LGBTQI+: “It's time to make explicit what everyone has always known”
Januay 25, 2023
PORTLAND. The greatest love story of Middle Earth has been repressed long enough.
So assert members of the LGBTQI+ Tolkien community who believe the love affair between Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf needs to be finished.
“Tolkien struck a bold blow, not only for gay love but for inter-species love,” says Jay Martin, President of the Portland Gay Love Association. “In Legolas and Gimli, you have the ultimate 'love is love' symbol that breaks all boundaries, codes, and repressions.”
Critics say it wouldn't be proper to change the Middle Earth oeuvre to meet contemporary fads.
But Martin and others disagree.
“First off, it's not a fad. Gay love is now accepted in all quarters, by all people. Second, inter-species love is progressive.”
Others note that Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien, finished other tales that his father's death left undone, so they aren't asking for anything new.
“Middle Earth had a Fourth Age,” says Brad Cupich, professor of literature at San Jose State University. “It probably had a Fifth Age, too. Those tales haven't been told, but there's no reason they can't be. And when they are, they'll be inclusive of all people and all species.”
