Julia Shaw

And so a lot of laws around homosexuality are specifically applying to men.

And certainly historically, that's the case.

So we're talking about sodomy, and that involves men and not women.

And so if you look at the evolution of laws, for a while, women were kind of... It was socially not necessarily acceptable, but they were kind of getting away with it legally.

But then...

More recently, especially as bisexuality gets more visible as well, certain countries have started writing it specifically into their constitutions and specifically into their laws that bisexual identities and behaviors are also seen as problematic and illegal.

So again, these laws change all the time.

But in terms of fan mail, especially from people in countries where homosexuality and bisexuality are illegal or are seen as problematic or socially condemned, that was particularly important.

Those people were particularly writing, saying, sometimes also saying, can I translate this into this other language on the DL, like on the down low and just like distribute this to my friends.

I had people sending me messages saying I'm at X airport or an X country where this is this would be considered contraband.

Like this book.

My book is a banned book.

Fun fact.

It was banned.

I sold the rights to a foreign publisher.

And right after it was sold, the laws changed.

And they sent me this really sad email saying, unfortunately, we can't publish your book because it's now considered part of the gay agenda, sort of promoting gay and homosexual lifestyles.

And so we can't publish it anymore.

But I take a little bit of pride in the fact that it's a banned book.

But I find it really sad, obviously, as to what it means.