Vampires are gay

Another Halloween has come and gone and after a bit of a withdrawal, things are picking up again. This October was actually an amazing month for vampires, and gay vampires, but things have tapered off since. Several tv programmes are continuing, such as The Lair and The Vampire Diaries, and there are still a few movie releases to look forward to.

Obviously the next movie release is a big one, especially for teenage girls. The second Twilight installment, New Moon will hit screens next week, and might even be worth seeing even if those vampires are fangless and sexless. Twilight has been causing some problems though. Hollywood, or at least a few bloggers, has decided that vampires are passe and are trying to get us to move on to the next big thing. Apparently that’s zombies. Gross.

I have been thinking about Stephen Marche’s Esquire article on how straight women are into vampires because they want to sleep with gay men a bit over the last few weeks. Thanks again to the rise of Twilight, Marche has noticed something that has been going on for some time. I don’t know whether to agree or disagree, but I can certainly see Marche’s point, especially given the rise in m/m slash/romance written by women. But even before the latest rise, yaoi manga and fiction by women had already carved a niche in the m/m genre as a whole.

Over the years I’ve purchased numerous ebooks from Fictionwise written by authors with non-gender specific names or merely initials. These vampire stories probably owe their creation to the works of Anne Rice. Romantic, long-haired, effeminate and gentle vampires fall in love and keep their lovers for centuries. Compare these to stories in printed anthologies such as the Midnight series (Masters of Midnight, Midnight Thirsts and Midnight Hunger) or Blood Lust where the vampires are often looking for one night stands, quick hookups to feed their sexual and blood needs. For the most part I was quite unhappy with the endings of most of these stories, though the new Midnight Hunger had at least two stories that ended well. Lovers Who Stay With You and Late Night Boyfriends are two anthologies where vampire-human relationships are more long term but they are for the most part clearly written by men. How many gay guys are currently sporting long hair? I knew personally that every writer who contributed to Late Night Boyfriends is a gay male. And Ethan is not unapologetic that the book was created by and for gay men you love gay vampires.

Am I making a big deal out of the amount of gay vampire fiction created by women? Few of these books are being printed traditionally and the quality of the fiction is passable at best. More frustratingly I spend money on a book about gay vampires and discover the author is not male I feel deceived. At the very least don’t hide behind initials or gender-confusing names, be honest about your gender and allow readers to accept you rather than be deceived by you.

That said, are gay men buying the literature written by gay authors? Gay authors are at least creating vampire fiction and can only continue to produce these works if there’s a market. The hundreds of visitors hitting this site each day is proof that gay men are into vampires, but I know from my conversation with Ethan that while sales numbers for Late Nigh Boyfriends have been good, copies sold certainly don’t match the number of visitors to this site.

Another medium’s continuation that surprises me is with The Lair. Now two-thirds through it’s third season, The Lair has deviated from it’s original purpose and seems incredibly off track. The second season introduced several unrelated plot lines that muddied the essential story and key characters have been killed off for no good reason. The show is barely a gay vampire drama anymore. A recent episode featured two guys going at it then suddenly both revealed his fangs and the tryst came to an abrupt end; obviously each was looking for hot-fuck-suck-neck action, but not with another vampire. The scene illustrates one of the few times vampires have featured in this vampire series, yet the scene was soft-core porn and had little to do with the story. Are vampires essentially about getting off for gay men?

In future episodes, Damian becomes mortal which allows him to be with Tom again. There’s a great lesson, you will be accepted as long as you are normal. This reverse prejudice towards vampires existed in the previous seasons and has been asserted by the writers. Instead of accepting Jonathan, Tom distanced himself from his boyfriend (and Jonathan was pushing Tom away too). Yet at the end of the series, Tom was willing to accept Damian. Of course had I been in Tom’s shoes (or the series writer), I would have had Tom jump Jonathan’s bones in each episode, begging to be turned as well.

I am conflicted about The Lair’s future. I keep supporting the series (buying the DVD because I can’t get HereTV and it was a waste when I could), but the story has been getting worse. Now it seems no one will want to make a gay vampire drama series probably because it’s been done. I don’t want The Lair to be cancelled but there’s so little vampire action I don’t see why it should continue. If I wanted weird paranormal gay drama, I’d watch Dante’s Cove.

What is it about the vampire for gay men? Why do we find them so incredibly sexy? Do we relate to the outcasts, or are we obsessed with youth and beauty? Over the past 30 years there has been less than 20 gay vampire adult films. Suddenly there has been a slight surge. Twinkblood was just released and Twinklight is on the way. I am quite excited about both for a number of reasons. There’s been such a drought that at this point anything would satisfy me, but both films also appeal to what I want in an adult film which has been missing from previous films. Sure it would be great if there was a vampire porn for each fetish and body type, but the studios are simply not producing these films.

It may seem that I’m complaining and not happy with what exists. A few months ago I wrote about the drought affecting gay vampires and as if my words were heard, the drought ended in the form of a sudden flash flood. And I am grateful. Hopefully the drought is over, and hopefully there’s more to come in the coming months. I am still looking forward to receiving my copy of Twinkblood and giving you all a review. I’m happy there’s at least one more film to come, and with any luck many more.

In the meantime, if you are in your 20s or early 30s, into vampires and live in London, email me, I know of at least one guy new to town looking for someone with the same interests.

One thought on “Vampires are gay

  1. Sorry I dont live in London. Gay guys into vamps is pretty dry on the East Coast here in the states.

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