Queer Writing Through History: Exploring LGBTQ+ Literature and Its Legacy

This month, we’re pleased to feature a thoughtful piece on queer writing by longtime OWA member and former board member Jim Hodnett. Jim explores the importance of queer voices and perspectives in literature and offers insight drawn from his years as a writer and member of the Ohio literary community.

We hope you’ll take a moment to read Jim’s piece and join us in celebrating the many voices that make Ohio’s writing community stronger.

An Exploration of the Literary Traditions, Challenges, and Cultural Significance of Queer Writing by Jim Hodnett

This post will ask two questions: (1) what is queer writing and (2) who can write it? In

answering those questions, I will begin with a brief and, admittedly, incomplete history of queer writing. I am sure I will omit the favorite works, writers, or topics of some readers. But, as you will see, the history of queer writing is long and multi-faceted, as is queer culture, so an exhaustive history is impossible in a brief blog post. (Apologies in advance.) From history, I will move on to the question of who can write queer literature, then conclude by asking what exactly is queer writing.

Queer Writing in Western Cultures: A Brief History

Writers who say they write queer fiction place themselves in a long line of chroniclers of

same-sex love and non-binary characters reaching back into ancient times. Ovid’s

Metamorphoses (7th century, B.C.E.) contains accounts of non-binary individuals. Homer

referred to a love relationship between Achilles and Patroclus in The Iliad (also written in the 7th century B.C.E.). And Sappho, a 6th century B.C.E. poet, wrote beautifully and passionately about her love for women. The Bible’s Old Testament also contains stories about love between both women (Ruth and Esther) and men (David and Jonathan). It is not clear, however, that the same-sex love depicted in any of these ancient texts was meant to imply a sexual relationship. Some have argued that these depictions were more homosocial than homosexual.

During the Medieval Era, the Church considered homosexuality a sin, but that did not

mean that queer themes were not present in the literature of the time. Boyd (1998) argues that the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with its gender role reversals and its depiction of a man “owing” kisses to another man, presents a queer narrative, even if coded. And Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales contains a character who in modern times would likely be seen as non-binary. “The Pardoner” is described as “either a gelding or a mare” (Myers, 2000).

During the Renaissance, Shakespeare and other English dramatists and poets, as well as Italian poets, make reference to same-sex love, and Shakespeare’s plays contain numerous females who cross-dress as men to achieve political or personal goals in a patriarchal world. Rosalind in As You Like It and Viola in Twelfth Night are examples. The fact that these females successfully posed as men in these plays can be seen as at least a tacit acknowledgement of the existence of non-binary individuals and of the behavioral aspects of gender. For more information about queer writing during the Renaissance, see Jonathan Goldberg’s (ed.) Queering the Renaissance, (1993).

In the 19th century, Oscar Wilde wrote obliquely about love between men, mostly because publishers insisted he censor his works to remove blatant references and descriptions. The version of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) we still read is coded and sanitized so as not to offend Wilde’s Victorian contemporaries. E.M. Forester’s Maurice, though begun in 1913, was not published until 1971, a year after his death, due to the legal risks to publishers and writers of depicting homosexuality in a work of fiction. Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928), which explored the challenges faced by an upper-class Englishwoman attracted to other women, was published at the time of its writing, but was almost immediately banned, with Ms. Hall put on trial. But other groundbreaking and notable writers of the early 20th century were able to avoid censorship in their explorations of same-sex love and gender fluidity, such as Gertude Stein in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933) and Virginia Woolf in Orlando (1928). The title character of Woolf’s novel lives for centuries and changes genders several times. And Lillian Helman’s 1934 play, The Children’s Hour, produced on Broadway, was a searing look at the destructive effects of homophobia directed at two women who are work partners but not lovers, though one eventually confesses her love for the other.

During the 1940s-60s, despite continued censorship pressure, underground writing, such

as lesbian “pulp fiction,” thrived. Paperback novels and magazine stories, often torrid in nature, were available in drug stores and bus terminals for those inclined to read. Though most of these novels were written by men (using female pseudonyms) and seemed to depict as much as anything else heterosexual male fantasies, a few were written by women and were serious and thoughtful takes on female-female love. Perhaps the highest quality novel of this type was The Price of Salt (1952), written under a pseudonym by Patricia Highsmith, the famous and highly successful author of suspense and psychological thrillers (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, both of which were made into well-received films). The Price of Salt also eventually became a highly praised movie, but not until 2015. It was renamed Carol and starred Cate Blanchette. Another novel that rose above the pulp fiction label during this period was Jane

Rule’s Desert of the Heart (1964), which related the story of a woman in the midst of a divorce coming to understand herself and her love for another woman. Based on that novel, the film, Desert Hearts (1984) was produced and praised by critics for its de-sensationalizing of lesbian relationships.

