Rita Mae Brown says up with cats, down with marriage

By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman

OKEMOS – Novelist, screenwriter, activist and feline secretary Rita Mae Brown will be at Schuler Books & Music on March 6 promoting "Sour Puss," the newest Mrs. Murphy mystery that she has co-written with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown.
Asked what it's like to serve as co-author with a feline, Brown replied, "I just do what she tells me. If you have a cat, you know why."
Brown hasn't always been relegated to the role of co-author with a four-legged partner. In addition to her screenplays, Brown is the author of thirty-four books, including the breakthrough lesbian coming-of-age story "Rubyfruit Jungle."
As to why she turned her skills to the mystery genre, Brown said, "I always like to do what I haven't done before. So, I thought, 'I wonder if I could do it?' Turned out I could."
Nor is Sneaky Pie Brown always at the helm of Brown's mystery successes. The Jane Arnold series, which Brown writes without benefit of her co-author, is a series of mysteries revolving around a foxhunting club.
"You never know what people will like and what they won't," Brown said of the Jane Arnold series. "That's what's so odd about working in the arts."
Brown said that she is still active in politics, but that most of her life's work now revolves around writing and her farm, where she breeds horses and grows hay and timber.
"Mostly I farm, which takes a lot of time and energy," she said. "Farming isn't for the faint hearted – or the physically weak, either. And I love it. I grew up on a farm, and I always wanted to, as soon as I could, come back and do what I love most. And I work on political campaigns – I'll go and give speeches and stuff like that, but – not the way I did when I was a kid."
And while she does revisit lesbian themes, as she did in the 2001 book "Alma Mater," Brown said "Every now and then an idea will come to me that involves two women, but I'm not that self-conscious a writer. I mean, I do whatever pops into my head, is the easiest way to describe it."
Nor is Brown self-conscious about giving her opinion about the movement for equal marriage rights, which she said is the worst thing that has happened in the movement for equality. "It's an issue defined by our enemies."
"What we really have to focus on is job security. I mean, what good are civil rights if you can't eat?" she said. In most U.S. states, including Michigan, it is still legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
"To me nothing is more important than being able to earn a living. I'm very practical. So stuff like marriage and all of that, well, it has a great emotive appeal, and yes, it's lovely to have some of those benefits – you know, insurance and being able to visit people in the hospital and that kind of stuff – I understand all of that. But that doesn't come first."
The marriage issue helps those opposed to LGBT rights, Brown said. "Well, the right wing realized that gay marriage was as emotional an issue for some people as abortion, and they pushed it forward, and we let them do it," she said. "And then we got suckered into it – and said, 'Oh, yes, sure, we should be married,' and then we fell right into their hands."
As for the best thing that's happened in the LGBT civil rights movement, Brown said, "The best single thing is that gay people came out. Not enough – but enough for people to realize that this is your son, your daughter, your neighbor, your friend."
"It's easier to see in reverse," she continued. "If gay people were in power and had treated straight people as they had been treated, the only straight people you would have seen would have been whores on the street. They'd have been the only ones out there. You would have seen the dysfunctional people. So for how long? Decades? I don't know. Centuries? That's what people saw. They saw the dysfunctional gay person."
But as people come out, gays and lesbians are being seen as more mainstream, she said. "This coming out made many people realize 'Oh, big deal, they're just people.' So that I think has been the most revolutionary thing that could happen, and it has to keep happening."
Schuler Books & Music is located at 1982 Grand River Ave. in Okemos. "Meet the Author" with Rita Mae Brown will begin at 7:30 p.m. on March 6. Ten percent of the purchase price of any of Brown's books will be donated to the Capital Area Humane Society. For more information call 517-349-9923.

BTL Staff

Between The Lines has been publishing LGBTQ-related content in Southeast Michigan since the early '90s. This year marks the publication's 27th anniversary.