Who are some LGBTQ horror authors you recommend our audience check out?

I always recommend that people start with the classics. Oscar Wilde created one of the greatest psychological horror stories in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The gay subtext that is baked into Dorian’s relationships with the men of the book, their own self-hatred, and inability to admit their love, jealousy, and obsession for Dorian leads to terrible fates for the female characters. William J. Martin (formerly Poppy Z Brite) has written some of the best, most luscious stories I’ve ever read.

Who are some of your favorite LGBTQ characters in horror?

Most of my favorites are the ones I have written because they are the types of characters that I want to see and don’t really find anywhere else yet. Aside from my own though, it may be considered ‘typical’ of me, but I really like the characters from "The Vampire Chronicles" by Anne Rice. They are all so complex and morally gray, and all so damn charismatic.

How do you feel the LGBTQ community has been represented thus far in the genre and what hopes do you have for representation in the genre going forward?

So in a lot of ways, there have been massive improvements in the last couple of decades. Where before we had Buffalo Bill and other such characters whose queerness is portrayed as a sort of villainy, now we’re getting a wild array of queer characters (often created by queer authors!) and this is wonderful news.

How do you feel the LGBTQ community has been represented thus far in the genre and what hopes do you have for representation in the genre going forward?

I just want to see a lot more writing where the trans, queer, or disabled character is the detective–not the monster. Or if they are the monster–make it a super delicious, seductive, world-devouring one.