Let’s Write Very Queer Letters to Politicians and Community Leaders!
A Prism & Pen writers prompt
I wrote a story last week about how U.S. teenagers are increasingly attacking queer people with physical violence. Seven high school boys in my home state of Michigan recently entered a university library and then stalked, beat, and hospitalized a young couple minding their own business — apparently because they looked “too gay.” I wrote to examine how politicians, community leaders, and religious leaders are inspiring violence with dehumanizing language about transgender, gay, bisexual, and other LGBTQ people.
How I wish those leaders could read my story and others like it! I wish I could write a letter and have them read it!
How’s that for a writing prompt? Prism & Pen editor Logan Silkwood gave me the idea, writing, “Across much of the world, LGBTQ+ people are being targeted politically for marginalization.”
He should know. Logan and his partner felt forced to uproot from their conservative rural community and move across the U.S. to seek safety and peace — only to run smack into the Club Q massacre in their new state.
Logan suggests an ‘Open Letter’ story prompt:
Why don’t we have a virtual letter writing party? We could each write a letter, based in…
