It’s a sad reality that many lives in the queer community are cut tragically short, often due to persecution as well as pandemics such as the AIDS crisis.
Today, the erasure and vilification of trans identities is also cutting lives short.
Even in the world of literature, it is a rare thing to read a love story involving older LGBTQ+ people who have made it out of adversity to the other side, enjoying their moonlight years in contentment.
We Burned so Bright, the latest novel by American writer TJ Klune, is set in the last weeks of the world, after a black hole has appeared in outer space, drawing off the planets in the Milky Way one by one.
The central characters, Don and Rodney, are a gay couple in their 70s who have been together for more than half their lives.
Together, they decide to take a treacherous journey across the US on an important personal mission that is vital they complete before the destruction of the earth.
Don and Rodney are much like any other couple they meet on the road, just that they happen to be two men.
Their relationship has a warm charm, their familiarity and faith in each other pleasant to read.
Klune does not shy away from discussing the homophobia the couple have faced over the years, and the complex ways in which it has coloured their lives together in the past and present.
In one poignant chapter, the two men encounter a young sapphic couple who are excited to meet a pair of queer elders, something which is important to them.
Though the world is ending in a few days, the protagonists do not consider it a wasted opportunity to educate the young women about the adversities that the LGBTQ+ community have faced in the past and continue to face.
Though they are much younger, the women too have faced resistance.
The ending segment of the novel reveals the truth about why Don and Rodney were so determined to make this journey with barely the time to get there.
I was struck by the ways in which homophobia had tainted their journey to become a family, like a permanent weight on their backs.
Despite the hardship, and despite the world ending, the characters’ love for each other never falters.
Natalie Keeling is co-founder of Kaleidoscope Romford (kaleidoscoperomford.com).
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