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So, what's with this site?
This site is devoted to queer folk and their interests in horror. This
may include learning about some new books or movies to watch, understanding
what the fascination of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered people
have with the subject of horror, or in finding a accepting community.
The g/l/b/t community is becoming more and more diverse as time goes
on, but it still is in infancy when it comes to understanding diverse
literary tastes.
This site is not about the horror of coming out of the closet or losing
your family when they find out you're gay, though these subjects may
be included. This site is not about the horrors that gay people face
with discrimination, religious persecution or the grim specter of AIDS,
those many of these subjects certainly form the heart of many gay horror
issues. Nor will this site deal with the horror of poorly decorated
apartments, dates forcing you to eat McDonalds, or gals who disdain
cats and rugby.
What this site is about is exploring g/l/b/t interests in horror, meeting
others who share those interests, and more fully exploring them than
could be in other ways. Its a way to pull together all knowledge of
the subject, and show which books and movies hold the most interest
to queer folk. Possibly this site will encourage people to write or
produce more in this genre. Maybe people with similar likes and orientations
will meet each other, or maybe just chat. Who knows. It's up in the
air.
Who are you?
I'm just a gay-boy who has a strong interest in horror. I also happen
to be a website developer (which is far, far different than a website
designer), so I made a website. I've read many books on horror, and
watched almost as many movies, but I am by no means the most knowledgeable
in the field. As strongly as I can, I encourage people to send me articles,
stories, information, pictures and graphics that they want to be part
of this site. As time goes on, I'd like to be able to offer people complete
areas of the site for them to fill out on their own. If you have a strong
interest in lesbian zombies, hey, take over the area, 'cause it may
be a long time before I get to that aspect.
I'm also someone who enjoys exploring fringe areas. There hasn't been
much done in the area of queer horror, so I've developed a far stronger
interest in it because of that. I am NOT under any circumstances
encouraging people to do anything horrific themselves. I do not
condone any nonconsensual violence, pain, bloodshed, or abuse of other
people, animals or property.
Don't you think this site will anger
people?
Certainly, but that's not my purpose. There will likely be those on
the religious right who will hold up this site as proof that queer-folk
are spawned by the devil, and exist to destroy good, wholesome, Christian
families. There will also be gay people who will not be happy that this
area is being explored as it will "constitute a threat to the rights
g/l/b/t people are fighting for across the globe". And, of course,
there are the people who don't want gays in horror, or horror being
explored by gays (a large majority of them are Buffy or Anne Rice fans).
My belief is this. The world is a vast and exciting place, filled
with many strange and unusual ideas, and we all have equal right to
hold and explore them. If a subject is not harming anyone directly either
mentally or physically, then the subject is not a bad one. If this site
bothers you, don't come back to it. If you think this site will harm
others or kids, then create your own materials explaining to others
why your point of view is better than mine. That's fine, I encourage
that. Please don't bother sending me hate-mail. It won't change my opinions
and it's a waste of both of our times.
How do you define queer horror?
Good question, and a difficult one to answer. Like most things nowadays,
there are no absolute boundaries. This site is meant to explore the
relationship of a genre that focuses on fear with those people who do
not have completely 'straight' inclinations. But, just as orientation
is a tough thing to pin everyone into, horror also does not have exact
boundaries. A male vampire who has sex with other vampires would be
considered a part of queer horror, but what about a bisexual mass-murderer,
or a man who builds a monster with another man? This site includes the
homoerotic, and the alluded to, as well as the openly queer. It will
include horror stories, but it may include stories that others would
put into sci-fi, fantasy, dark fantasy, mystery or historical. The purpose
of this site isn't to create an exact definition of the subject 'queer
horror' but rather to explore what others find interesting within it
Are heterosexuals welcome on your
site?
Of course. I am not heterophobic. While the site's theme is g/l/b/t
based, the fans need not be. I encourage any heterosexual interested
in the genre to be as open on this site as those with a 'bent' orientation.
Are you a scary person?
I don't think anyone who has ever met me has formed that opinion. Strange,
unusual, odd, offbeat perhaps. But, not terribly scary. In fact, most
of the queer people I have met who have a connection with horror all
tend to be nice, well-adjusted folk. The ones I hang around with all
have the ability to laugh at themselves and at the reactions of others
when they find out their interest in the subject.
I'm new to Queer Horror, what
should I read/see in order to get started?
A good part of queer horror builds upon the general horror
genre. So, the more horror you've seen or read, the more references you'll
understand. Much of today's horror is built upon Dracula, Carmilla or
any of the old horror classics (both books and movies). So, the classics
are a good way to start if you want a solid foundation. But, even if you
haven't read or seen them, there are still many books and movies that
you'll enjoy. Here are lists of recommended books
and movies for getting started.
I have an article/story/etc.
that I'd like to contribute. Do you accept contributions?
Oh yes! It's encouraged. I can only do so much on my own. The more
that others can do, the more this site will grow. Please be aware that
I don't have any connections with paper-based media production.
