individuals and have the right to express themselves personally, professionally, artistically and spiritually.<\/p>\n

Kate<\/em><\/p>\n

Links\/Resources to Check Out:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders<\/a><\/p>\n

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Health Access Project<\/a><\/p>\n

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visit other authors in the blog hop here. Freedom of Expression Hello. For this blog hop against homophobia, I wanted to talk about why I write GLBT romance and offer an opinion on freedom of expression, not only in fiction but in everyday life. I write GLBT romances for the same reason I write paranormal, historical, sci-fi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-hop-against-homophobia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11328,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions\/11328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}