Columnists :: Guest Opinion
Courting equality with romance, thrills, and suspense by Patricia A. Gozemba
Bay Windows ContributorThursday Feb 21, 2008 Reading the dedication to Suzanne Brockmann’s novel Hot Target blew me away. NY Times best-selling romance author Brockmann came out as the mother of a gay son, explained his coming out, lauded PFLAG (Parents Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and became an instant role model of a straight ally for millions of readers of the romance-thriller-suspense genre. Not exactly the crowd one would routinely target to win over to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality movement. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I began reading Brockmann’s work in the winter of 2007 at the suggestion of a friend who had just met the winner of the Romance Writers of America Career Achievement Award (and countless others). Brockmann, she told me, lived in Massachusetts and was pro-marriage equality. My partner, Karen Kahn, and I were overwhelmed planning a publicity campaign for our book on gay marriage in Massachusetts, Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America’s First Legal Same-Sex Marriages (www.courtingequality.com). I needed a beach reading break (for at least a few days) and a gay-friendly one would fit the bill. Bring on the romance.
At my nearest Honolulu bookstore Hot Target (2004) was the only novel of Brockmann’s in stock. Serendipitous. In the novel, gay FBI agent and elite counter terrorism expert Jules Cassidy has some unhappy encounters with his old lover, aspiring actor Adam Wyndham. But on the job in Hollywood, Jules meets and is attracted to a rising star, Robin Chadwick. Brockmann knows gay drama.
The main romance plot in Hot Target, however, is decidedly heterosexual, but for a lesbian reader like myself, Jules’s love life, albeit in the sub-plots, fascinated me. FBI agents, Navy Seals, and Troubleshooters Inc.- tough guys (and women) all - know that Jules is gay and respect him. Jules has a life: a highly regarded position as an alpha he-man, love interests, and many supportive straight allies.
So Hot Target, which I thought would be an LGBT equality break, was anything but. The novel shows our movement gone mainstream in a more overt way than Ellen, Brokeback Mountain, Will & Grace and the like, especially with Brockmann’s poignant LGBT dedications, author’s notes, and book jacket summaries.
And so, as soon as Courting Equality came out in May, I shipped a copy to Brockmann. As a new fan of hers, I thanked her for her work on behalf of LGBT people. She loved Courting Equality and true to her spirit as one of our strongest allies in the struggle for equality, she sponsored a contest on her website for her fan club of 8000 to win copies of our book. At the June 2007 Boston Pride march, as I handed out postcards about Courting Equality to a PFLAG contingent, a husband and wife team looked at the card and asked me, "Are you the author?" I glowed, and they introduced themselves as Ed Gaffney and Suzanne Brockmann. That was a real thrill. She told me that in August, Jules and Robin would be in her new novel, Force of Nature, and that in her Christmas novella, All Through the Night, they would marry in Massachusetts.
A week later, on June 14, 2007, I once again bumped into Brockmann at the Massachusetts State House. We were among the thousands lobbying the legislature to defeat the mean-spirited constitutional amendment that would have put the hard-won equal marriage rights of the LGBT community before the heterosexual majority for a vote in the November 2008 election. In a moment that we worked and prayed for, our legislature stood up for equality and defeated the amendment 151-45. Brockmann’s dream of a future that included marriage for her gay son, Jason, was fulfilled - as were dreams for thousands of us. It was then that she told me that every cent of her earnings from All Through the Night would go to MassEquality, the coalition leading the struggle to maintain marriage equality in Massachusetts. What I learned later on www.massequality.org is that this donation of her earnings, including her advance, royalties, and subrights will surpass $250,000. Romance novels definitely rake in far more than documentary histories! And yet, they each have an important place in winning over hearts and minds to LGBT equality. But oh, the reach of romance.
Less than a year ago, I knew nothing about Brockmann’s work and now three books into the Jules and Robin relationship, I’m intrigued by these romances that advocate for our community. As a grassroots historian with The History Project: Documenting LGBT Boston (www.historyproject.org), I wonder: Who buys and reads these books and what do these readers think of the gay sub-plots and characters? One source of uncensored reactions is the customer reviews and comments on www.amazon.com.
