Michael Arceneaux

“I don’t want people to consume our suffering. I am not tragic. I don’t want to be pathology porn so I don’t write it.”

“My mother is very smart, thoughtful, and loving, but I find that religion can take the most intelligent parts of her and warp them. There is a theological argument to be had about being gay, but I have found that trying to have that argument with people who believe their religion is opposed to gay identity is too hard. It tends to dismantle too much of who they are as people. Easier to just clarify, “I plan to have sex, so I can’t date Jesus.””

“I believe in a god. And I just don't think I believe in maybe necessarily the Christian God I was raised to believe in. But I do like the idea of Christians who actually practice the teachings of Christ. I think Jesus is like a swell guy…”

“Part of that has to do with the fact that the book is a mix of humor and pathos. For me, I love someone like David Sedaris. I think it’s easier for people to consume white gay queer men doing this. It’s different if you’re not [white] because so often we consume otherness solely in terms of pathology. It’s like, “I’m black and gay, so it must be so awful to be me.” The idea of me being able to make fun of my trauma and what I’ve gone through — [publishers] didn’t think there’d be an audience for that. But thankfully we’re proving that there is.”