A bit late but of course Love Bytes is joining in the HAHBT  2015 blog hop!

Make sure you check out the post on the different blogs and sites.

Check out the links below and Comment to have a chance to win a $5 gc to allromance.

One of my reviewers , the lovely Donna wrote a wonderful post for this blog post:

Why Do I Review For A Same Sex Romance Blog?

I’ve been asked so many times and in so many different ways – why do I review for a gay romance blog when I’m not gay? And surprisingly it’s not only straight people who ask that.

I don’t have separate Facebook accounts to keep my book life and family life separate. A few months ago one of my gay real-life friends asked me why I share links to my Love Bytes reviews on Facebook. Do I have that many gay friends that it’s worth the effort? He didn’t understand why straight people would be interested.

I don’t promote same sex romances hoping that gay people will read them. I want to convert all the other heterosexual readers out there, who, like me only a few years ago, don’t care about gay rights or problems that transgender people face for the simple fact that we’ve never thought about it. Now I’ve never been any kind of phobe (well, unless the prefix was arachno) but I’m also one of those people who tends to go about my happy life with blinders on, not noticing an injustice unless it’s shoved under my nose. And that’s exactly what reading m/m romance did. I stumbled upon this world by accident, stayed initially because it was a new genre to explore and very quickly had my eyes opened to the struggle for recognition and equality that some people are forced to face. I still remember the disbelieving anger I felt when I discovered that children really do get kicked out of home for being gay. And conversion therapy is a real thing, not just some horror that was invented for fiction. Interacting with other readers, reviewers and authors on social media has been a great source of amusement but it also makes you really see things that are not so great.

So now I pay more attention. When it’s election time I look at who electoral candidates give their preferences to. I check if they support marriage equality or at the very least if they support a conscience vote. Yes, we in Australia are still fighting that fight. I sign the petitions, I forward the letters and I add one more cheering voice at the pride parades. I’ve bought m/m books for my mother to read, I’ve introduced my friends to gay romance movies and as far as my seven year old is concerned seeing two men or two women kiss is equally as gross as seeing a man and a woman kiss.

And this is because I was made to take notice, made to understand. If reading my reviews can encourage more indifferent people to read these books and actually open their eyes and give a damn, then I’ll have accomplished something worthwhile.

Only last week my daughter was discussing weddings with my husband. I heard him say to her, “Whichever man you marry…” Then he stopped and looked at me, looked back at her and amended that to “Whichever man or lady you marry…”

Win.

The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was on may 17 th please check out the link : http://dayagainsthomophobia.org/

Also don’t forget to check out the main  HAHBT 2015 page :http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com
 

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HAHMay17

Twitter : https://twitter.com/HAHAT_HOP use #HAHBT

Living in The Netherlands I wanted to post a youtube clip where a mother talks about her “daughter” Britt who came to her when she was 4 saying she was a boy . The parents changed everything and decided to treat britt as she wanted so Britt became a boy .

The clip is in dutch but the intro shows a bbc clip in english.

The intro to the clip says this :

Wat doe je als je dochter op 4-jarige leeftijd naar je toe komt en zegt: “Ik ben een jongen!”? Het overkwam de Amerikaanse Jeff en Hillary Whittington, wier dochter Ryland nu al ruim een jaar als zoon door het leven gaat. Hun verhaal is deze week meer dan 4 miljoen keer bekeken op YouTube. Een feest van herkenning voor Astrid IJsselstein; haar dochter Britt (inmiddels 8 jaar) is inmiddels al een paar jaar een jongetje voor de buitenwereld. Astrid vertelt over het proces waar je in terecht komt als ouder én hoe de buitenwereld reageert op een kind dat transgender is.

Britt is now 8 and living as a boy for 4 years going on.

Giveaway closes may 25 th  I will be using a random generator to pull one winner from the comments made on this post

Tell me what you think when you see this button.