3. The Story of Ferdinand

I want you to think about The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf very carefully and tell me how you haven't seen the subtext in this before. A bull is raised to fight and be aggressive just like the other bulls (what gay kid hasn't felt that comparison?) but all the sweet-natured (i.e. GAY GAY GAY) Ferdinand wants to do is sit and smell the flowers, probably because he took one of those Japanese three-point flower arranging classes and he's contemplating a FABULOUS centerpiece for brunch in the pasture the next day. When a bee sting causes the gentle giant to be mistaken for the fiercest bull on the farm and sissy Ferdinand gets carted off to the city for the bullfights, our boy stands his ground and refuses to fight. That's just not who Ferdinand is and he is not going to try to fit into anyone else's view of what it means to be a man! I mean, a bull! Ferdinand takes the stand all gay kids eventually have to take: this is who I am and I will not apologize and has even gone on to become something of a pacifist hero for his refusal to fight. I think he's better suited to his role as gay icon: I for one am always inclined to think of that beautiful bull when I stop and smell the flowers.

4. The Little Mermaid

"The Little Mermaid" statue in Copenhagen

There's something about Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid that speaks strongly to the conflicted feelings baby gays are starting to experience once they realize there's something a little different about themselves. Let's take another look at the basic plot: girl sacrifices who she is (mermaid) with great pain (every time the mermaid walks it's as though her feet are being stabbed with knives) to be with her great forbidden love but finds herself torn between two worlds. She must either give up her family and the underwater home she's known to be with her prince or kill him to return to the sea. DECISIONS. It came as no surprise recently when it came to light that the tale was actually inspired by an unrequited love the author felt for another man. The mermaid's conflicts are easy for gay youth to identify with: torn between love and family, feeling not quite right in your body (the mermaid not feeling right in her aquatic form for love of a human), and of course, giving up your voice and remaining quiet forever for a chance at happiness. Although the original story has one of the most beautifully tragic endings in fairy tales (the mermaid sacrifices herself but instead of dying she turns to foam and is promised a chance at an immortal soul by the daughters of the air, the one thing mermaids do not possess), it's still a pretty depressing fate for gay kids to contemplate, even if it was the most upbeat scenario Andersen could possibly imagine in his time. The 1989 Disney version gives the story a happy ending, gays it up even more with show tunes and basically turns the story into La Cage Aux Folles. The longing that all gay kids feel to belong still manages to assert itself into the Disney film most powerfully with the movie's signature ballad "Part of Your World" which has always sounded like an anthem for moving out of a small town to a big city that would let you be the secret inside.

5. The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Elizabeth George Speare's novel begins when Kit Tyler is torn from her childhood home in colonial Barbados by the death of her grandfather and seeks refuge with her conservative religious family (they are quite literally Puritans) in icy cold Connecticut to avoid marrying a man over twice her age. Once she settles into life in New England she discovers that everything she knows of life is considered "sinful" and that the townsfolk are not exactly friendly to those who don't conform to their strict code. Things take a turn for the better when Kit meets Hannah, the so-called "witch" of Blackbird Pond who is actually a widowed Quaker woman shunned by the townsfolk for her beliefs. Then, of course, because this is Puritan New England, a sickness breaks out and everyone yells "witch" at Hannah and Kit and a torch bearing mob come chasing after the women in the middle of the night. Kit's constantly futile attempts to fit into her Aunt and Uncle's zealous lifestyle feel so familiar to any gay boy who tried to butch it up or any baby dyke who tried to play the part of the femme for acceptance and the fact that these are crazy Christian fundamentalists makes the story that much more relevant. Ultimately, Kit proves herself innocent of the crime of witchcraft and decides to head back home to the islands with a sailor she befriended, but not before slightly opening the eyes of the townspeople to their bigotry and making over her drab pilgrim cousins in some of her fabulous tropical gowns. A gayer ending could not be had.

6. Twilight

Photo from Wiki

Usually I'm loathe to mention anything having to do with Stephanie Meyer's abstinence-as-supernatural-cautionary-tale series but I feel it's my duty to point out some of the obvious homo themes that crept into the Mormon Meyer's books (and especially their film adaptations.) Bella is basically an unhappy, flannel wearing loner that can't even muster a smile when a Morrisey looking, befanged twink and hunky gogo boy wannabe werewolf spend four books fighting for her heart. Yeah, about those fights... The Edward vs. Jacob conflict usually read like suppressed homo lust expressing itself all aggro and it didn't help that Jacob was usually shirtless. In spite of that I kept rooting for those crazy kids to make it work. No, not Edward and Bella (who really does dress like the stereotype of a lesbian from the early nineties): Edward and Jacob. THAT would have been a series of books: can a vampire and a werewolf make their unnatural love work? And they're both men! Don't worry though, Bella and Alice will eventually find their way together in the new novel's b plot.

7. Eloise

the witch of blackbird pondthe witch of blackbird pond

Gay Subtext in The Little Mermaid? Stories with a Secret Message for Queer Youth