Hi all,

So... I was actually working ahead of schedule and made good progress on what I thought would be today's newsletter... because I thought this was also Disability Pride Month.  And that would be July.  So at least I have a lil break coming in July which is good cause that's when I have to leave town briefly for my family's dog's surgery.  Anyway, it *is* Pride Month, though, so in keeping with the tradition of the past couple of years, I'll do a Q and A.  If anyone else has questions, please let me know and I'll answer them next time.

I hope you're all doing well!  Keep calm and carry on and drink lots of water and all that!

God bless,
Jenni

Ask a JABB Co-Founder- The Pride Edition, Part IV*
*Oops!  I originally said this was III but it's IV... Only took me two months to realize.

Do the angels like Ed, Aziraphale, Crowley, Jamie, Reuel, etc. consider themselves to be queer?

Ed, yes, because he's human now.  Whether he's only attracted to Steve or men in general but specifically loves Steve and only Steve, I don't know.  But either way I think he considers himself to be a gay man now. 

As for the others, I think it's on par with how Monica feels about the Irish and how Tess feels about the Black community.  Monica is not technically Irish.  Tess is not technically Black.  But because they move through the world being perceived as Irish and Black, respectively, that's obviously going to make them more tied to the Irish and Black community, more easily able to relate to them, etc. than, say, Andrew would ever be.  I'm sure Aziraphale, Crowley, Jamie, and others have experienced both homophobia and queer joy.  That's inextricably linked them to the community.  So I think it's easier for them to say they feel themselves to be part of the queer community rather than simply queer.  Because I don't believe that angels, left to their own devices, categorize themselves.  And even if they did choose to categorize themselves, we have no reason to believe they'd do it in the same way.  Maybe they just have a concept of "angel with an anam cara" and "angel without an anam cara."  And whatever gender identity that anam cara has doesn't really matter. 

All that being said, they would never disavow the queer community.  If, say, Jamie was being hassled, she's not gonna go off like "Well, actually, I'm not a lesbian because..."  It's similar to how Andrew doesn't bother to correct people who refer to JenniAnn as his wife.  Nothing would be gained by explaining and, in some cases, it would just be inconsiderate to create that distance. 

Do you think the Gospel-era characters are surprised by how Joshua interacts with queer people?

No.  For one, I think we're naive to assume Yeshua didn't interact with queer people back in the day.  There's no way every interaction he ever had made it into the Bible.  How do we know?  Because there are movies that are word-for-word recreations of the Gospels and they're generally no more than three hours long.  So even figuring in travel time, there had to be a whole lot more that happened to flesh out three years.

But even supposing 30 A.D. era Yeshua truly never interacted with queer people, it's not like the apostles have been on ice this whole time.  They've been in Heaven and making occasional excursions to Earth for 2,000 years.  They're aware of Joshua's involvement in the lives of people who have lived and are living.  They're also aware of other people in Heaven.  So, for example, I believe Harvey Milk is in Heaven.  The apostles would be aware of that.  Maybe they've even spoken to him.  They've most definitely spoken to Sergius and Bacchus.  So it's not like they showed up at St. G's and were like "Whoa.  Yeshua is hanging out with queer people.  How novel!" 

All that being said, they're still of their era.  It's very possible that Cephas would be quite uncomfortable at a drag burlesque show (or any burlesque, for that matter).  And that's okay!  Heck, I'd probably be uncomfortable at a burlesque show!  Not because I think there's anything wrong with it.  Sexual humor just isn't generally my cup of tea.  And it's probably not Cephas' idea of a good time, either.  But that doesn't mean he disagrees with Joshua affirming queer people or is surprised by it. 

Is there any distinction between the human asexual characters and the angelic ones?

Yes.  I think the main one is for the angels, asexuality is the default.  Meanwhile, for humans, I think it's only around 1% of the population.  So human asexuals may feel some isolation and loneliness because we don't experience life in the same way as 99% of our brethren.  Angels are united in their asexuality. 

I also think there's a distinction in how they experience romance.  And I'll use Andrew and JenniAnn to demonstrate that. 

With JenniAnn, even being ace, I don't think we can completely count out some sort of romantic drive just tied to evolution.  There are innate drives to wanting to be with people because there's safety in not being alone.  But I think the angels are free from all those unconscious drives.  Physical safety just isn't as much of an issue for them.  They and their ancestors haven't been reared from time immemorial to want romantic stability.  But this is all very much true for humans, JenniAnn included.  So I think, for her, being romantic with Andrew is not only stemming from genuinely being in love with him but also simply being a human who has grown up viewing coupling up as the normal order of things and a way of securing some level of safety.

