A reading and discussion on gay people and having suffered being bullied by their peers through the years, in school, at home, and even in the workplace with Christopher Rosalie, Perry Brass, and Nicholas Bowman.

Reception at 7
Reading at 7:30

“My name is Christopher Rosalie. My pen name is Christopher Trevor. I’m proud to be a published author with more than thirty-five books to my credit, books of erotica and suspense mostly. At the end of March my two latest books, “Owned Men” and “Tickled Mindless” were released. Very soon I will be releasing my first self-published book, “Masters and Submissives of Subjugation.” I am also a budding photographer and I plan to make some of my stories into short films.

I’m a versatile writer in that I write a diversity and range of stories of erotica…and I also write about and advocate against gay bullying and all types of bullying.

Writing is my passion. When it comes to fiction I write the ideas I get that come to me from practically out of nowhere at times. I see that as a true gift that I have been given, to create stories that I enjoy writing and that others enjoy reading out of thin air. I’ve often said that when I’m writing I need to entertain myself first.

When it comes to writing about bullying I would say that I am fueled by my anger over the injustices that have been perpetrated upon gay people…bullied, harassed, bashed, and even murdered, all for something that none of us had a choice in, simply for being who we are.

Given the opportunity I would like to write a weekly column on the subject of gay bullying, because sadly, from what I see in the media, this scourge is not going away any time soon.

When I became a writer I never planned to be a writer on the subject of bullying, but it was when I read about the suicide of Tyler Clementi and the murder of Matthew Shepard that all changed, it all changed in a heartbeat.

When I read in the newspapers and saw on the news of how Mr. Clementi had been bullied to the point that he committed suicide and of how Matthew Shepard had been so brutally murdered I felt that I had to do something to make my own voice heard where these issues were concerned.

Because you see, after I read about Tyler Clementi’s suicide and the case that evolved from it, it brought back memories, many horrible, horrible memories of how I myself was relentlessly bullied, starting as far back as in the first grade in school. It was at that time, many years ago that I first learned the words faggot, fairy, queen, queer, (before we gay people took that particular word back for ourselves and use it now in an empowering fashion) and a host of other derogatory words that were used to describe gay people.

But the bullying didn’t just happen to me and other gay kids in school, it happened in our own neighborhoods; it was hurled at us from members of our own families, and sadly it even happened to me and others in the workplace, which for me personally at my former job turned into a literal living hell.

As a writer I work many long hours at my craft. I wake up two hours early every day in order to do some writing and I spend a few hours every night after work writing as well. What I write about, whether it be my own brands of erotica or the heinous subject of gay bullying, both subject matters are very important to me. They both speak to me in very informative voices; the two subject matters are a huge part of who I am. My gay peers are very important to me.

It is important to me if I can somehow make a positive difference for any gay people being bullied today, in school, in their homes, or even in the workplace. It is important to me to help these people find a voice.
Again, subjects, erotica and gay bullying are very important to me on a personal and universal level. Thank you.”

Perry Brass has published 19 books, including How to Survive Your Own Gay Life, The Manly Art of Seduction,The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love, and his recent novel King of Angels, a gay Jewish, Southern coming-of-age novel set in Savannah, GA, in 1963, the year of J.F.K.’s murder. In 1969, he co-edited Come Out!, the world’s first gay liberation newspaper published by New York’s Gay Liberation Front. In 1972, he co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic, New York’s first clinic for gay men, still operating as the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. He is a founding coordinator of the New York Rainbow Book Fair. 

Nicholas Bowman is the pseudonym of a semi-retired journalist who publishes erotica in print in anthologies edited by Christopher Trevor and online as Nate Stone on such sites as Katharsis.xxx and MetalbondNYC.com. The Nate Stone stories will be published soon in a book tentatively titled, My Balls Are Yours, Sir: 13 Tales of Sadism and Imagination.