“I want as many people as possible to know that these imaginings come from a gay man who’s happy to be gay.  One who’s making work which will be read by straight readers and enjoyed by straight readers.” --Clive Barker, 1995

           
That’s right.  Clive Barker, one of my (and probably your) longtime heroes, the affable, British-accented, one-man empire about whom Stephen King was quoted as saying “I have seen the future of horror and its name is Clive Barker” (a quote that was later revealed as phony, but never mind).  Clive Barker, whose output includes a number of extraordinary, one-of-a-kind books (THE DAMNATION GAME, WEAVEWORLD, THE BOOKS OF BLOOD), movies (HELLRAISER, CANDYMAN), comics, action figures, Halloween mazes, TV programs and lots more, is a bonafide homosexual.  Is this news to you?  

     It certainly was to me, a straight man and looooooooooongtime Clive Barker fan.

     Please understand: I don’t mean to out the guy (although if you’re by chance still ignorant of Clive’s sexual orientation, consider this your wake-up call).  The point I’m trying to make is a far more pertinent one: should it matter?

     I’ve discerned no widespread outrage in the horror community since Clive Barker’s official “coming out” about six or seven years ago.  Prior to that I don’t believe he ever publicly broadcast his sexual proclivities (although he claims otherwise).  The massive nonfiction collection CLIVE BARKER’S SHADOWS IN EDEN (1991), which Clive claimed had “stuff even my analyst doesn’t know,” didn’t contain any incriminating evidence my gaydar was able to detect (although maybe I should have drawn something from the front page illustration of a shirtless Clive being pierced through the chest by a giant serpent!).  A mid eighties radio chat with Harlan Ellison, reprinted in Midnight Graffiti, was similarly unrevealing and even misleading, in particular Clive’s discussion of the “moment before you say Can I go to bed with you?  The moment when you know you’re going to say it and she knows you’re going to say it” (italics mine).  She?

     Then again, you can’t say Clive didn’t leave some clues.  He’s made numerous references to homo icons like Pasolini, Cocteau and James Whale over the years, and placed a gay couple at the heart of his BOOKS OF BLOOD story “In the Hills, the Cities.”  I also remember seeing Clive at the San Diego Comic Convention several years back wearing a pink shirt (still quite different, though, from the earring-wearing, spiky-haired dude you see nowadays).

     So maybe I should have figured something was up, but the news of Clive’s gayness, first revealed to me around the 1995 release of LORD OF ILLUSIONS (and the quote that heads this essay), hit like a thunderclap.  

     Clive Barker, gay???  How could such a thing be?  And what did it say about me that I’d so long (since the BOOKS OF BLOOD hit the U.S. in the late eighties, to be precise) admired and respected Clive, a GAY MAN?  

     It’s not like I wasn’t old enough--or smart enough--to know better.  I’m not religious, and furthermore grew up in the LA area, where I was exposed to many aspects of gay culture over the years.  I’d read sexually graphic books by celebrated screamers like Dennis Cooper (FRISK) and Samuel Delany (HOGG) without raising an eyebrow; likewise films like Pasolini’s SALO and Todd Haynes’ notorious homo-fest POISON.  So I really should have known better.

     But still...Clive Barker, GAY???

     I’m honestly not sure what provoked such a strong reaction in me.  Maybe it was the fact that Clive had always seemed like “one of us” in his countless appearances at bookstore signings and conventions (then as now, he was nothing if not accessible).  Delany, Cooper and Haynes, on the other hand, never made any secret of their true natures.  Liberal though I was, I felt blindsided by Clive’s revelation, and resented it bitterly.

     This isn’t to say I stopped being a fan, mind you.  I still went to see LORD OF ILLUSIONS, attended Clive’s Halloween mazes at Universal Studios, bought his novels, enjoyed his periodic appearances on POLITICALLY INCORRECT and, eventually, put the whole issue behind me.  Gay or not, the man continues to produce great work year after year, be it in the realm of cinema (GODS AND MONSTERS), literature (COLDHEART CANYON), or what have you.

     I just wonder how the rest of the horror community dealt with the reality of his sexual preferences.  How did other Clive Barker fans react when the realization struck?  I don’t have the answers, but there were some telling indicators.

     1995’s SACRAMENT, said to be Clive’s most “revealing” book (admittedly, I never finished it), was one of his worst sellers, while LORD OF ILLUSIONS’ box office performance was decidedly underwhelming (and looks to have finished off Clive’s career as a movie director).  Furthermore, rumor has it that a knife-wielding fan recently tried to attack Clive at a book signing.  

     No wonder Clive urged the public, in a September ‘95 issue of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, to “stop making a big drama of” his sexuality.

     Nowadays, the majority of Clive Barker’s fans seem to have gotten over the “big drama” just as I did.  His Sci fi Channel production SAINT SINNER did well ratings-wise, and his Tortured Souls figurines apparently flew off the shelves when first introduced last summer.  The focus is on the work, not its creator’s private life—that’s how it should be, anyway.

     And yet there still seems to be dissention, encapsulated by a snide homophobic remark (which will not be repeated here) I overheard during Clive’s appearance at a recent Fangoria convention.  Sigh...I guess some people will never learn.

     Bottom line: I’ve dealt with and accepted the facts of Clive Barker’s sexuality.  Have you?