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Giving it to the bigots
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PUZZLES & GAMES
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Recommended equally for the prejudiced and the proud,
a new novel looks hack at Oregon’s fight against hate
by
O riana G reen
| hile writing The Second Coming of
Curly Red, Portland author Jody Seay
says, “I got braver than 1 ever thought
I’d be.”
Since the themes of the book are compas
sion and tolerance, at midlife Seay decided to
come out to her extended family and hoped
they would find their own measure of toler
ance.
She had reason to be concerned about
some of her more conservative relatives. To
a cousin who had “found Jesus in a most
unpleasant way,” she said: “D on’t claim to
be a good C hristian and
then hate everyone w ho’s |
not just like you.” Happily, \
even he came around after !
reading her novel, which
does a good job of showing i
straight readers how it feels !
to be on the receiving end 1
of hate crimes aimed at the
queer community.
The novel is set in O re
gon in the early 1990s and
dramatizes the impact of
anti-gay ballot measures on
a small community. T he
story focuses on a lesbian
couple, Cory and Leigh,
and their relationship with
their new neighbor, a
recent widower named
Curly Red. Red, like the author, is a transplant
ed Texan, and the sage-scented setting of cen
tral Oregon works well for both of them.
Seay, who grew up on a ranch and has
friends in central Oregon, is familiar with the
toll the two battles at the ballot box took on
gay men and lesbians who live in such isolated
areas.
“T he gays got hit pretty hard out among the
cowboys,” she says, adding that many of the
incidents of harassment in the book are drawn
from life.
The author, who had moved to Oregon by
then, remembers how repulsed she was about
the goings on here.
“T he ickiest part about ’92 and ’94," Seay
recalls with vehem ence, “was that you had to
really look at people and try and figure out if
you could trust them — is this person gonna
vote against my life? W hat an appalling idea—
that every few years we get to vote on a whole
group of people’s lives.”
The way she dealt with her frustration was
to write about the experience, specifically for
the audience that needs the message most: the
straight world, and the people who still harbor
such hate.
“1 knew it was a mainstream book, and I
knew the rest of the country needed to know
about this,” Seay says, gratified that readers
have written to tell her they’ve changed their
homophobic views thanks to Curly Red’s story.
Seay, who m aintains a Reiki practice in
three states and makes regular trips back to
Texas and O klahom a, saw some of her ultra
conservative clients moved to tears at a reading
she gave in Tulsa. Seeing them so visibly affect
ed “was a huge deal for me,” she says.
Long before she realized her own lesbian
nature, Seay, who is part Cherokee, learned to
root for the underdogs.
"My m other used to make us cheer for the
Indians when we watched a cowboy a movie,"
V
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she remembers, adding
that such a position was a
bit dicey in ranching
country.
Though this is Seay’s
first novel, it is receiving
some encouraging national reviews. Her char
acters are originals and well-developed. She has
a good ear for how people talk and a gift for
layering emotional impact into her chapters
with a powerful yet light touch.
O ne of the author’s favorite passages
describes the death of a lesbian character and
her reunion with her longtime partner: “In
Cambridge, Massachusetts, one night, as the
earth rolled over on its belly, Della Heron did
the same and never woke up, passing from this
life to the next as peacefully as a butterfly set
tling on a cactus flower. Just as she had known
in her heart the way it would happen, her Bon
nie was there to greet her, to take her hand and
help her step across, to welcome her home.”
It seems very fitting that The Second Coming
of Curly Red is published by Firebrand Books,
because Seay is herself a firebrand, stirring the
conscience of readers who might have vestiges
of homophobia lurking in their psyches. In
fact, as a way of confronting known homo
phobes, the author advises giving her novel to
“people who don’t know you or who don’t like
»
you.
Seay, who doesn’t lack for passionate opin
ions, has this to say about fueling the homo-
phobic fires with explicit images at pride cele
brations: “Don’t show people your nipples,
show them your heart; don’t flash your genitals,
flash them your soul. Your nipples will get us
nowhere, but your heart will get us every
where."
The characters who battle the religious
right wing in this novel display enormous heart
and do receive their just reward. Give it to a
bigot with love.
■ T he S econd C oming of C urly R ed by Jody
Seay. Firebrand Books, 1999; $13.95 softcover.
The author will read from her novel at Powell's
City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St. in Portland,
at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 7.
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