In submitting stories to my site, you must own the story
that you are submitting. If so, you keep all rights to the story
except for my
being able to post it freely on this site. The reason I do this is
that I don't want to have to contact the authors if I decide to
change the
look/feel of the site (the appearance of its pages). In order to simplify
my life, this does mean that you cannot decide to revoke my right
to
publishing the story after it's been posted. However, if you feel that
the tone of the site has changed and no longer reflects something
with which
you're comfortable, I'll gladly remove it for you.
If accepted, any copyright you have will be included with the story.
This is with the understanding that QueerHorror.com has the rights mentioned
above. In addition, the author's name, email address and website link
will be added at the author's discretion. The decision to change any
of these has to come from the same original email address to avoid other
people pretending to be the author and causing havoc (I've already had
problems with this).
To have an article or story (etc.) accepted, it must be horror and
GLBT related. It also must be grammar- and spell-checked. It needn't
be perfect, but I need to see that the story is important to you before
I look at it. I reserve the right to make small editorial changes to
make it read better, but I will not alter the plot nor characters in
any way. Currently I am not accepting gay male vampire or werewolf porn
stories, because of the huge amount of them that I have gotten. Gay
male vampire/werewolf stories with sexual content are still accepted,
but plot has to be stressed over sexual content.
If you'd like to take on a larger area of my site, please let me know.
I may not get around to lesbian mummies or transgendered killer dolls
for quite a while.
Please e-mail your submissions to us
Where can I find a specific book/movie
that you've referenced?
Here is a short list of places that consistently have a good selection
of queer horror books and movies. If there are additional places that
should be listed, please let me know.**
Movies
TLA
video (largest g/l/b/t movie distributor)
PopcornQ (good
glbt movie review site)
ATKOL video (large gay porn distributor)
Reel.com (large general video
site)
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Books
Amazon.com (largest online
bookstore)
BookFinder.com (bookstore
search engine)
Half.com (lowest prices I've
found)
addall.com (bookstore search
engine)
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General Shopping (books, movies, figures, toys, whatever)
Ebay (largest public auction
site)
MySimon.com (large scale
shop-bot - searches many stores)
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** to get a new book or movie selling service listed
here, you must prove that you list significant items not covered by the
above service, or list the same ones at a lower price
I know of a book or movie you
haven't listed, how do I let you know?
First off, are you sure we don't know about it? If you can't find
it, please verify it in our search
engine. Unless you are an avid horror fan, your book or movie is
probably already here. With that said, we have created
a list of information we need about this item. Literally hundreds of different
references have come from fans all over the world.
Once you let us know about a new book or movie that should be included,
We'll add it to our 'to confirm' list. Many times people are mistaken
about what they remember, or are trying to increase sales of a book
or movie, and misrepresent its queer and horror/vampire/... content.
The fastest way to get a book or movie confirmed is either to point
us to a review of the book/movie included on a mainstream site,
or to send
us a copy of the item yourself. Contact us to
get the address to send the reviewer's copy of the item. If you cannot
send a reviewer's copy, read the next entry to learn alterate ways
to get your item listed faster.
I let you know about a book or movie, why isn't
it on the site?
When we created this site, we wanted to make sure it was as accurate
as it could be. Since even honest people forget or misremember things,
those of us that run the site needed to have a new book or movie confirmed
before we add it to the site. This process can take a while. Generally
we have between 20-30 books on our 'to read' shelf and 4-5 movies on
our 'to-watch' shelf, plus hundreds of other items that our finances
haven't allowed us to purchase. So, the process of finding the item,
obtaining it, reading/watching it, verifying content and adding
the
information can take a very long time depending on what else we're
doing.
This isn't to say that we need to read or watch everything mentioned.
But, before we can take a peron's word for the content of an item, we'd
prefer to see that the person has some knowledge in the genre so that
they can accurately crique something, and that they have a passing familiarity
with writing. The best way to do this is to become
a member and rate some of the existing
items.
Finally, as we've explored this genre, we've discovered that it grows
and grows. So, in order to keep our sanity, and in order to help keep
the site useful, we've had to start limiting what gets listed. The following
are general guidelines.
- All items must have queer horror (or related) content, however subtle.
Being written by a gay woman/man isn't enough.
- Items created after the 1940s has to have fairly obviously queer
characters or a fairly obvious queer theme.
- Items created after 1990 must have openly queer characters portrayed
in a non-homophobic way (in this genre, being a killer isn't negative,
but being a 2-D stereotype is), have a strong queer theme or be remarkable
in some other way.
- Story collections created after 2007 are no longer included if
they do not focus on both the queer and the horrific (or horror-related).
Collections with a subset of gay or lesbian horror or vampire stories
are no longer accepted.
Queer ghost stories that are solely 'romantic'
in nature are no longer accepted either. An attempt at enciting fear
must also be included.
