What Straight Critics Miss About " AJ and the Queen" and "A Starr is Born" by Ryan Field, Hey, Pete Buttigieg Is a Minority, Too, Ryan Field Books

What Straight Critics Miss About “AJ and the Queen” and “A Star is Born” by Ryan Field

I’ve seen a few mixed reviews for RuPaul’s new Netflix series, AJ and the Queen, and frankly I’m a little surprised by some of them. I don’t think the straight reviewers know about or understand this aspect of gay culture.

With that said, my short review for AJ and the Queen is that I love it, I don’t want straight people telling me what’s wrong with it, and I think the show is doing exactly what it set out to do: entertain people. It’s positive and it’s uplifting…and it’s funny. Even I’m amazed at how much I like it and my experience with drag culture is very limited.

It’s also interesting to me because my main character in A Starr is Born could be a male version of AJ all grown up. My character is not a drag queen, but he’s a young gay male performer who grew up with two gay dads who were drag queens. He grew up doing the drag circuit with his gay dads, and now he’s a performer making his way in the world alone. He learned everything he knows about performing from the rough world of drag culture and he’s the ultimate perfectionist.

In any event, if you’re gay I suggest ignoring most of the “professional” reviews for AJ and the Queen and check it out for yourselves. I think you’ll like it a lot more than some of these straight critics.

Here’s a link to the reviews on IMDb, which mostly seem wonderful. I would bet money that most of the people who left these reviews are gay people who actually “get” it.

As a side note, this reminds me of the reviews I read after the gay TV series Vicious came out. I watched Vicious, many other gay people I know watched it, and we all loved it. But those straight reviewers simply did not get it, and they slammed it for things like stereotypes without even bothering to learn about real gay culture.

Hey, Pete Buttigieg Is a Minority Candidate, Too

I think this a good example of the way Pete Buttigieg is often treated by the mainstream. From the far left, to the far right, he faces homophobia every single day of the week. And many times that homophobia comes from the left.

In this article they compare the Democratic Candidates to a KKK Rally. I know it’s tongue-in-cheek, and not to be taken seriously, but I see this kind of thing in other places, too, and no one ever speaks up and says a word about it.

Many were shocked to turn to CNN last night and see what appeared to be a Ku Klux Klan rally. Airing for two hours was an all-white assembly of people talking about their superior plans for the country.

Bottom line: it’s not good to joke about Pete Buttigieg being part of the KKK. Buttigieg is part of a minority, too. No openly gay person comes from a place of straight privilege and I’m not sure we ever will.

Here’s a link to read the rest.

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A Starr Is Born

Written by Lambda-Award winning author Ryan Field, A Starr Is Born is a queer retelling of an old rags to riches trope that’s been reinterpreted many times, but this time it’s totally different with gay main characters, a gay love story, and a gay male point of view. It’s partly a light-hearted parody and partly sarcasm. It’s also highly erotic and charged with authentic, emotional gay male romance.

From the day they meet for the first time until the day their lives change forever, Harrison Parker and Morton Starr were destined for greatness—and each other. A Starr is Born follows the paths of handsome, badly-behaving rock star Harrison Parker and sexy gender-bending performer Morton Starr, who is just starting his career.

Morton is so madly in love with his husband, Harrison, he’ll do anything to please him, including overlooking all his self-destructive issues. However, as openly gay Morton gains more fame and success in the mainstream with his popular gay love songs and his unique gender-bending image, and Harrison continues to slide downhill, there comes a point where everything has to change. And when that climax finally happens, Morton isn’t certain about anything in his future or his marriage.