Male same-sex love was also represented in literature of the1950s and ‘60s. Many writers

of the “beat generation” were gay or bisexual, including Jack Kerouac, Albert Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, as were some of their works, including Burroughs’ Queer, which, though written in the 1950s, was not published until 1985. In 2024, it was filmed with the same title and starred Daniel Craig.

In the late 1950s and early 60s, queer writing began to blossom. One of the most

important writers of these decades was James Baldwin, a black gay man who wrote about both race and sexuality. In his novels Giovanni’s Room (1957) and Another Country (1962), the same-sex relationships he depicts often end sadly, even tragically, though not due to their nature. Rather it is the societal homophobic context in which they exist that is the culprit.

Baldwin was accompanied and succeeded by numerous other authors as queer writing became more accepted. Christopher Isherwood wrote A Single Man (1964), about a professor grieving the loss of his male lover, while John Rechy wrote the frank and gritty City of Night in 1963. Both novels were unapologetic in their depiction of gay male relationships and culture.

Similarly, Matt Crowley’s unabashed play, Boys in the Band, about a group of gay male friends, became a hit on Broadway in 1968, even if it seemed to depict gay men as lonely, dysfunctional, and somewhat tortured.

Among works that dealt with trans topics during this period, Christine Jorgensen, perhaps

the first person to be open about undergoing gender-affirming surgery, published her

autobiography, Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography, in 1967. The following year, Gore Vidal, an openly gay writer, published his satirical and subversive book, Myra

Breckinridge, the first novel with a transwoman as protagonist.

Into the 1970s and ‘80s, Armistead Maupin’s highly popular Tales of the City novels, the

first four originally published in serial form in the San Franscisco Chronicle, depicted the queer communities in San Francisco without pathologizing them. His cast of characters included Anna Madrigal, a matriarchal figure who was also a transgender woman. And Edmund White, who published his first novel, A Boy’s Own Story, in 1984, remained a prolific and influential figure in queer literature until his death in 2025. Meanwhile, other gay male writers documented the AIDS epidemic and in the process protested the U.S. government’s homophobic and inadequate response to it. Paul Monette (Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, 1988), Randy Shilts (And the Band Played On: People, Politics, and the AIDS Epidemic, 1987), and Larry Kramer (The Normal Heart (a play), 1984) are examples.

Writing about lesbian culture and relationships also grew exponentially during the 1960s-

‘80s, influenced and energized by the concurrent feminist movement. Perhaps most emblematic of the era was Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle (1973), whose self-empowered, young protagonist felt no shame or conflict about her sexual orientation. Also notable was Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982), which presented, among other aspects of black history and culture, a relationship between two women. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983.

The expansion of writing by and about trans and non-binary persons unfolded somewhat

later than literature pertaining to LGB persons, likely due to even greater and more virulent prejudice towards those who violated our culture’s rigid binary norms pertaining to gender. Kate Bornstein’s Gender Outlaw (1994), Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues (1993), and Jennifer Finney Boylan’s She’s Not There Anymore: A Life in Two Genders (2003) were seminal works and helped to change attitudes. Each described in detail, often eloquently, the challenges of living openly as non-binary and/or transitioning.

I will end my summary of queer writing at this point. Suffice it to say that in the last

decade of the 20th century and the early decades of the 21st, queer writing has proliferated and became more normative and mainstream. Queer characters and themes appear in a wide variety of writing genres, including romance, fantasy, mystery/detective, and science fiction. It has especially blossomed in Young Adult literature, providing much needed support and information for queer children and adolescents (much to the aggravation of advocates of school library book

censors).

Who Can Write Queer Literature?

Does a writer have to identify as queer to write queer literature? Certainly, it helps. The

old dictum, “Write what you know” applies here. It is easier to write with authenticity about queer people and their experiences if you are one of them yourself. And it is also true that the same issues apply within the queer community. A gay male writer, for instance, may have limited personal experience to draw upon that would allow him to portray a lesbian or non-binary character without resorting to stereotypes or tropes. DeFreitas (2025) advises all persons who do not identify with a queer community about which they are writing to acknowledge their privilege and to do their research. She lists a number of pitfalls and tropes to avoid in writing about gay men in particular, including “burying your gays” (killing them off early in the story), “the magic gay bestie,” and the token queer.