I've written to you, and you didn't write
back, what's wrong with you?
If you wrote to me telling me how stupid I am, please wait by your
computer until I write. Don't leave for anything. No matter what.
Other than that, the biggest reasons I don't write back include:
- Cybersex with strangers is so 1997. I'm not new to the computer,
I discovered online sex talk way back when it was in the news. I prefer
the real options. Besides, I've met a too many"Tall, blonde,
muscular frat-boys with a gymnast's build" to realize that there
is little truth in web advertising.
- You've written me a poor letter. Sorry to be a stickler, but if
you don't spend the time attempting to write properly, I'm not likely
to spend time writing back. It's one of my interesting foibles (I
am really into education). I'm not concerned with split infinitives
or even sticking with the correct tense. But, for Lilith's sake, "dont
write like u r ignorent uv how to rite. it isnt kute or kewl"
- You appear crazy. As much fun as it is meeting yet another Lestat
online, the novelty wears off quickly. Not many people believe that
a 600 year old vampire gets his jollies by trying to impress someone
via e-mail.
- You're asking for too much. I'm glad you love my site. I'm thrilled
you appreciate my knowledge. But, I cannot write your term paper for
you, give a blow-by-blow account of all of Anne Rice's books, research
Ancient Babylonian embalming techniques nor teach you how to make
webpages. Exploring the web, while a long and tedious process at first,
is essential to find information you need easily later on.
- I'm having a bad or busy time. For some strange reason, the collective
subconscious does seem to affect the web strongly. Some weeks, I get
far, far more e-mail than I can hope to reply to in a timely manner.
If your message is well-thought and fair, wait a bit and try again.
Sometimes mail doesn't go through, sometimes I miss it, but I usually
try to respond to everything.
I made this new nifty site, will you link to
mine if I link to yours?
In a word ... maybe. But not right away.
To be blunt, QueerHorror.com
site gets tens of thousands of hits a day and has no advertising or
any way to generate income for those of us who work on it (this is by
choice). It's had more than 10 million hits since it was started and
has been written up in a large number of GLBT and horror magazines and
papers, and is the top entry in most search engines for any search terms
on the subject and most book/movie titles listed. We're not hurting
for visitors.
Most new sites are started in a blaze of fannish excitement that quickly
burns out, and the sites then rot or die. As obsessed as we are on the
subject, returning to stagnant sites over and over to verify they still
exist is not top on the excitement scale.
If you'd like to link here, we'd be honored, and gladly welcome a link
to the site or any page within it. However, reciprocal links only happen
to sites that have significant longevity, professionalism and related
content.
I love your site, graphics, scripts, etc. Can
I use them? Will you teach me how to make them?
My information, scripts, graphics and layouts are available for others
to use provided you follow the following rules
- They will not be used on any anti-gay or anti-horror sites.
- They are only used in sites where the owner is actively trying to
learn how to make websites and will help share that knowledge with
others.
- A return link to my site is made somewhere (hey, I want to get SOME
credit, right?), or you have notified me by e-mail that you are using
the graphics.
As for teaching. If you have a specific question, I'm generally happy
to answer it. However, if you do not have a specific question, I will
politely direct you to resources and encourage you to learn on your
own. This is not just for my benefit, but also yours. The most important
part of web work is learning where to find answers (very quickly you
become the expert when there aren't other people to ask).
You sound great. I'd love to meet you.
Thanks. Cool. Show up at horror/sci-fi conventions and other similar
things. If I'm there, I'd love to talk to you. Otherwise, catch my interest
by discovering a gay or lesbian movie or book that I don't have listed!
I'll fall to the ground and pledge my eternal allegiance to you if you
do. ;)
I love fan mail, and hate hate mail. I try to answer all e-mail I get,
within reason, and generally try to answer any question I can. I can
get up to 20 e-mails a day, so I can't promise immediacy in response
though.
I've been looking for 'xyz' can I borrow it from
you? Will you copy it for me?
No. But thanks for asking. I don't want to risk breaking a copyright
law. If there is no copyright on something, it is possible that I'd
be willing to trade. I also barter, buy and (possibly) sell.
I think you are sick, demon-spawned, wrong, stupid,
misinformed, an idiot, pathetic, etc.
Boy, I never get tired of hearing people who have read a couple of
books of Anne Rice tell me how little I know about horror. Or people
who have watched Dracula tell me I don't understand vampires. It is
even more enthralling when I get to hear Christians lambaste me for
digging an area that they find offensive (they hate horror so badly
they're willing to crucify me because of my interest... hmmm).
Really, I don't care what you have to say if your message falls into
this category. If you'd like to point out a flaw in my logic, offer
some constructive criticism with an example, or even give a well-informed
critique of something in the site, fine. But, I'm not
here to vent anger, show frustration or help you practice your debate
skills. The world is a large and diverse place, made so that each person
can hold their narrow-minded views without affecting others with other
narrow-minded views.
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