Saturday, May 5, 2012

The Purpose of This Hop


It has been brought to our attention that the purpose of this hop was never actually stated in the hop info on this site. We assumed that the purpose was a given (due to the name): To bring awareness to homophobia. However, since the creation of this hop, the purpose has become twofold: To bring awareness to homophobia and to stand together as an m/m writer community to fight of discrimination against the m/m genre. We have spread this purpose in interviews, personal email recruitment and in other announcements, but it was never stated on this blog site. We hope to rectify that with this post.

The blogs taking part in this will discuss homophobia in their hop entry. Originally we thought that we wouldn't get many sign-ups, so we added this text "as little as mention it - your choice" in the info post, because we wanted good exposure to the blogs that would talk about homophobia. In our informational email message going out this week, we will emphasize this part of the hop, as it has always been the purpose: to talk about homophobia. A lot of the participants have already stated in messages to us that they know what they're going to write about, so we're confident that most will want to spread a message (and everyone will, in the following hops, as that little text won't be included in the future). Some of it will be about the real problem, some will be about people's own experiences, and some will be about how homophobia has been successfully fought.

That said, we were outraged when a chapter in the Romance Writers of America excluded m/m romances from one of their contests because it felt "icky" to the judges. It was a big part in us wanting to make this hop large-scale and make a loud splash. We're not members of RWA, so this did not affect us directly, but we were still outraged. What the chapter of RWA did was discriminate against our genre and the subject it centers around: men loving men. The RWA chapter was being homophobic. They ended up cancelling the contest after an uproar, but it was clear by their excuse that there's a lot of work to be done for people to accept m/m fiction as something just acceptable as other fiction. This is why we added the second purpose: to stand together as m/m an m/m writing community and bring about awareness of our books and their subjects. 

Is it morally wrong to use the International Day Against Homophobia in relation to this hop? We believe not. Being excluded for the sole reason that our work contains love between two men is wrong and homophobic, and we have a right to fight to make sure it doesn't happen again. This may seem trivial to some people, in comparison to other homophobic issues, but to us this is very important (and no, not for sales - if money was all we were after, we'd be writing mainstream YA).

Is it wrong to use prizes to get people to our blogs? We think not. We think it's a great way to get people to stop by in hope that they'll take interest in the issue and become more aware. We could have made a hop where there were no prizes involved - just us spreading a message - but we believe that this way, we will get more people over. A lot of people - including m/m readers - don't even know that there's such a thing as an International Day Against Homophobia. A lot of people - including m/m readers - don't even know that there's such a thing as an International Day Against Homophobia.

People may not agree with this method, but it is within their rights to disagree. People's opinions will always differ. A couple of days ago, we learned that there are people who have posted a message saying how terribly wrong this hop is - and by reading the post these people made, they were right. It did look terribly wrong. Had we not been involved in this hop ourselves, we would have been outraged. The informational post on "What is a Blog Hop" was badly written: it started off explaining in general what a book blog hop is, but then, as the post wore on, it started to get into the details of this specific hop. That has been rectified now, and only speaks of what a book blog hop is, in general. The biggest mistake, however, was that our purpose was not clearly stated in the informational post. We know that no matter what we say, we won't change the minds of most of these people. All we can do is be open, honest, and sincere in what our purpose has been all along. We can pull up links, dated back in February, to show that we've been spreading this purpose over the internet. Erica can send these links through emails, if people contact her personally.

We acknowledge these mistakes. The main purpose of this hop has never been to sell our books. People can chose to believe that or not - again, nothing we can say will change the minds of those who do think we're just here to sell our books - so all we can do is write this post and hope that most people will see that we're not doing something wrong here.

So again, in short: This hop is about spreading awareness of homophobia and to stand together as an m/m writer community against discrimination of what we write about.


Erica, K-Lee and NJ.

