LGBTQ History in Loving Artemis-- finding ourselves in #LGBTQHistoryMonth #amreading
- Janet Mason
- Feb 28
- 2 min read
I was inspired by LGBTQ history month, to read a brief excerpt from my novel, Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love, and marriage. The YouTube video is below and under that is the written text.
Grace walked over to a table and put her backpack on it. She
pulled out a chair, sat down, and opened it, then pulled out her
three-ring notebook. She flipped it open, staring down at the words
on the page where she had written Art's suggestions: The Stonewall
Rebellion in New York City, 1969; Harvey Milk, an openly gay man
in San Francisco running for the elected position of city supervisor;
and Dade County, Florida, where they were planning the first referendum on
gay rights in the country. At the bottom of the list, she had
written: "Anita Bryant—an outspoken anti-gay opponent in Florida
and a spokesperson for Florida Orange Juice.”
Grace got up and went back to the card catalogue. This time she
pulled open the drawer for F - N and started looking for the word
Gay. She flipped past Gas, Natural and Gator, Alligator. Then she
game to a card that said Gay, see Homosexuality. There were no other
index cards with the word Gay in the subject line. The letter "H"
was in the same drawer, so Grace kept flipping forward. She reached
Hemp, Home, Homily, and Homonym. A card was crammed into the
drawer. She picked it up. Scrawled handwriting read: Homosexuality
equals faggot. On the line below that, it said, homosexuality is a sin—
see the bible.
Grace pulled the card out of the drawer. The other cards had
holes punched in the bottom so that the metal rod could run
through them. There was no hole punched in this card. Someone had
crammed their own card into the catalogue. There was nothing behind
it but the other index cards that were loose in the tray. It looked
as though someone had probably torn out all the cards referencing
homosexuality.
She held the card in her trembling hand. She had come to the library
to research a school topic. She was frustrated and angry. She
was searching for knowledge about herself, and this is what she
found.
CINNAMON, my most recently published novel, is available on amazon.com: Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom: Mason, Janet: 9781958419786: Amazon.com: Books
CINNAMON is also available through your local bookstore and library
(just ask them to order it if they don’t have it).
For more information on my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders published by Adelaide Books click here.
To learn more about The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
For more information on my novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love, and marriage, click here.
To order my book Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters, click here.
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