WTFckery At Play? M/M YA Not Okay in YA Anthology

Best selling YA author, Jessica Verday of The Hollow's Trilogy, has written a post called Being Gay is Okay. She wrote a M/M YA for an anthology called Wicked Pretty Things (US: Running Press, UK: Constable & Robinson) which has pulled her story from the anthology. Why?

In her own words: "I was told that the story I'd wrote, which features Wesley (a boy) and Cameron (a boy), who were both in love with each other, would have to be published as a male/female story because a male/male story would not be acceptable to the publishers."

Now I know there are two sides to a story. Why wasn't Jessica's story acceptable? Was it too graphic sexually with in your face love scenes or too violent? If so, this can be fixed in the editing process, so even if the editor or the publisher comes forward to say that's the reason why the story wasn't acceptable doesn't fly for me.

But then the editor, Trisha Telep left a comment on why:

"Oh dear. Might as well give you my two cents. Not that it really matters but... Don't take it out on the publishers, the decision was mine totally. These teen anthologies I do are light on the sex and light on the language. I assumed they'd be light on alternative sexuality, as well. Turns out I was wrong! Just after I had the kerfuffle with jessica, I was told that the publishers would have loved the story to appear in the book! Oh dear. My rashness will be the death of me. It's a great story. Hope jessica publishes it online. (By the way: if you want to see a you tube video of me wrestling a gay man in Glasgow, and losing, please let me know)."

The cutesy respond doesn't fly for me either, nor does the, "hee hee I watch gay videos on You Tube, so see, I'm accepting of gay people."

It's not okay. What has occurred is not okay. What Jessica has done is beyond okay, and I applaud and admire her for her actions. Not many authors would do what she has done.

This saddens and sickens me. Can someone explain to me how an "alternative lifestyle or alternative sexuality" is not light enough or too sexual?

BTW, Jessica responded in the comments to how sexual her story is: "Three kisses. One implied - "When he was kissing me, and holding my face like I was air and he couldn't breathe..." and two direct "he kissed me one last time" and "I kissed him one last time."

Am I wrong or does that sound PG at best? 3 kisses are too sexy for a teenager to read? What if Jessica had written a boy meets girl romance and they shared 3 kisses together? Would there be a cause for concern? I bet you there wouldn't be.

Courtney Milan's comment left on Jessica's post that states my feelings perfectly about this issue:

"I don't even know where to start. You wouldn't even think to say that a teen anthology that is light on sex and language would be light on, say, people of color, would you?

Saying, "Gee, I thought that having gay people in an anthology would be like having explicit sex" is wrong on so many levels. This is the most utterly asinine defense I've seen.

You say, "my rashness will be the death of me." Uh, that's not rashness. It's bigotry."

Rejecting this love story- "About one boy who loves another boy so much that when something bad happens to him, he'll do whatever it takes to get him the help he needs" is a big old fail and a WTFckery. One I hope Jessica publishes and will be read by both those readers who are accepting of love in all forms regardless if the main characters are of the same gender.