I’ve always had a very low tolerance for unfair treatment or injustice. As a writer I had not expected those feelings to become so important but I am becoming a reluctant activist.

I entered the world of m/m romance writing very naively. It was a real eye opener to find that the bulk of my readers might be women. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that as a gay male author I was in another minority. Did I have any issue with that? Never. Not for a moment. As a primary school teacher for well over 30 years I already had lots of experience working in a female dominated profession. I’d made many great friends during that time and so it was just second nature to me to do it all over again with the lovely ladies who dominated my chosen writing genre.

I was fortunate enough to already have a certain notoriety in the gay male world and so I have a big, highly valued gay male readership. I counted myself as doubly lucky that I now had a female following too and it has always been my hope that my work will appeal to both groups equally.

Maybe if you have read this far you are probably waiting for the ‘but…..’ in in all this? I’ve learned to accept that not everyone will like my stories and that is their problem and not mine. As a writer I want my stories and my characters to be authentic. This means that some of my characters will share some of my principles and some of them will live lifestyles which I want to spotlight.

I’ve grown up with the struggle for gay rights. That battle is not yet completely won but it has come on spectacularly in recent years. The same cannot be said for the rest of the LGBT spectrum and beyond. My own blatant acceptance of all comers means that I know and admire people of all genders, races, colours, beliefs and behaviours.

Recently I’ve been blogging a lot about the BDSM lifestyle and other areas too. I’ve had huge support from all quarters. Of course there have been a few detractors too. A small number of these have made comments in terms which can only be described as bigoted. What disappoints me most about these negative, phobic comments is that without exception they have been made by gay men. I am saddened to the point of anger that the very group who should understand better than most the damage caused by prejudice, holds within it, men who express the same prejudices.

I have in the past discussed such things as bisexuality, polyamory, asexuality and BDSM. All of these topics have attracted negative comments from individual gay men. To a greater or lesser degree, gay men have labelled these as perversions in a way that I can only see as gross hypocracy. Do we really have such short memories? We have fought to be accepted and we use terms like ‘Love is Love’ or ‘Homosexuality is not a choice’? Well we now need to understand that there are other life-paths equally deserving of acceptance.

As an author I will continue to write my stories for all my readership and I look forward to interacting with all of them equally. I will continue to support people in all their amazing variety and I will stand up against all negative prejudices and behaviours. If you are a bully, a child-molester, a human trafficker, a domestic abuser or xenophobic of any kind then that is a lifestyle choice and you have no place in my world.

We are Human Beings. We cannot help Being Human. We are not Human Doings because that suggests choice and behaviour over which we have control.

As writers I do not believe that we have any divine responsibility to be social or cultural activists. What we do have is the opportunity to portray the kind of world that we would wish to live in. We can push boundaries one word at a time.

Personally as a school teacher I fought too hard for the safety of bullied and abused children. As a writer I cannot help myself and I will continue to fight for a world in which all people can live in equal safety and freedom. When I allow my characters to speak for me it will not be through preaching but by the way they live their lives. They will lead by example as beacons of tolerance and understanding. I am mindful of the words of the courageous school girl Malala Yousafzai “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world”.

If you belong to any group which has experienced bigotry, don’t be a bigot. If you live in a glass house, stop throwing stones.

T.J. Masters is an author and serial blogger writing m/m romantic fiction and the world of BDSM