Becky Albertalli, Author Of ‘Love Simon’, Comes Out
Becky Albertalli, author of ‘Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda’, which ‘Love, Simon’ was based on, has come out.
“I'm bi,” she wrote in an essay released earlier this month. “Sorry, it took me so long to get here. But then again, at least the little red coming out book I needed was already on my shelf (in about thirty different languages). I think I finally know why I wrote it.”
‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens’ has a red book cover and is itself a coming-out story. The fact that a seemingly straight woman had written a novel about a gay teen coming out had drawn criticism in the past. People had posited that it was not Abertalli's place to tell queer stories, according to ‘Out’.
“Y’all, I didn’t know,” she wrote. “I legitimately didn’t realize. I’m thirty-seven years old. I’ve been happily married to a guy for almost ten years. I have two kids and a cat. I’ve never kissed a girl. I never even realized I wanted to. But if I rewind further, I’m pretty sure I’ve had crushes on boys and girls for most of my life. I just didn’t realize the girl crushes were crushes.”
Alberalli stated that the criticisms were “searingly personal” as she was accused of “writing shitty queer books for the straights, profiting off of communities I had no connection to.” According to her, over the process of writing, she began to find and understand herself.
“Let me be perfectly clear: this isn’t how I wanted to come out,” she wrote. “This doesn’t feel good or empowering, or even particularly safe. Honestly, I’m doing this because I’ve been scrutinized, subtweeted, mocked, lectured, and invalidated just about every single day for years, and I’m exhausted. And if you think I’m the only closeted or semi-closeted queer author feeling this pressure, you haven’t been paying attention.”
“Can we make space for those of us who are still discovering ourselves?” Albertalli wrote. “Can we be a little more compassionate? Can we make this a little less awful for the next person?”
Read related myGwork articles here:
Comedian Niecy Nash Comes Out, Shares Wedding Photo With New Wife
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Sara Ramirez Comes Out As Non-Binary
BBC Radio Presenter Shivani Dave Comes Out As Non-Binary
Champion Gymnast Luke Strong Comes Out As Bisexual
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