Jonathan Van Ness has been engaged on his first fiction e book, Let Them Stare, for 3 years. The Queer Eye star initially acquired the concept for the younger grownup novel in the summertime of 2022, after which spent years collaborating with creator Julie Murphy (“she’s so unbelievable,” he says of the bestselling Dumplin’ and Facet Results Could Differ author) and stretching a brand new creative muscle earlier than releasing the e book this Could.
His timing is ideal, as there’s by no means been a greater time for a YA e book with a gender-nonconforming, nonbinary teenager as its hero.
Let Them Stare is about Sully, a graduating highschool senior who can’t wait to depart their little city of Hearst, Pennsylvania, the place they really feel like they’re the one queer particular person for miles.
After they lose out on a job alternative that may have taken them to New York and past, they discover a uncommon classic bag at their native thrift retailer, which simply so occurs to be the house of a superb, gender-bending ghost from the Nineteen Fifties. Sully and the spirit, Rufus, then crew as much as uncover how Rufus died, their hometown’s queer historical past, and Sully’s subsequent steps in life.
Co-authors Julie Murphy and Jonathan Van NessBlake Buesnel
In the true world, LGBTQ+ rights are beneath assault, with legal guidelines particularly concentrating on trans and nonbinary youth popping up throughout, however particularly in pink states and small communities just like the fictional Hearst. Van Ness hopes Let Them Stare can function a “chance mannequin” for some younger individuals residing in these locations.
“I come from a very small city in Illinois, and I all the time thought rising up that I needed to get out of that city, that I needed to discover a place that was extra accepting of me and that me staying dwelling felt like not an possibility,” Van Ness says. “And I believe the older I get and the extra individuals and younger individuals I’ve met, that’s not an possibility for everybody, and never everybody can get out of their hometown.”
“Why does that should be the objective?” he asks, “Why can’t we make a world the place individuals can discover acceptance and success and achievement even in small cities, even in the event you’re queer?”
Borrowing a web page from his novel, Van Ness attests that the keys to constructing group in a single’s hometown are “discovering your chosen household wherever you’re” and connecting with native queer historical past, which isn’t all the time really easy to unearth. Positive, many know in regards to the Stonewall Rebellion and ballroom tradition in New York Metropolis, Harvey Milk’s assassination in San Francisco, and gayborhoods like Provincetown and West Hollywood. However most don’t know the wealthy LGBTQ+ previous of their backyards.
Let Them StareCourtesy HarperCollins
Within the e book, Sully learns that their hometown housed an underground homosexual speakeasy lengthy earlier than they had been born. It modifications their view of Hearst. They now know that the city has all the time been a spot the place individuals like them can reside and thrive.
Like Sully, Van Ness says he all the time thought he was the primary queer particular person from his hometown of Quincy, Illinois, however the extra he’s finished analysis, the extra native homosexual historical past he’s discovered. He began uncovering that historical past when he invited Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown, cocreators of the Instagram @lgbt_history, on his podcast in 2020. They informed him a few pen pal journal that allowed the queer group in Illinois, together with Quincy, to attach within the Sixties. A number of years later, whereas writing his e book Love That Story, Van Ness realized in regards to the native homosexual bar Irene’s Cabaret, which opened in 1980 and was transformed right into a testing middle through the AIDS disaster.
“There have been so many generations of queer people who got here earlier than me that made my existence and my life much more attainable that I didn’t even find out about,” Van Ness says. “I believe all of that story or all of these experiences led me to developing with this story and wanting to write down this story.”
In Let Them Stare, Sully and Rufus come collectively to assist one another discover happiness, though their homosexual terminology and methods of seeing the world come from completely different occasions and locations. Van Ness says that completely different generations of queer individuals coming collectively is paramount in surviving present-day political assaults.
“We reside in a world that’s so polarized, and it’s really easy for us to get break up aside from one another and simply fall out with one another and never be in group with one another,” he says. “I believe that capitalism and the patriarchy and homophobia, transphobia, racism, colonialism, it’s all made us battle with one another.”
“Nobody’s excellent, however I simply assume we’ve got to attempt to discover our commonalities, and discover our frequent floor, and discover our help with one another, as a result of that would be the factor that will get us via,” he provides. “Supporting one another and discovering group with one another is what will get us via something. But when we don’t come collectively, we’ll collapse. And that’s been proven in historical past so many occasions.”
This text is a part of the Out Could/June Delight situation, which hits newsstands Could 27. Support queer media and subscribe— or obtain the difficulty via Apple Information, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader beginning Could 15.
