Glisk

When I was sixteen, I had what I thought was the most brilliant idea of my entire life. I was going to somehow merge the two overriding elements of my existence - being a homosexual and being a Stephen King fan - into one. I would call my group GLISK (an acronym I went giddy for because I was 1. a huge nerd and 2. a huge gay) and it would be short for Gays & Lesbians Into Stephen King. This was going to be massive, and I'd find other gay fans of King, and we'd hang out and talk about how we all had crushes on Steve Kemp in Cujo, despite the fact that he was pretty much a tool. A sexy, sexy tool.

A few things prevented Glisk (the acronym has now become a regular word due to my familiarity with it, like Epcot) from happening. (1) I'm not really good with organizing, and (2) a lot of gay people think Stephen King is homophobic.

There are a lot of reasons for this, I think. There's a scene in It where a gay guy is brutalized and murdered, and cries of homophobia following its publication were rampant. King explained the scene saying that it was pretty much - no pun intended - straight reporting. An actual gay murder happened in Bangor, and King used it in the book as a way to tie into It's targeting of the fringier members of society. Reading the chapter carefully, you'll actually find a lot of pro-gay sentiment in it, including some thoughts from a straight bar owner who sort of accidentally opens a gay bar and is relieved to find that his clientele "has found a way of getting along that straight men haven't."

In The Stand, a bisexual woman kills herself ... but it's a heroic death. In "Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption," there's a lot of gay rape, but King is careful to mention that there are other, non-rapey relationships that go on in prison that work just as well as straight ones. After King's daughter came out, there was a huge uptick in gay supporting characters, including heroic ones in Insomnia and Cell.

Yesterday, I picked up 'Salem's Lot for the first time in a few years because I need to do a review for an upcoming book. In the first hundred pages, I ran across a number of epithets - fag, queer, sissy, etc. But what struck me weren't the words so much as the sentiment behind them. The characters in 'Salem's Lot are using hurtful words, but people seem to accept "gay" as a fact rather than something gross or aberrant. At one point, one blue-collar worker remarks to another that Barlow & Straker, the new people in town, "are probably queer for each other. Going to redecorate the house and make it look nice. Good for business." And that's it. And that's interesting. They go immediately from the concept that these guys are probably gay to their good business sense. And these aren't high-education people, but grunting moving dudes. Later on, someone mentions he buys his used books from "a sissy fella" a few towns over. It's mentioned, sure, but there's no revulsion or even pause with it. It's like saying he buys his books from an Irish guy.

Now, look. Maybe I'm being overly apologetic. There is a scene in It where the mere suggestion of homosexuality drives someone insane. But I honestly think this is a character-by-character basis. The same character is a racist, half-nuts bully who also poisons a dog and shoots his father, sort of susceptible to going full-on psycho.

I've long thought about writing a book on the subject, or a long essay, but the truth is, it's a really narrow subject. I'm not sure anything like this would sell, or even be interesting to any section of the population. But still, I find it interesting. So maybe I'll write it sometime anyway. Thoughts?