'Homophobia is doomed.': Don Gorton talks with the author of the 'Gay Youth Chronicles'

MARK ROEDER of Bloomington, Indiana, is the author of the Gay Youth Chronicles," a series of interrelated stories about gay youth coming of age in rural America over the span of fifty years. He has authored a total of nineteen novels. While the narratives reflect the improvement in living conditions  for gay youths realized as a result of the GLBT civil rights movement, homophobia appears throughout the series as the defining challenge that successive generations must confront in learning to accept themselves and find love.

Roeder's vivid and imaginative interpretations of homophobia, which is frequently personified allegoric ally, afford insight into the condition as a lived reality particularly for gay young people growing up in America's heartland. His website is at www.markroeder.com.

Don Gorton: Homophobia is a major actor in the "Gay Youth Chronicles." How prevalent do you think it still is in small-town culture and in American society in general?

Mark Roeder: Homophobia is more prevalent in small-town culture than in urban areas because there is less exposure to gay people in small towns. Many of those who live in less populated areas don't have the contact with gays that's necessary for understanding to develop. As a result, these individuals tend to believe in long-perpetuated stereotypes that cast gays in the worst possible light. One is far more likely to be exposed to gay culture in a larger city and therefore have a greater understanding of what it means to be gay. Ignorance breeds fear.

DG: How far has our society come over the fifty-year period covered by the "Gay Youth Chronicles"?

MR: Very far. Each generation is wiser and more accepting of diversity than the last. Decades ago, being out in high school was a virtual impossibility. Even in the early 1980's, one of the main periods covered in my novels, being out was usually hazardous to one's health. In many high schools today being gay isn't that big of a deal, and a great many students consider themselves to be bisexual. It's now possible to have sexual experiences with members of the same sex without considering oneself gay or even bi Prejudice is being eroded as more and more people understand just what it means to be gay. There has been a concerted effort on the part of certain groups, namely some religious and "family values groups, to cast gays as demons. Greater exposure to the fact that gays are just like everyone else in virtually all aspects of life is destroying this misinformation. Religious objections have come under close scrutiny and have been found to lack a factual basis. Each generation is better informed than the last and therefore less ignorant of other groups.

DG: What are the source experiences that inform your understanding of homophobia?

MR: I attended rural high school in the 1980's where minorities were a rarity. There was not a single out gay boy in a school with some 1,000 students. Few students dared to be different. To my knowledge, not a single boy in the school dared to wear an earring. Even those who dressed a little too neatly or were too friendly with girls (outside of trying to score) were suspected of homosexuality. In my school, boys didn't even consider coming out. It wasn't a possibility. To do so would have been to make oneself a target of verbal and, quite possibly, physical abuse. I walked through the halls each day never knowing if my

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