Of 33 reviews of the gay marriage novel, All Through the Night (ATTN), twenty-two give it a five-star rating, another five a four- star rating and only one, in a rambling complaint, a one-star rating. The readers are a mix of male and female with the latter seemingly having the edge. No one self-identifies as LGBT in the reviews. Not surprisingly, a number identify as heterosexual. Five reviewers praise Brockmann’s donation of the proceeds to MassEquality and one of them says that this is "just another (of the many!) reasons that this book is highly recommended." A self-proclaimed "big fan," who also praises the MassEquality donation gives the book four stars, and says "homosexuality isn’t an issue for me." She does, however, issue a frustration. "I understand the author’s passion for gay rights. But as I said before, enough is enough already, let’s move on." Gay romance plots and subplots intrigue the vast majority of Brockmann’s fans and as long as the thriller suspense elements persist in the books, those fans are along for the educational ride about LGBT life.
One reviewer notes the heat that Brockmann may be getting in forums other than www.amazon.com , such as at author appearances and in correspondence. "I am sure some people have given her a hard time about some of her people in the books. They just need to get a life, a real life in the present world." From the Amazon reviews, it’s clear that most of Brockmann’s readers do have a life, albeit one pumped up with romance novels. A former acquisitions librarian and self-identified female heterosexual who reads two books a day flatly says that ATTN is a "special love story between two gay men." Another reader who has been swayed and wants to sway others enthuses, "Whether or not a gay romance is your cup of tea, this ROMANCE part will still melt your heart." Striving as well to normalize the romance of two men, this reviewer offers a challenge, "Has any couple ever radiated as much love as Jules and Robin? I don’t believe so. I mean you didn’t even think of them as a gay couple. You just saw two people in love."
While noting that Brockmann in previous novels has shown her alpha male heroes to be sensitive, honestly communicating with the women they love, one reviewer who gave the book 5 stars learned more about gay men. "’Listening’ to two men who romantically love each other do the same thing was satisfying and instructive. Love is love, and I enjoyed the romance between these two."
Notably only one female reviewer talked about the unlikelihood of he-men being allies of gay men. "There were some things that were a bit improbable (such as all these macho Seals & Troubleshooters being so totally accepting of the gay lifestyle -it’s unlikely - that’s just the way it is) but it is fiction so anything can happen." Indeed and Brockmann is pushing the envelope to get life to imitate art a bit more. Perhaps she was at the Massachusetts State House when former governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, himself an ex-Seal, advocated at a press conference on behalf of marriage equality.
While only six of thirty-three reviewers gave ATTN three stars or fewer, just one, who claimed that he "enjoyed Jules and Robin in the previous books," advocated that Brockmann "go back to making great romantic military suspense novels" and "not go on to romantic gay suspense novels." But even this most negative of reviewers claimed that the wedding of Jules and Robin was of interest to him but he wanted it to be a subplot.
To understand the extent to which Brockmann draws many straight romance readers into the realities of our lives, it’s instructive to listen to the reviewers. One woman who gave the book three stars clearly learned something about the tensions in our lives in being accepted by straight society. In referring to Jules’s friend, heterosexual he-man Sam and his initial suspicious encounter in meeting Robin, Jules’s fiancé, the reader declares, "I loved the interaction between Sam and Robin particularly Sam’s distrust which turned into respect and friendship." Vicariously observing our lives at these levels of realistic intimacy, straight romance readers can come to empathize with us or turn on us. Brockmann is skilled at drawing empathy and understanding in a dignified way-so much so that not one reviewer commented that it would be unlikely that the president of the United States and his wife would attend the wedding of Jules and Robin at the Arlington Street Church. (After all, Jules has discussed Provincetown with the president in the Oval Office.)
A university history professor who reads and reviews academic material as well as romances on Amazon concedes that ATTN "is a bit corny." But then goes on to add, "What is fun is that this is a real story about two guys who love each other. Not platonically, not running or hiding, but open, sexual and in the sunlight. Readers who might not otherwise encounter gay couples find themselves really liking these guys . . .. If one knee-jerk response to gay marriage is mitigated by this story, that’s great."
Readers who would never even hear of MassEquality or the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, read Bay Windows or tune in to Logo will be moved by Brockmann’s positive gay images in her romance novels. An understanding of marriage equality has gotten a huge boost from Brockmann. Her characters Jules and Robin and all of their straight allies put another face on the triumph of liberty and justice in Massachusetts.
Patricia A. Gozemba and Karen Kahn are the authors with photographer Marilyn Humphries of Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America’s First Legal Same-Sex Marriages (Beacon Press, 2007). Thanks to Marcia Foote for introducing me to Brockmann’s work.
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