Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig features a new, gay character called Sinjir Rath Velus. For those of us that support LGBT+ rights, this is a fantastic thing. That's not the case for a lot of other people though. I was on the blog My Bookish Life the other day and writer, Ramona, shared this story with her readers, noting that there is a lot of homophobic backlash based on this character.
Ramona shared a quote from Chuck's blog that gives his reaction to all of this, and I wanted to share that here as well because I think it's fantastically written:
On his blog, Chuck Wendig wrote, “If you’re upset because I put gay characters and a gay protagonist in the book, I got nothing for you.” Because, he added, “You’re not the Rebel Alliance. You’re not the good guys. You’re the […] oppressive, totalitarian Empire. If you can imagine a world where Luke Skywalker would be irritated that there were gay people around him, you completely missed the point of Star Wars. It’s like trying to picture Jesus kicking lepers in the throat instead of curing them. Stop being the Empire. Join the Rebel Alliance. We have love and inclusion and great music and cute droids.
Thank you to Ramona for sharing this story and be sure to read her initial blog post for more information.
Please share your thoughts below,
Lauren Becker
I am absolutely astonished at the response to the character. Or maybe I shouldn't be. Sighs.
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