20 comments:

  1. Thank you for making the message so much stronger. I was just coming on to ask about this.
    You guys are doing a good thing and I'm proud to be a part of something to go against homophobia in all its forms.
    As authors of m/m, we know its there and its ugly. We can do so much to help by education our friends and readers and followers. If you'd like to share some sites with the authors one ways to get involved, check these out:
    http://www.glaad.org/actions
    http://www.wearesbnn.com/
    http://community.pflag.org/page.aspx?pid=191
    http://www.sldn.org/action

    All great ways to get involved whether you are gay, you have a gay family member, or you are just straight and not ignorant. All ways you can be a part of destroying homophobia. Please share during the hop and prove our nay-sayers wrong :)
    Thank you again for this!
    Bella

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    1. Thanks so for those links, Bella :) I'll add them to the hop-day post. They're excellent.

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  2. Okay, I had a nice long thoughtful reply...and then the Internet ate it. Take two is going to be short and sweet: thanks for all your hard work on this amazing blog hop, and seriously, some people just like to complain. I think it's great that the purpose has become stronger/clearer, but in my mind there was never any question as to the real purpose of the blog hop. The name says it all.

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    1. Thanks Helen :)

      Yeah, I believe that everyone who signed up knew what the hop was about.

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  3. We can speak out against homophobia or we can keep quiet. Either way some people will complain. I have no qualms about being part of the hop.

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  4. I'll definitely post. The reason I wrote my first book was to show that gays are no different from straights in what they want-- someone to love.

    I will admit that the erotica books are a bit much for me.

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  5. I am proud to be part of this blog hop. We stand at a very important time in this country as far as gay rights and gay understanding goes. I do anything I can to help out. If we sell a few books along the way, all the better, sorry but I need to make a living too. I'm lucky in that with my writing I can spread a positive gay image through my characters. I have had several good reviews concerning just that recently. We do what we can, and I applaud the work you have done putting this hop together.

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  6. I applaud your efforts for activism and encourage you to ignore the people who simply live to be outraged.

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  7. People will always look for a way to complain about something they don't like (or makes them feel 'icky' to quote RWA). While it's good that you've clarified your purpose, really, it wasn't necessary - I figured it out and signed up right away ;) This is an important issues, and I, for one, am excited to see so many authors getting involved in spreading the word!

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  8. Adding my voice to the ones who had the presence of mind to understand the purpose behind this blog without being slapped in the face with it.

    Seemed rather straightforward to me. And while I've every intention of doing a give-away as well, I'm more excited about using it as an opportunity to create awareness, discussion, and visibility.

    I salute everyone who's involved in spreading the word, and all the authors who are on board with it as well. I plan to make my involvement in this an annual event for the foreseeable future!

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  9. Ditto to all the above. The walking sacks of negativity who assume (yet never bother to explain their assumption) that we're all money-grubbing homophobes don't deserve notice. As godlike as they see themselves, they don't know what's in our hearts.

    Erica, K-Lee, and NJ, you've done a wonderful job pulling this together. I'm proud to be in the company of all the authors who've signed up.

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  10. I probably do not have any right to comment here since I do not write m/m romance or even fiction. I guess I do not fit into any category since I write non-fiction for a gay adult studio.

    I Google blog searched International Day Against Homophobia in preparation for my own blog posts on the subject and did see a few negative comments. However one thing I have learned is everyone is a critic. I was reminded of this when a friend told me of the fights that broke out at a “hamster & mouse” convention. Yes, I said hamster and mouse and no the hamsters where not wearing the boxing gloves the humans were! : -)

    Anyway I may be wrong and I am sure someone will point it out to me, but I came at this from a totally different perspective. I view homophobia the same way I view bullying of any sort. And since this is directed at the LGBT community and perpetrated mostly by the straight community I felt this was a time for STRAIGHT people to speak up and speak out against all forms of homophobia.

    I believe ANY attention at this point is probably good because it gets people talking and thinking about it.

    It was mentioned last year on the U.S. Department of State web site by Hillary Clinton and I am sure it will be mentioned again this year.
    http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/05/163529.htm

    I personally have blogged about it and will blog again on May 17th and throughout the year. And if you do not mind I will be happy to put a link to your Hop on my blog.

