In 2019, at age 38, I started taking Truvada. With the threat of contracting HIV drastically reduced, it rapidly became clear to me that my approach to love and sex had been dictated mostly by fear: Instead of conceiving of my love life as a romantic comedy, I thought of it as more of a horror movie.
Excellent film theory and historical analyses of gender and sexuality in horror films already exist, of course, and this strange little book is indebted to them. Butforgoes simple conclusions in favor of much thornier, more difficult conversations with readers. The horror film becomes the tool, at some times blunt and other times sharp, that expands empathy for ourselves and other generations of queers, continuing the fabulous tradition with a new and diverse generation of writers.
When I was 7, I came out to our neighbor, who told my mom, who confronted me. I denied it, pretending I didn’t know what she meant. I planned to hang myself from the banister with my white karate belt.