I will listen to the wishes of our readers and not feature that post. However, I still think it would not, ultimately, be damaging — so I’d love to hear more on why you think it would.

However, since “no no no no no” seems to be the prevailing opinion, we will be taking down that topic.

I still believe (and will always believe) it is an important part of this conversation, but it is clear that this is not the best place to host that conversation.

Thank you all for sharing your opinions.

When I was that queer kid, I knew very well where the “other side” was coming from. At heart, it was fear of what they didn’t understand. How they were going to understand without seeing representations of queerness was kind of beyond me, which was also why I came out in high school. The girl next door was also the bisexual girl next door–and that only really offended the people who had religious objections.

Had I been a book, those would have been the people who chose not to buy me. The thing is that even in my white Protestant small town, that was a tiny number. The vast majority of my classmates and teachers thought no worse of me for being who I was.

So. Pandering to the hyperreligious minority over the queer minority: we’re doing that now? I’m already viewing YA publishing with a jaundiced eye, here, and this is not making me want to buy any of it.

You people, and I am saying this as a woman who has faced mental illness for years, are crazy.

The Wicked Pretty Things case was a mess and I think ignorance and institutionalized homophobia definitely had something to do with it (see Telep’s twitter comment about liking a so-called old fashioned idea of romance). You don’t need to present an opposing view point dressed up as so-called balance for this blog. That’s what terrible cable news outlets do to prove how unbiased they are when in reality they’re scared. You’re better than this.