I think for Andrew it's much more cerebral.  He just wants to be wanted because, let's be honest, a bunch of people do NOT want him around.  Not even angels sometimes.  But with JenniAnn, here's someone who not only wants him around but starts to get really agitated when separated from him for any length of time.  Someone who knows some of the darkest things about him but trusts him so much that she's been as vulnerable as someone can be around him.  I think if JenniAnn had been aro and never wanted to kiss, Andrew woulda been fine with that.  So long as she was with him.  All that being said, now he's gotten used to that.  I think if she woke up tomorrow and was like "Actually, I dunno what happened but I'm just not feeling it any more.  I still wanna be with you but kissing and canoodling just isn't doing it for me," he'd be sad.  Like I think even to the point that it sometimes keeps him up at night because now that he's used to that what happens 100 years from now?  It's a learned coping mechanism/nice activity for him, not an innate one.  Doesn't make it any less real.  The love it makes him feel is very real.  But just as one example, her tendency to straddle his lap when he starts to freak out I think started as pure romantic impulse from her.  But the closeness and the pressure and the sentiment behind it actually succeeded in calming Andrew down.  So she kept doing it.  And, at this point, I do think it's a romantic thing for him now even if it didn't start that way for him.  Because it's coming from her, the person he loves best besides God.  He doesn't have an innate desire to be kissed or to lay half-naked in bed or dance without leaving room for the Holy Ghost.  But those are all now things he's done with her and, thus, are inextricably linked up with her.  So those actions become valuable, desirable, and, yes, romantic.  It's almost like JenniAnn had to flip a switch in order for Andrew to feel romantic yearning.  He never would have on his own.

I do think it's possible the distinctions are less evident among angels who are largely earthbound.  For example, I do think Aziraphale and Crowley are different.  Maybe they have been yearning for a kiss.  Because they've been living among humans for a tremendously long time.  So it makes sense they might have more humanesque desires versus Andrew who only started truly living among humans when JenniAnn was like "Stay with me..."

From Ellis:

How did the addition of more overt queer characters happen?  Was it something you felt called to do?  And if so, do you believe that was God doing that?

To be honest, several of them were added because I wanted more from TV shows that were either canceled or were only meant for one season.  Ed, Steve, and their crew were introduced because as I started formulating that story, Our Flag Means Death still hadn't been confirmed for a second season.  And then, of course, it didn't get a third season so I'm definitely keeping them around.  Loreena isn't directly paralleled with anyone from Pose but I did really love that show and while I was pretty happy with how it tied things up in the third and final season, I still wanted some connection to that world.  So Loreena's intro scene with "Vero" was very much inspired by Pose as is Loreena's eventually fate as an adoptive mother to an assortment of queer kids.  And then there was The Haunting of Bly Manor which was a beautifully complete one season show.  But I wanted more of Jamie and Dani so they became Jamie and Gwen. 

But, yeah, I did make some of them up.  Rhiannon was introduced because I wanted to have a bisexual character because I have bisexual people in my life who I care about a lot.  So Rhiannon was created to be paired with Vonnie.  Austin, Rory, and Raven were introduced because I thought they kind of explained why Christina would have felt safe at St. G's.  If her prior support system had been comprised of queer people, it made sense that she'd go to some place where she knew queer people and allies were.  I like the irony that her former church were undone by their own queerphobia.  If they hadn't pitched such a fit, Christina probably would never have known St. G's was queer-affirming.

Anyway, I feel called to write in general and, more specifically, over the past few years I've felt called to not play it safe with my writing.  It started with deciding I could no longer limit myself to a generically spiritual outlook and had to get more specifically Christian.  But that was mostly for the purpose of my own healing after John Dye's passing.  But now I feel like all Christians are called to speak truth to power, to stand with those who are being persecuted, including queer people. 

All that being said, I definitely don't think everything I write is the result of God's calling.  I write plenty of stuff that's purely for my own amusement, need to vent, etc.  There's probably stuff that I'll look back on and cringe at just as I cringe now at some stuff I wrote ten years ago.  But I don't think I'll ever regret introducing more queer characters.


This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for his part in uplifting queer stories in Mother, Mother and TBAA.

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