She added, “I expected Lambda more from assassinating the character with a vague accusation based on rumors on Twitter, for telling people – not one group, but people – to read the book.”
Acquaye and Scales said in a joint interview that an independent jury and Lambda Literary had contributed to the decision to withdraw the book from the competition, and said the organization had not taken a position on the “men”.
Skiles said in the interview that as a result of Hogg’s posts, “many trans people felt they couldn’t, and weren’t allowed to, participate in these conversations.” Acquaye said the posts “did not raise other gay people and these voices.”
In her Substack the newsHough said she discussed “men” with Newman, including “how to get the book to really recognize transgender people.”
Hogg wrote: “Other books that started from this premise – all men disappear – have eradicated the existence of transgender people, and it was important for her not to do so, to be as sensitive as possible.” “So when I saw people assume the simple idea was the entirety of the plot, I told them to read the book before assuming the worst.”
For this, she wrote, she was described as a trans-exclusion radical feminist—something she denied.
(Previous books with similar scenarios, gender exclusion or gender segregation “were written before there was much interest in anything beyond bisexuality,” said Brian Attiberry, a professor of English at Idaho State University who has written about gender in fiction. scientific).
Hogg lamented that Twitter users were so critical of a book they hadn’t read.
“They call it ‘recall culture,'” she wrote on Substack, “because bullying is wrong, unless your target is someone you don’t like, for social justice reasons of course.”
In an email on Monday, Newman declined to comment on her upcoming book but confirmed Hough’s account of their friendship. “She’s also a person of great integrity and decency,” Newman added. “She is a wonderful writer whose book deserves all the awards.”