    Remember, singular comments can be a bit troubling from time to time but what would be even worse is if NO ONE WAS TALKING ABOUT IT.

    With great respect for all,

    Shadow Sterling

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    1. You have as much right as anyone else to comment here, Shadow. And I completely agree with you, any attention to the problem is good attention because it brings it out into the light. We'd be delighted for you to post the link to this blog on your page and thank you very much.
      :)
      K-lee

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  11. I think what you are doing is fun, educational and necessary. You guys are awesome and I look forwar to May 17 to read as many blogs as I can.

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  12. Thanks for all the support, you guys. I also think the message was clear in the first place and not just a blatant attempt at publicity. I'm hoping it's clearer now for those who needed it but I think the three of us realize we can never please all of the people all of the time.
    Thanks again.
    K-lee

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  13. A couple of things:

    - Aside from this post on the purpose of the Hop, where are the other posts? Sorry if I'm dense! Perhaps you need to add more info on just how the hop will be organized.

    - I totally support the objective of this hop, to make people aware of the issue of homophobia and its effects - on literature, on laws, on individuals. However, I think it's important not to view homophobes as "the enemy". Some people are genuinely uncomfortable about M/M sexual relationships. This is an emotional reaction, not a deliberate choice. Demonizing people who have these emotions is not a solution to the problem. You're not going to argue their feelings away. In my opinion, we need to demonstrate that M/M couples have the same needs and desires as any other couple - to help those who suffer from homophobia identify with gay men and recognize that the common humanity that binds us together is stronger than the differences in sexual orientation or practice that might divide us.

    Homophobia is about fear, I believe. We need to show people that this fear is groundless.

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  14. I am so excited about this HOP, I don't normally get involved in them but this one is for a cause I feel very strongly about and as for the who prize thing, if we can get just one person to read a m/m book and see that it is just a story about people and situations just like other books then this will have been a success. A give-away will get people entering it for a book they would not buy but would read if it was given to them free so it is a great way to get people to see that love is love no matter the gender of the people in love.

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  15. I love this idea and am very happy to be a part of it. My first book comes out in June and I think that this will be a great cause to share it with. Hopefully you continue this next year and I'll have more books to give away! Thanks for thinking of and organizing such a great idea.

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  16. Quick Question and a Note:

    I did think the name said it all, and I'm really happy to participate in anything aimed at raising awareness of homophobia as an issue needing to be addressed in a serious manner. Thanks for organizing this guys. It means worlds to me, and I hope it will come to mean worlds to folk in general. <--- that part is the note.
    --->This part is the question: How are we going to link to one another's blog posts? Will there be a specific link for us to list were readers can go to a clickable list of blog sites or author names (meaning blog author here, not professional writer), or perhaps a list of the titles of the individual blogs? I participate semi-regularly in a weekly blog hop thingy that Victoria Blisse runs, and she does it so that you can sign up with the title of the post... I think that way folks will sometimes click on an author or poster they don't already know, as the title catches their interest. ... just a thought. :)

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    1. Cherie, thanks for asking. For now, we just ask that you include a link to this main hop site, because we want to measure the traffic. The only way to get a correct reading is by having everyone come here, so we're not doing the usual distributing of the little html code that'll list all the names on people's blogs, just a simple link to http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com

      However, you've given me inspiration for next year's hop! We're changing things and making it GLBTQ instead of just m/m and I think it's a great idea to change the sign-up so that people can add their names, the name of their blogs, and the genre they write in (and if they're writers, publishers, or reviewers). That, however, either means new sign-up programming, or me doing a hell of a lot of work today to list everyone up. No time for that now, because I have about a million and one things to do before the hop starts tomorrow, but next year! Thanks for the suggestion *Points at the yahoo group if people have more awesome ideas like that*.

      That said, we do have a blog roll to the side where the name of the blog automatically shows up, so people can check out those as well.

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