Who Gets to Write Gay Romance? Men or Women or Both?

Jamie Fessenden

There's been a lot of discussion lately about whether women authors should write gay romance or not.  I'm still trying to figure out why not, seeing as how men and women authors have been writing about both sexes for hundreds of years.

Seems to me that the issue centers on the "romance" part of the question.  Are men--or women for that matter--romantically inclined?  And what, for heaven's sake, is romance?  Really, think about it.

The more romances I read, the less I know what I think romance is.  I've been married for 42 years.  I like to say that I never thought I'd live for 42 years given my rambunctious past, nor that I would be married to the same person for that length of time.  But here I am.  Here we are.


Lloyd Meeker

Fortunately, there are two very level-headed, intelligent blog pieces discussing the issue of who should write gay romances, and I recommend these pieces to everyone.

Gay romance author Jamie Fessenden's blog statement, "My Take on Women Writing MM Romance," starts the discussion (despite the lack of the talked about slash mark: M/M).

Following that is gay romance author Lloyd Meeker's response, "About Who Writes MM Romance," also bereft of slash.

By the way, I only bring up the slash mark because often discussions refer to it when commentators talk about the origins of gay romance.

I don't usually seek comments and won't with this post.  However, I do encourage those with strong opinions to comment on both Jamie's and Lloyd's sites.

Let freedom ring!