Of course, all of the above cautions apply to anyone writing about characters of any

community to which they do not belong, whether the dividing lines are along race, gender, religion, sexuality, or culture. Yet literature would be quite limited and boring if writers wrote only from their own direct, personal lived experience. And it is also true that writers who have racial or sexual/gender privilege have written poignantly and powerfully about their oppressed contemporaries. Becky Apertalli, the author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2018) is an example, as is Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960). Lee’s novel has come under criticism for depicting its black characters rather one-dimensionally, but there is no doubt about the positive impact of her novel, as well as the movie derived from it, on the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Whatever challenges a non-queer writer of queer fiction may face, one thing is certain at

this particular point in the history of queer literature. A writer who does not identify as queer can attain amazing success writing about queer characters and themes. Rachel Reid has sold 3.7 million copies of her Game Changer series of romance novels about the love lives of gay professional hockey players, and the TV series, Heated Rivalry, based on several of the novels, has been a cultural phenomenon, averaging 10.6 million views per episode. Reid, who is a heterosexually married mother of two, declines to discuss her sexuality, citing privacy issues. She states also that she wants her works to be judged on their merits rather than her identity. Whatever their merits, many queer people, particularly gay men, have responded enthusiastically to her books and the subsequent series.

Queer Literature: What is It?

But what exactly is queer fiction? What are its characteristics? Is it a genre? If so, what

distinguishes it from other genres such as mystery, romance, fantasy, or science fiction.

First, there seems to be some debate as to whether queer or LGBTQ+ fiction qualifies as

a genre in the strictest sense of that word. Some observers argue that queer fiction is a genre insofar that it focuses on certain distinctively queer narratives or subject matter. A queer character who is “coming of age,” or coming to understand, accept, and be open about their identity is an example, as is a queer individual or couple negotiating life and love in a heteronormative, cisgender world. These themes are often present in queer-focused writing aimed at young adults. As mentioned above, such literature has grown exponentially in recent years (Friedman, 2025), and is often the target of book banners.

But while important, the above themes do not, Friedman (2025) argues, constitute a

genre. Genres, Friedman asserts, have distinctive conventions in terms of plots, subject matter, settings, or character types. For instance, romance fiction tends to focus on love relationships, often with happy endings. Mystery/detective fiction tends to focus on difficult-to-solve crimes or unexplained events. Science fiction generally takes place in the future and involves the relationship between humans and technology. Fantasy typically constructs alternative realities, often involving persons with magical powers, such as wizards, or perhaps mythical species, such as dragons or unicorns, or beings that blend animal and human characteristics (satyrs or centaurs, for instance). But while queer fiction can be and increasingly is an integral part of most any genre, it does not constitute a genre in itself. As long as there queer characters, whether primary

or incidental, or plots that involve or touch on queer experiences (e.g., a same-sex romance or a queer detective or a queer super hero or wizard), the writing can be said to be queer in nature, though not a genre.

Genre or not, in my mind, a piece of fiction qualifies as queer writing if it presents queer

characters as normative and their lives and experiences as part of the fabric of humanity. Notice that I did not say that queer characters must be presented positively. Queers, like all people, range from heroic to cowardly, saintly to evil, and mature to petty. Overly positive depictions of queer characters are just as dishonest as the negative stereotypes of the past. Queers are complex, diverse, and in process and must be written about honestly and with authenticity. Otherwise, they are merely cardboard and boring caricatures.

References

Boyd, David, ‘Sodomy, Misogyny, and Displacement: Occluding Queer Desire in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', Arthuriana, 8 (1998), 77-113 (p.80). [quoted on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – a Queer Medieval Love Story? | Special Collections | Library | University of Leeds].

DeFreitas, Jane (2025), How (and How Not!) to Write Queer Characters: A Primer, How (and How Not!) to Write Queer Characters: A Primer | Jane Friedman

Friedman, Jane (2025), What is LGBTQ+ Writing—and Do You Have to be Queer to Write It? What Is LGBTQ+ Fiction—And Does a Writer Have to Be Queer to Write It? | Jane Friedman.

Myers, Jeffrey Rayner, 'Chaucer's Pardoner as Female Eunuch’, Studia Neophilologica, 72 (2000), 54-62 (p.54). [quoted on Queer Desire and Identity in the Works of Chaucer | Special Collections | Library | University of Leeds].

About Jim

Jim Hodnett, a retired educator and psychologist, writes short stories, memoirs,and poems. His works have appeared in several OWA anthologies: Metamorphosis, House of Secrets, Should This Book Be Banned? and Resistance. His story, "Trophy Husband," was recently accepted for publication in the 12th Edition of Beyond Queer Words, scheduled for 2027. He shares his home and life with his husband, the remarkable Joe Heimlich.