Naturally, this has been a hot topic ever since the article posted, and the response has been mixed. Some people think it'll be great for the LGBT+ genre because it'll bring in thousands of new readers. They may be right. Others think it'll be terrible because people will think gay romance is as much of a joke as they thought erotic romance was post-50 Shades. They may also be right. A number of people are worried she will set back years of progress we've made in trying to have conversations about where the line is between representation and fetishization. They too may be right.

Me? I haven't been able to put my finger on why, but something about EL James venturing into queer fiction makes my skin crawl. I mean, people can write whatever they want, but the thought of a gay romance *by that author* gaining exposure like 50 Shades did... does not give me positive feelings. I just didn't quite understand WHY.

I finally figured it out.

Between 50 Shades and The Mister, James has demonstrated that she can be relied on to create "heroes" who are manipulative abusers and sexual predators. I genuinely don't care why Christian Grey was the way he was. That's not the point here. The male protagonists in her books are men that I for one would never want to be alone with.

My concern is that she's going to release a book starring Mister Christian Gay. He's going to be a predator who seeks out someone young, vulnerable, and inexperienced. He's going to use them for his own "dark desires", regardless of what they want, what they can handle, and whether they've given (or given and withdrawn) consent. He's going to be everything Christian Grey and The Mister were, only his target will be a young, vulnerable, inexperienced male.

Unless her writing has suddenly taken a dramatic turn, EL James is going to create a character who is the personification of everything homophobes believe every gay man is: a sexual predator. Because let's be real: when the character is gay, people are going to see him for what his heterosexual predecessor was. They're not going to romanticize him and swoon over him like they did with Christian Grey. They're going to point to him and say "I KNEW gay men were nasty and dangerous!"

EL James defined BDSM for huge portions of the population. Especially at this moment in history, the last thing we need is for her to also define gay men.