Who is Emily Garside, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am a a nerd for all things Queer History and Culture. Beginning with a PhD on theatrical responses of the AIDS pandemic, I got distracted by TV and accidentally wrote a book on Schitt’s Creek. I then turned a lifelong love of Doctor Who and watching Queer as folk too young into a book on Russell T Davies. I write on all things Queer theatre, with a speciality in musicals of course, TV and cultural history. And my mantra is ‘know your history’ and I seeks to educate Queer folks and allies alike on the hidden history of the LGBTQ+ community they might have missed.

Which work of yours are you most proud of, and what impact do you hope it will have on those who read it?

I’m proud of all the work in different ways. My book on Angels in America and my book on Rent represent the hard work of my PhD and two important pieces of theatre that mean a lot to me. My books on Schitt’s Creek represent both something that gave me a lot of hope and community at some difficult times (and something joyously Queer) and my work on Russell T Davies feels like a culmination of growing up a Queer nerd in Wales.

There are still many gatekeepers out there who limit the number of voices we have in writing. Even those who are attempting to ‘champion’ marginalised voices sometimes have a view of what that means and who can be ‘allowed’ a voice.

In your view, what are the biggest barriers to becoming a writer, and what needs to be worked on to break these barriers down?

It’s also a question of time and resources for many- not everyone has the time to dedicate not just to the writing but all the energy and resources it takes to do all the other things. Finally often LGBTQ+ writers are still treated as a ‘tick box’…often if somewhere has one ‘gay book’ or one ‘Queer woman writer’ they think that’s all they need. But obviously there are a lot of us with varied and valuable contributions to make.

What is the biggest challenged you’ve faced thus far in your writing journey, and how did you overcome it?

I think for me the transition from being an academic to whatever I’d call myself now. I still don’t feel at home in the academic space, and I feel like I left that behind a long time ago… yet its what people associate me with outside of academia. So for me a big challenge has been navigating what that means for my writing. And as with everyone finding the time to dedicate to writing while still earning a living. I think its easy to forget that writers rarely earn enough to get by on what they do, and so we’re all out here juggling a million jobs.

What does the process of ‘queering’ media look like to you, and why is it important?

For me it’s understanding what is already there and what is missing. I always say ‘know your history’ because there’s so much of Queer history that has been hidden from us, and that we should be striving to find out about, to know how to move forward. Equally, we should be listening to the community and remembering to elevate the voices who still lack representation- Trans voices, especially those from BIPOC, but also lesser-known identities like Asexuality all deserve representation as much as Gay and Lesbian characters and stories.

For me Queering media too is about breaking down the heteronormative and patriarchal norms that we all exist in- instead of embracing other ways to be in relationships, to have families and to exist. In my mind, we can only truly start to embrace that when we see it represented.

Do you have any concerns surrounding the tokenisation of queer themes and queer characters in media?

It’s definatly a danger- the idea that we have one gay, lesbian or trans character and representation is ‘done’ feels sometimes like the approach TV films or publishers take. However, i would never want to push back too hard on it because some representation still feels better than none. But we should keep pushing to diversify the people we see on our screens and whose work we are reading.

What key texts would you recommend to someone newly interested in queer culture and queer history?

For fiction you can’t go wrong with Tales of the City Armisted Maupin’s classic accounts of Queer community in San Francisco across the decades offer lots of history even though they’re fiction. For other history Queer City by Peter Ackroyd and Queer London by Alim Kheraj as well as Homo History by Aaron Twichen.

Are you optimistic about the future of asexual representation within popular culture? Why do you think it has taken so long for asexuality to be taken as ‘seriously’ as other sexualities in gaining media representation?

I think we are heading in the right direction. But obviously, there’s more work to be done. All round we need varied representation to understand that all Queer people aren’t the same. For Asexual represention things are better than they were even 2-3 years ago, but equally with more visbality comes sometimes misunderstanding and hostility. So we need to keep working to combat that.